County approves DCH recommendations for 2026–2028 homeless housing assistance funding

Walla Walla County commissioners on May 26 approved the Department of Community Health's recommended awards for the 2026–2028 homeless housing assistance funding cycle, clearing roughly $1.8 million in available consolidated grant and local recording‑fee dollars for community providers.

The board voted 2–0 to adopt the funding package after DCH staff described the Request for Applications process, independent scoring, and an evaluation committee that produced the recommended allocations. "We received a total of 14 applications requesting just under $2,300,000. We had about $1,800,000 available," said Rebecca Finkas, senior homeless housing coordinator, summarizing the RFA results and the independent review process.

Andrew Lazadar, the county's homeless housing data analyst, told commissioners the county is building a near‑real‑time informatics system and improving HMIS data quality to support program evaluation and planning. "We made a commitment to ensure homelessness in our community was rare, brief, and non‑reoccurring," Lazadar said, explaining the limitations of earlier cross‑section point‑in‑time counts and the value of longitudinal HMIS measures.

Commissioners pressed staff on specific award decisions. DCH staff explained why an application from Catholic Charities that scored highly in some categories was not recommended for CHG (consolidated homeless grant) funding: the application focused on short‑term diversion and one‑time assistance, whereas CHG homeless prevention guidance used by the committee prioritizes longer‑term assistance with case management so participants do not exit back to homelessness. "They wrote a wonderful application," Finkas said, "but the fund source is intended for longer‑term assistance and the committee weighed intervention alignment when recommending awards." Tim Milla, representing Catholic Charities, said his agency will meet with DCH to review scoring and the recommendation.

The evaluation committee also recommended setting aside a portion of prevention funds for emergency shelter to mitigate reduced awards to some applicants; staff described the change as a reallocation of otherwise unallocated CHG funding.

Commissioner Fulmer moved to approve the recommendations; Commissioner Clayton seconded. The motion passed 2–0. Commissioners asked DCH to follow up with Catholic Charities and to provide additional outreach and applicant feedback via a survey and one‑on‑one appointments.

DCH staff noted that the awards are for state fiscal year 2027 and that year‑two funding is contingent on the legislature's next biennial budget and local recording‑fee receipts. The department also said it will expand its data infrastructure and return with more detailed analytics in the fall.