Washington Gorge Action Programs reports rising rents, limited shelter capacity in Skamania County

Washington Gorge Action Programs executive director Jennifer Palino told the Skamania County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 22 that the nonprofit served more than 11,000 people in Skamania and Klickitat counties last year while facing sharply rising rents and constrained shelter capacity.

Palino said the agency provides housing, nutrition, prevention and energy-assistance services and has recently launched a family resource center in Skamania County funded with federal dollars. "We were able to serve over 11,000 community members in both counties last year," she said, citing emergency shelter, permanent-housing stabilization and energy-assistance work.

The update matters because local rental-assistance and shelter programs are a primary tool for preventing homelessness in the county, and the presenters cautioned that current funding is not keeping pace with local rent increases. "We operate the emergency shelter, which has 5 rooms," said Kurt Gray, identified as the housing director for Washington Gorge Action Programs in Skamania County. Gray said the shelter is full most of the time and one room currently has a roof leak. He added that seasonal and emergency supports are provided during extreme heat, wildfire smoke and winter weather.

Gray and Palino described trends they say are worsening demand: charts they presented show fair-market rents and the average rents WGAP pays have climbed sharply. Gray said rents rose roughly 128% from 2019 to December of last year and that rents had climbed about 84% in the most recent year, figures he attributed to WGAP’s internal data and the federal fair-market rent series. He said the county-provided rental-assistance budget has not matched that rise: county funding he described as about $90,000 around 2019–2020 rose to roughly $115,000 in 2023, while rental costs have increased much faster.

Gray said the program currently supports three families in the rental-assistance portfolio and would like to house five, but recent rent increases mean the projected cost to maintain current placements could be about $40,000—more than available funds. "It's a little bit of a scary trend because we have no control over what the housing market's doing," he said.

Palino described the new family resource center as a one-stop location for skill-building, case management and distribution of concrete goods (diapers, household items) and said the center was funded at the federal level because the county did not qualify for the state program formula. She also said WGAP participates in the Mid‑Columbia Houselessness Collaborative, a network of more than 40 agencies on the Washington and Oregon sides of the Columbia River.

On operational issues, WGAP said the emergency shelter is a county‑owned building and the agency has requested county repairs for roofing and electrical work; in some cases WGAP staff perform minor repairs when possible. Palino and Gray said they are exploring alternate shelter sites because the current building has insurance-identified deficiencies and is becoming unsafe.

WGAP identified partner agencies and funding relationships: Mid Columbia Housing Authority holds housing-choice vouchers for the county and Columbia Cascade Housing (named in discussion) handles development. Palino said WGAP does not itself develop housing. She asked commissioners to share potential leads for sites or funding and offered to provide more detailed follow-up in future updates.

Commissioners present mentioned local demographic effects on federal measures such as area‑median-income (AMI). Palino and Gray said AMI and other statewide or regional statistics can obscure local need because higher-income newcomers in small pockets (for example, tech employees moving into Underwood) skew averages, while many county households remain at very low income levels.

The presentation packet included brochures and contact information; WGAP offered to return with more targeted material if commissioners requested it.

Palino and Gray took questions from commissioners and attendees about shelter conditions, repair requests, and the agency’s role versus housing developers and housing authorities. They emphasized reliance on county, state and federal funding streams and the administrative burden of applying for competitive federal grants.

The update ended with WGAP leaving information packets for the commission and an invitation for further questions.

WGAP said it will continue to coordinate with Mid Columbia Housing Authority and other partners on housing placements and development opportunities, and it encouraged commissioners to forward any potential leads or relevant information.