PENDLETON — A grant meant to provide temporary COVID-19 relief could also provide a permanent boost to Pendleton’s homeless services.

Paula Hall, the CEO of the Community Action Program of East Central Oregon, said the Pendleton-based nonprofit has applied for a grant from the Oregon Community Foundation to buy a vacant motel and use it as housing for the unhoused.

The foundation’s grant program is called “Operation Turnkey,” and is backed by $65 million from the Oregon Legislature’s Emergency Board. Originally set up for communities with homeless services strained by the summer wildfires, the board later expanded it to include every community statewide.

In a Dec. 3 press release announcing the program, the foundation cited a Columbia University study that estimated a 40% increase in homelessness in 2020. Many places have met the challenge by renting out motel rooms where the unhoused could safely sleep and isolate from one another, but the foundation argues that buying the rooms might be the better strategy.

“By purchasing motels instead of renting rooms, Oregon can scale this approach cost-effectively and efficiently, providing more housing to more people as demand grows,” the press release states. “At the same time, many motel owners suffering in this economy — the majority owned and operated as small businesses — get the chance to economically stabilize and hold onto their life savings.”

CAPECO has partnered with Neighbor 2 Neighbor Pendleton to offer hotel room vouchers to the city’s homeless as an alternative to the warming station, which was closed over concerns that it could lead to the spread of the coronavirus.

If CAPECO secured the grant, Hall said the organization would buy a motel and offer a place to sleep and isolate for the duration of the pandemic.

Long term, Hall said the building could act as transitional housing for the unhoused looking to get off the street. The facility would act in complement to CAPECO’s existing services, which is mainly focused on connecting the homeless to permanent housing.

Hall said CAPECO has selected a motel for the conversion project and has the funding to cover operational and staffing costs. She added that CAPECO will purchase the property with the assistance of Oregon Harbor of Hope, a Portland nonprofit, should the grant come through, but because the property is in escrow, she declined to identify which motel will be used for the project.

Dwight Johnson, the executive director of Neighbor 2 Neighbor, said CAPECO’s project could negate the need for the warming station, although he didn’t characterize it as a bad development.

Neighbor 2 Neighbor is one of a small handful of Pendleton organizations that offers services to the unhoused, whether its seasonal warming station or its year-round day center that offers homeless residents a place to bathe and connect with services.

As homelessness has become a more visible problem in recent years, the Pendleton City Council has been compelled to act.

While the council mulled establishing a city-sanctioned homeless camp, they dropped the idea over insurance concerns. The council eventually passed a “right to rest” law that deemed a patchwork of public properties where residents could legally sleep in the evenings provided they pick up all their belongings in the morning.

Without access to the warming station, Johnson was worried that Neighbor 2 Neighbor might not have the funding to offer the motel voucher program through the end of its season on March 15.

Assistance from CAPECO, in addition to donations from the Blue Mountain Community Foundation and United Way, has boosted Johnson’s confidence in making it through the cold weather months. The financial boost came at a time when Neigbhor 2 Neighbor is seeing demand for its services grow. Johnson said Neighbor 2 Neighbor recently distributed vouchers to 17 people, a figure similar to last year’s 18-person, per-night average.

Johnson looked at CAPECO putting Neighbor 2 Neighbor out of business in a positive light, but he wanted to see how the facility operates after the grant is secured before making a decision.

“We’ll just cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said.