Supervisors OK funding to move homeless from camps along SLO trail to new housing village
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday accepted a grant that will move unhoused residents of one of the county’s largest homeless encampments into housing.
The board unanimously voted to authorize a budget adjustment to add $13.4 million in Encampment Resolution Fund grant money from the state of California, to move up to 200 people out of encampments along the Bob Jones Trail and into a new 80-bed housing complex in San Luis Obispo that is scheduled to begin accepting residents in March 2024.
“We’re talking about per-bed (rates of) $167,000 — for those that are shocked, that’s actually great news, because we’ve had projects that have come forward that have been $500,000 (per bed), and we’ve approved them,” Supervisor John Peschong said at the meeting. “We’re moving in the right direction.”
Residents who accept the county’s aid will move into transitional housing programs, Homeless Services Division communications program manager Suzie Freeman said.
The funding comes from a joint application between the county, city of San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria-based Good Samaritan Shelter and San Francisco-based nonprofit Dignity Moves, Freeman said.
The $13.4 million grant is the largest single grant for homelessness the county has ever received, she said.
Here’s how does the county, city and homeless service provider partners plan to tackle the Bob Jones Trail encampments.
Encampment resolution program to feature supportive housing village
Freeman said the plan to clear out the Bob Jones Trail’s encampments consists of three components: cleaning out the creekbed and surrounding encampments, performing outreach and case management to the individuals living there, and establishing a new supportive housing complex.
Freeman said on the outreach side, the city of San Luis Obispo is already in the process of speaking with unhoused individuals and connecting them to services, but the funds can be used at the city’s discretion to expand service hours and grow the outreach team.
Dumpsters and portable restrooms will be placed at the north and south ends of the trail to facilitate the move and cleanup, Freeman said.
The housing component of the plan will fall under Good Samaritan’s direction, the first time the Santa Maria-based nonprofit has helmed a supportive housing project in San Luis Obispo, Freeman said.
Good Samaritan will be responsible for running an 80-unit non-congregate Welcome Home Village, consisting of 34 interim housing units and 46 permanent supportive units, Freeman said.
The non-congregate village will be located on the gravel lot behind the San Luis Obispo County Department of Social Services on South Higuera Street, giving the program’s clients easy access to needed social services, Freeman said.
“What we’ve seen time and time again is encampment disbandment doesn’t work,” Freeman said. “40 Prado (Homeless Services Center) is an incredible asset in our community that is a wonderful option for emergency housing. Unfortunately, they are at capacity, and there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to homelessness.”
The project will be developed by Dignity Moves and will feature modular units from home builder LifeArk, in a model similar to the 5Cities Homeless Coalition’s Cabins for Change program in Grover Beach, Freeman said.
Each individual housed in the Welcome Home Village will have their own unit, with access to laundry facilities, kitchens, and in some cases, private bathrooms, Freeman said.
While there, clients living in interim housing units will stay between 90 and 180 days while case managers connect them to permanent housing and services, Freeman said.
“It’s not going to be housing for the homeless. It’s just going to be housing,” Freeman said.
How many people will Encampment Resolution Funding help?
Freeman said while the city and county do not have a head count of every individual living in the Bob Jones Trail creekbed area, a total of 96 encampments were tracked in the trail area over the course 2022, though some of these encampments may have been counted more than once.
With up to 200 people but only 80 beds, the program will cycle people through the transitional housing until the move is complete.
With the board’s approval of the funding, the project now goes to the building and onboarding phase.
Freeman said the non-congregate village is set to welcome interim housing clients in March 2024, while clients in permanent supportive units will move in June 2024.
During the meeting, Homeless Services Division manager Joe Dzvonik said the grant funds the Welcome Home Village until July 1, 2026, at which point the county would pay around $1.85 million annually to continue meeting the village’s operational costs.
However, Dzvonik said during the meeting that won’t be an issue if the program has successfully moved all of the Bob Jones Trail’s encampment residents into housing, or if a continuing funding stream can be found in the next three years.
The project’s approval helps the county satisfy some of its homelessness and housing goals laid out in the five-year plan to reduce homelessness, which calls for adding 300 interim shelter beds in the first three years of the plan.
With the addition of project’s 34 interim housing units, the county is currently on track to add around 100 interim beds in the first three years, Dzvonik said at the meeting.
“I’m looking to balance our investment into interim shelter operations with investments and growing street outreach and prevention funding so we can methodically identify and prepare our unhoused citizens for successful participation in projects like this, while simultaneously trying to plug the dam with prevention money so we can create an overall drawdown in homelessness,” Dzvonik said at the meeting.
This story was originally published July 11, 2023 at 1:00 PM.
