Grant funding allocated to local nonprofits

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news

The city’s three grants for housing and human services programs don’t usually line up in one year, said Linda Reid, Ashland’s Housing Program Specialist. But this year, the Ashland City Council had the opportunity to award hundreds of thousands of dollars to various nonprofits and agencies in one night. 

For the Community Development Block Grant Awards, the city will have an expected $179,575 from the Department of Housing and Human Services to award. The Housing and Human Services Advisory Committee and city staff offered recommendations to award both applicants roughly what they requested — with one caveat, Reid said. 

The Maslow Project is a well-established nonprofit and the city can be sure it will use an $18,000 award for youth homelessness services in the Ashland School District. The Sunstone Housing Collaborative is a new organization that has not yet finished working on a request for proposals for a developer or obtained the land it intends to purchase from the Ashland School District for a larger affordable housing project. 

To support this fledgling organization and its project proposal, Reid presented a recommendation to award Sunstone $126,660 on a provisional basis. In this case, if the new organization’s plans are unsuccessful, the city will be able to award the funds to another entity. Council voted unanimously to approve the recommended awards. 

Reid also presented recommendations for $350,000 available in the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund Awards. 

Council unanimously approved the recommendations of the city’s staff and Housing and Human Services Advisory Committee for the funds. The Ashland Community Land Trust Organizing Committee will receive $40,000, Habitat for Humanity will receive $100,000, Options for Housing, Resources and Assistance will receive $155,000 and the Sunstone Housing Collaborative will receive $55,000. 

Council also unanimously approved staff and advisory committee recommendations for the city’s $134,000 in Social Services grant awards. 

The Ashland Emergency Food Bank will receive $4,333 and Ashland Food Angels will receive $10,667. The Dunn House was awarded $8,000, The Food and Friends program was awarded $6,333, Jackson County SART will receive $6,667, La Clinica will see $13,333, OHRA was awarded $34,333, Peace House will receive $12,500, Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice was awarded $11,667, Sunstone Housing Collaborative will see $7,500, St. Vincent De Paul will receive $13,333 and United Way was awarded $5,333.

Echo Fields, chair of the Housing and Human Services Advisory committee, said the way local organizations make their presentations to the committee to compete for these awards is always emotional and valuable. 

“It’s a community building event — it’s not just about people asking for funding, but they’re listening to each other’s presentations and building the connections between their organizations in the process of making their presentations,” she said. 

State cannabis tax revenue funds the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF). With a mischievous smile, Fields jokingly remarked that since the funds for the grants are from marijuana taxes, “People might need to smoke more weed and then we would have more money.” Smaller socail service grants are from the city’s general fund.

In other council business Tuesday, councilors heard from Public Works Director Scott Fleury about the Briscoe School renovation project. 

Council voted unanimously to approve a $180,990 contract to Vitus Construction to remove the existing floor tiles, abate the asbestos in those tiles and install new flooring. But Fleury also asked council to give staff direction about pursuing potentially necessary upgrades to the roof. 

The building’s roof was a known problem when the city first took on the renovation project and was expected to take a bite of the $1.3 million grant awarded to Ashland from the state of Oregon for the project. Council had previously directed staff to consider the feasibility of installing solar panels on the roof. Fleury reported Tuesday that in order to support the load of solar panels, the electrical panels and systems through the building would need to be reviewed and when the roof is renovated additional support such as plywood sheeting would be necessary. The sheeting for the roof could become necessary to be compliant with seismic code later on, depending on what the ultimate use for the building becomes, he said. 

After a brief discussion of pros and cons, council and the mayor unanimously gave direction for Fleury to pursue the necessary information gathering from contractors and return with information about costs for the roofing and electrical upgrades. 

Council was also asked to consider the potential service district for Jackson County Animal Control from County Commissioner Dave Dotterer and Stacy Brubaker, Director of Jackson County Health and Human Services. Dotterer and Brubaker requested Ashland City Council to approve the inclusion of the city of Ashland within the proposed service district. The district is awaiting voter approval or denial in the November election. Councilors unanimously declined to vote on the resolution. 

Council unanimously approved a new contract with the Ashland Police Association allowing for an 4.5% pay increase in the first year, 4% increases in the following two years with a total cost of around $70,000 for police employees in the bargaining unit annually. Council also approved a supplemental budget adjustment to allocate for an $284,001 grant for community wildfire and smoke planning obtained by Ashland Fire & Rescue and additional revenue of $500,00 from city investments not previously anticipated. 

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at morganr@ashland.news.

April 18: Updated to clarify that state and local funds, as well as federal, support grant funding distributed by the city, and the amount of the Maslow grant corrected to say $18,000, not $20,000.