The Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners is considering not participating in a state grant aimed at housing and homelessness, which it has received for at least 10 years.
County Commissioner Rick Dahl argued during a July 28 meeting that the county should refuse the $11 million Consolidated Homeless Grant because spending money to address homelessness will draw more homeless people to the county.
"I'm about done enabling this," he said. "The more we spend on it, the bigger problem we have."
The grant comes from the Washington State Department of Commerce. It is funded in part by document recording fees sent to the state but is separate from county housing and homelessness programs funded by locally collected document recording fees, said Gena James, deputy director of Cowlitz County Health and Human Services.