Children play in August as a train passes by in a homeless camping area in Juniper Ridge north of Bend.  

Money to help deal with homelessness was taken away from Multnomah County, and $850,000 of it will be redistributed to Central Oregon, according to the governor’s office.

The new funding brings Central Oregon’s total award from Gov. Tina Kotek’s Executive Order 23-02 declaring homelessness a state of emergency to more than $14 million.

Kotek retracted $2.6 million from Multnomah County on Wednesday. Her office said the funds will have more impact in reaching the governor’s goals before Jan. 10, 2024, elsewhere.

“We are at a key decision point in order to reach these goals,” a spokesperson for Kotek’s office said in an email Thursday.

Kotek’s statewide goals include rehousing at least 1,200 unsheltered households, adding at least 600 shelter beds and preventing at least 8,750 households from becoming homeless.

Central Oregon negotiated to provide additional short-term housing, which is often referred to as rapid rehousing, to 25 households in exchange for the $850,000, said Tammy Baney, executive director of Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, which is administering the governor’s funding.

“Should we achieve our goal and have funds remaining, we can invest the money in houselessness needs beyond the required eligibility,” Baney wrote in a text message Thursday.

The governor’s office said Multnomah County has existing local, state, regional and federal resources to address homelessness. In addition to Central Oregon’s new funding, Clackamas County received $980,000 to rehouse 40 households and Marion and Polk counties jointly received $850,000 to rehouse 24 households.

In Bend, the new funding could mean more stability for existing services, according to Bend Mayor Pro Tem Megan Perkins, who also sits on Deschutes County’s Coordinated Houselessness Response Office governing board. One such service is the Lighthouse Navigation Center, which is home to Bend’s only 24/7 emergency homeless shelter.

The center will soon be under construction for several months, limiting the number of people who can access it.

“If awarded, this funding will allow us to continue our day services for the navigation center during the construction process,” Perkins wrote in a text message. “This avoids a big disruption of care and allows the good work that the navigation center is already doing for our houseless to be uninterrupted.”