Bond savings cut rents at county health center

Clark County, which recently refinanced bonds, will lower rents for six tenants at the Center for Community Health.

The tenants include Lifeline Connections, which cited rent as a problem when it came to the county in February for an emergency loan.

Collectively, tenants will save just over $826,000 between now and 2016. The county will reevaluate the rent schedule at that time.

The $38.9 million Center for Community Health, 1601 E. Fourth Plain, opened in 2006 so the county could offer public health, youth and family, mental health, drug and alcohol, housing and developmental disability services in one place.

Other non-county service providers are Columbia River Mental Health, Community Services Northwest, Cowlitz Indian Tribe Health and Human Service Department and Telecare.

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs doesn’t pay rent because the VA leased the land to the county for free.

This year, rent will be reduced by a total of $107,500. Next year, the total savings will be $202,140. In future years, the projected total savings ranges from $170,138 to $173,298.