Shelter operator tells Klamath County commissioners there is no new county shelter; agency shifting to family reunification

Bethany Osborne, operations director at Interior Mobility Services, told the Klamath County Board of Commissioners on Dec. 17 that there is currently no new emergency shelter operating in Klamath County and that her organization is shifting program focus to family reunification.

The county’s regular business meeting opened with public comment. Osborne said her organization had collaborated with another local shelter operator for about 30 years, but that the other organization recently received funding that had previously supported the shared shelter work. A few weeks earlier that other organization “ended their operations,” Osborne said, which left a gap in shelter services in the county.

Osborne said Interior Mobility Services is working on “a solution” and is converting its transitional program to emphasize family reunification. “We are really honing in on that family reunification program. We’re really getting it down,” she said, adding the agency does not want to lose progress on that work. She requested that the county and partners “step up and put this back into place,” and concluded her two-minute public comment without proposing specific county actions.

Commissioners allowed the two-minute public comment and reminded Osborne of the time limit; no formal county action on shelter operations occurred during the meeting. Later in the meeting, outgoing Commissioner Dave Hensley referenced county homelessness efforts, saying the county had established “Klamath Connections, our dedicated homelessness task force,” and described it as a “concrete step” toward supporting vulnerable residents. Hensley made the remarks during his farewell comments and did not announce new shelter funding or policy changes at the meeting.

Discussion-only remarks in the meeting indicated multiple county entities and community providers are involved in homelessness response, but no commissioner motion or vote at the Dec. 17 meeting allocated funds or created a new shelter. Osborne’s remarks and Hensley’s reference to Klamath Connections together showed active work and concern about service gaps, but without a formal county direction recorded in the meeting minutes.

County staff and commissioners who addressed items on the agenda during the meeting discussed several contracts, memoranda of understanding and grant modifications (listed separately in county actions at the meeting). Those agenda items included a previously approved memorandum of understanding between Community Corrections and Transformation Wellness Center for a deflection program, and a separately approved memorandum of understanding with the Klamath Tribes for participation in an emergency declaration; neither item was presented as a direct shelter replacement or emergency shelter funding source during this meeting.

Osborne’s comments and the county’s published agenda indicate an unresolved shelter service gap and an organizational shift at Interior Mobility Services; the transcript did not include a timeline for any new shelter opening, nor specific dollar amounts the county would allocate to support shelter operations.

Osborne’s full public comment and the county discussion are part of the Dec. 17 meeting record; no formal county decision on new shelter operations was taken at that time.