The Marion County Board of Commissioners is set to vote Wednesday, Sept. 23, on two federal grants totaling $271,017 for local nonprofits that serve homeless residents and at-risk families.
The larger grant, $150,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds, would go to Family Building Blocks to acquire an existing childcare facility for use as a relief nursery and therapeutic classrooms. The smaller, $121,017, would fund additional staffing at Crossroads Communities, which provides housing stability and outreach services in rural Linn and Marion counties.
Both agreements, listed on the board session agenda, run retroactive to July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2028. The funding periods are already underway. The board vote would formally ratify the arrangements.
Steve Dickey, a county community development staffer, is presenting both items at the 9 a.m. session in the Senator Hearing Room at 555 Court St. NE in Salem.
What the money would do
Family Building Blocks, founded in Salem in 1997, operates the relief nursery serving Marion and Polk counties. The nonprofit reports serving more than 1,600 children and 800 families in 2025. According to its own data, 87% of those families live at or below the poverty level, and 69% identify as Latino or Hispanic.
The organization, led by Executive Director Patrice Altenhofen, is the only one running therapeutic classrooms and therapeutic home visits for infants and toddlers in the two-county area.
The specific facility it plans to acquire has not been publicly identified.
Family Building Blocks also received $100,000 in CDBG funds through the county's 2025-2026 annual action plan, adopted in July 2025, for operational support at a new facility. It is unclear whether that earlier allocation relates to the same property.
Crossroads Communities, founded in 2023 and based in Lebanon, provides case management and housing support to people experiencing homelessness, domestic violence and persistent mental illness. The organization operates on-site services at Applegate Terrace Apartments in West Salem.
President and founder KJ Ullfers told KPTV in March 2025 that rural communities are often overlooked in homelessness funding. "All of the money that goes to homelessness always goes to the big cities, they don't realize that out here in the rural areas we have a problem too," Ullfers said.
CDBG is a federal program that sends annual formula grants to local governments for housing and economic development serving lower-income residents.
Also on the agenda
The board will also consider two zoning and comprehensive plan changes: one for Jubitz Corporation and one for TIBA Incorporated. Seven consent items cover construction contract amendments for the Marion County Health and Human Services building remodel and a new Sheriff's Office evidence building, among other business.
Residents can submit written testimony by email to [email protected]. Requests for telephone testimony must be emailed at least 24 hours before the session.
