Proposed year-round shelters in Salinas, Seaside face lawsuit
Blog note: this article references a grand jury report.
Last week, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors approved plans for a proposed 100-bed shelter on East Laurel Drive in Salinas, as well as matching county and Salinas city funding, and began advertising bids for the $6.87 million project expected to be finished by December 2020. At the same time, the county board approved a 10-year, $1-per-year lease with nonprofit Community Human Services for a county-owned modular building on Olympia Avenue in Seaside for use as a shelter for families, women and children starting by next summer at the latest.
The shelter projects are on a tight schedule because they are relying in part on state Homeless Emergency Assistance Program funding that requires at least half the funding be contractually obligated and a contractor in place by the end of this year and all of the funding to be spent by June 30, 2021.
Both moves were approved by the supervisors under consent on Aug. 27 after holding them up for hours to allow attorney Mike Pekin a chance to speak out on the items, though Pekin never showed up. Representing an organization calling itself Residents for Responsible Homeless Shelters, Pekin filed suit against the county on Aug. 14 calling for a court injunction to halt all development of the shelters, alleging “fraudulent misuse of public resources” earmarked for the homeless on the shelter projects and calling for implementation of the 2018 civil grand jury report on homelessness recommendations before the projects go ahead.
County project manager Dave Pratt said the planning process for the proposed East Laurel Drive shelter was on a “bit of a faster track” due to the Homeless Emergency Assistance Program grant application process, which he said required the county to show it could finish the project within the grant timeline. But Pratt said the project bid and construction processes will be standard. Bid opening is set for Oct. 3 and construction is expected to begin by January and be completed by the end of next year, though Pratt said it could take up to 15 months for final completion.
The East Laurel shelter includes construction of a 16,000-square-foot premanufactured building along with related site work, infrastructure, foundations, landscaping and interior improvements, according to a staff report.
The county was awarded $6 million in Homeless Emergency Assistance Program funding for the project, with the rest covered by a $657,000 county match and a $200,000 match from the city.
Meanwhile, Community Human Services was awarded about $1.29 million for capital improvements on the 4,500-square-foot Olympia Avenue building, which is expected to include construction of 10 bedrooms, four bathrooms, two case manager offices, a classroom and dining area, lobby and reception area, meal service area, laundry room, and other upgrades. The shelter is expected to be ready for operations by June next year, or when the improvements are completed, whichever comes first.
The organization also received $300,000 in Homeless Emergency Assistance Program funding for the first year of operations and is responsible for covering all initial operational expenses for the facility, which is estimated to cost $850,000 in 2020-2021. It has indicated it will continue to seek Homeless Emergency Assistance Program and other state and local funding for ongoing operations, as well as support from foundations, corporations, and private donors.
Progress on the shelters comes as the county supervisors and other local officials contemplate a homeless census that suggested the local homeless population decreased by nearly 15% between 2017 and this year. But during last week’s board meeting, both county and Salinas city officials expressed skepticism about the accuracy of the count and noted the drop could cost local jurisdictions about $1 million in state and federal funding tied to the census.
September 5, 2019
Monterey Herald
By Jim Johnson
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