When an unsheltered person is released from prison or the Oregon State Hospital, they might spend their first night scrambling to find a meal and a safe place to sleep in Salem.With a new state grant, the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency hopes to soon help more people go straight from i ncarceration to a shelter where they’ll continue to get the mental health treatment that started before their release.  “If somebody is released from incarceration or some sort of facility, if they have a safe place to go that first minute, that first night, their ability to be successful is exponentially higher than somebody who, their first night, they’re having to knock on a lot of doors,” said Breezy Poynor, housing program director.The agency’s pitch for the program recently received $800,000 from the state’s Housing 360 Pilot program which funds projects that seek to improve the lives of unsheltered people with a mental health diagnosis. The hope is to help people build on progress made in treatment and avoid getting rearrested. With the pilot, staff will work with prison systems to identify incarcerated people in Marion County who will be homeless after release, and work with the incarcerated person to prepare for when that day comes. “When folks are released from incarceration, a lot of times there’s no plan there,” Poynor said.Now when they leave, they’ll be able to go straight to a shelter with access to employment, housing and mental health support, she said. The new service builds upon the agency’s existing re-entry program which connects those leaving incarceration with contacts for housing, education, employment and therapy to start seeking when they leave prison.With the new program, they’ll have transportation straight to a shelter where all those resources will be in one place, and personalized according to the plan made with a caseworker while incarcerated.“We’re able to really take care of them right away. There’s not a lapse in services,” Poynor said.The next step will be to decide details through discussions with Oregon Housing and Community Services and the Oregon Health Authority, such as which institutions will take priority for placements and when it will start. The agency plans to hire a program manager to launch and facilitate the endeavor.Only four organizations across the state received the grant this year. Poynor believes their application likely stood out because it came with built-in partnerships in place, including JD Health & Wellness who works in their shelters, and ARCHES committing to set aside shelter beds for the program. “We already had a team that knows what they’re doing in those spaces,” she said.By collecting data, the program is looking to better prove common knowledge from providers that combining behavioral health care and shelter improve outcomes for formerly incarcerated people, and lower their chances of being arrested again. The grant funding will cover the first two years of the program, which will start on a small scale, and will allow the agency to gather data about outcomes to present.  “I’m really excited to be able to provide something that will help these folks that just need a little more help based on their backgrounds, and based on some of the barriers they’re coming with,” she said. “A lot of times we’re dealing with it after the fact, and that can be much more difficult.” Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: abbey@salemreporter.com or 503-575-1251. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post New program will help incarcerated people go directly to shelters, not the streets appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less