Salvation Army’s Hope Village reports growing treatment participation, seeks sustained funding

The Salvation Army presented its Hope Village annual report to the Longview City Council on Jan. 23, outlining program outcomes, operations and finances and asking the council to sustain support for the shelter and transitional housing program.

Hope Village leaders told the council the program is showing increased treatment participation among residents, improved housing placements and tighter controls on substance use through coordinated assessments with treatment providers.

The report matters because Hope Village is operating under a city contract and relies on a mix of local dollars, state grant reimbursements and donations—city officials said the program’s ongoing costs affect the municipal budget and will be part of a future budget amendment.

Major Phil of the Salvation Army and site manager Holly Hillman detailed programming and outcomes: Hope Village provides meals, hygiene facilities, life-skills classes, case management with 90-day follow-up after housing placement, and connections to treatment and employment services. Hillman said a recent count showed 71 percent of current residents were engaged in substance-use or mental-health treatment, and 13 residents had entered Hope Village directly from inpatient treatment.

Hillman said the program requires treatment compliance for residents who come from inpatient programs and that treatment providers send regular compliance reports: “They have to adhere to all the treatment requirements, which include the weekly random urine analysis to ensure compliance,” she said. Hillman described changes to on-site policy for drug violations: instead of an immediate exit, residents are given an assessment and, if indicated, access to inpatient or intensive outpatient treatment.

Major Phil reviewed Hope Village finances and said wages make up the largest portion of the organization’s budget. He said the Salvation Army reduced security contractor hours by assigning a trained staff member to work alongside a single security guard overnight, which cut costs. The organization reported it came in under its budgeted direct costs by roughly $240,000 in the past year after counting gift-in-kind donations as operating resources.

Hillman and Major Phil gave program outcomes: 41 people transitioned into permanent housing over the prior year; the program served more than 40,000 meals; it made more than 500 referrals to health care and more than 350 housing referrals. Hillman said many residents use community providers (Awakenings, Columbia Wellness, Core Health and others) for outpatient services and urine-analysis monitoring.

A resident testimonial, from Nikayla Roach, described a personal pathway from homelessness to treatment and into permanent housing and employment with a local outpatient service: “I ended up moving into my own apartment. I now work at one of the local outpatient mental-health facilities,” Roach said.

Council members asked for operational details including average length of stay, client funding sources and the program’s relationship to other referral streams. Hillman said the average length of stay has been about 100 days, with a goal of getting it under 90 days when possible, and that many placements require subsidies depending on tenant income.

Assistant City Manager Chris Collins and council members also questioned program finances and external funding. The Salvation Army said it had recently resumed a state reimbursement stream (paused during a state freeze) and that first-half operating costs had been paid with local dollars while a portion of later-year operations was funded by state grants.

Council members thanked the Salvation Army for the report and asked staff to provide additional financial details and partnership options. Mayor Spencer Boudreaux and council members discussed forming a committee to review the contract and the city’s procurement approach when the current contract term nears its end.

The presentation ended with a request that the council continue to support the program while staff and the Salvation Army pursue state and other funding opportunities to reduce the program’s net impact on the general fund.