$2 million headed to help homeless.

Byline: COUNTY BEAT By Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

Chronically homeless people in Lane County should stand a better chance of having their shelter, medical and mental health needs met in coming months, thanks to a $2 million grant just won by the county from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The funding includes nearly $500,000 for new housing and services to bring homeless people in off the streets and help them stabilize their lives.

The county will work with nonprofit agencies in the area to maximize use of the grant funds to start new programs or bolster existing ones, such as the St. Vincent De Paul Society of Lane County's Vet's Lift facility, a nine-bed housing project for chronically homeless veterans with mental illness or substance abuse.

In addition, money will be used for the county's Chronic Homeless Project, to provide public health services and housing for 100 chronically homeless people and the Homespace program, which maintains a 10-bed housing project for people with developmental disabilities.

Several other programs also will share in the grant funds:

Shankle Safe Haven - 12-bed residential facility and 20-person daytime program for homeless people with mental illness.

Riverbend Shelter Plus Care - housing and services to 36 homeless single adults with chronic mental illness.

New Roads and Catholic Community Services Young Parent programs - transitional housing and other supportive services for homeless youth and young parents ages 13-21 years.

Connections and Open Doors- programs that offer 36 and 45 units of transitional housing for homeless families with children.

Family Shelter Transitional Support - housing, case management and child respite care for 170 homeless families with children.

Housing Scholarship Program - monthly rent subsidy for 23 homeless families that include an adult member with satisfactory performance in an educational, vocational or rehabilitation program.

For information, call the county's Department of Health and Human Services at 682-4035.

Low water levels

drain county revenues

The realities of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to draw down the water level of the Fern Ridge Reservoir will start to sink in next week, when the county commissioners consider whether to close Orchard Point and Perkins Peninsula parks indefinitely because of low water levels.

Todd Winter, manager of the county's parks division, will ask for permission to close the two popular parks immediately and indefinitely, until the Corps returns water levels in the huge man-made lake to recreational levels.

That could take as long as three years, under current plans for repairing the dam that controls the reservoir.

The other two major parks on the lake, Richardson Point and Zumwalt parks, also will be affected by the drawdown of water, but they will remain open for picnicking, camping and walking, although no boating or moorage will be possible as long as water levels remain depleted.

Normally, the Corps maintains the water level in Fern Ridge Lake at 373.5 feet in elevation, but engineers have said they must lower it to 360 feet or below in order to complete repairs on the dam.

The decision to drain the reservoir also will take its toll on the county work force, leading to a reduction of eight seasonal part-time maintenance workers and 16 part-time summer employees, leaving two full-time vacancies unfilled and reduction of income for six subcontractors who provide concessions and other services at the parks.

In addition, fees for moorage fees and daily parking will decline.

In all, the county estimates it will lose nearly $500,000 in revenue through 2006.

Still no terrorism

ties in county

Every row and every column still contain nothing but zeroes in the county's latest quarterly report on terrorist-related activities under the reporting requirements of the USA Patriot Act. For October through December last year, all 13 departments report "nothing to report" in the areas of naming, detaining or charging people in connection with terrorism investigations; requests from federal authorities for monitoring political meetings, religious gatherings or other activities; requests for education records from public schools, colleges or universities; inquiries to libraries about checkout habits of patrons or to bookstores for the book-buying habits of customers.