Housing and Homelessness

Home, Opportunity, Planning and Equity (HOPE) Advisory Board

Like communities throughout Oregon and the United States, homelessness in Benton County has escalated in recent years and demands a comprehensive, coordinated response from the county, cities, and diverse community partners, leaders, and persons experiencing homelessness.

HOPE Advisory Board Vision:
Everyone in Benton County should have the opportunity to live in decent, safe, and affordable housing. 

Our values are to:

• Use data to drive assessments, prioritization and accountability. In order to best use scarce resources, we must understand the scope of the problem, evaluate the outcomes of our investments, evaluate progress and demonstrate accountability.
   
• Take a comprehensive systems and multi-sector approach. Strengthen system capacity and increase leveraging opportunities across systems of care, such as domestic violence, physical, mental and behavioral health, criminal justice, and housing providers. To provide a home for everyone, we must increase coordination and collaboration of service providers and strengthen efficiencies in our current system and better align our resources.
   
• Engage and involve the community, not just direct service providers. Policy makers and community stakeholders must understand the magnitude of the challenge in achieving the vision, the costs of not achieving the vision, and the strategies necessary to get there. HOPE will strive to ensure that the specific concerns and interests of local and county-wide stakeholders are heard and considered.
   
• Prioritize vulnerable populations. While homelessness can be traumatic for anyone, there are those whose health and safety is at greater risk without a safe and stable home. For example, women fleeing domestic violence, children and people with disabilities, etc.
   
• Promote community safety for all. This work is intended to be generally inclusive of all housing and services for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless in Benton County while acknowledging the limitations of funding and considering the impact on safety and livability. Hereinafter, this service scope will be referred to as Homelessness and Supportive Services System, or “System”.
   
• Promote racial and ethnic justice. In order to ensure that our programs do not unintentionally favor one population over another population we will strive to provide culturally specific services, and use a racial equity lens across all program recommendations.

Meeting schedules, agendas, and supporting materials will be posted to this page at least one week prior to a meeting of the HOPE Advisory Board.

The HOPE Advisory Board is replacing the Housing Opportunities Action Council (HOAC).  Archived materials from the HOAC are available here  HOAC

If you are interested in volunteering with local service providers or if you are trying to find services, please visit the Community Services Consortium webpage with a list of community resources.