This SLO County city just adopted a new plan to address homelessness. Here’s how
Paso Robles kicked off a new approach to addressing homelessness in the city, as its City Council voted 4-1 to adopt the Paso Robles Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness on Dec. 5.
The plan has been in the works for just under two years, starting in April 2022 with the adoption of the city’s goals for the 2022-24 fiscal years, which called for a plan based on community needs and feedback.
Bill Whalen, a consultant with Laguna Niguel-based consulting firm JL Group which worked on the project, said the plan prioritizes the hiring of a homeless services manager “laser focused” on coordinating city services, ensuring continuity of effort, preventing duplication of services and managing grants.
The new position will also provide continuity with the county’s homelessness initiatives on getting people out of homlessness and preventing it in the first place, Whalen said.
“We understand that not everybody who’s homeless wants shelter, but it’s important that everybody has the opportunity to be sheltered, whether it’s an emergency shelter as transitional or long-term housing,” Whalen said.
Here’s what the new plan has to offer — and what it’ll cost the city over the next year.
Strategic plan focuses heavily on assessment, hiring
Paso Robles’ new approach to addressing homelessness was developed by a working group of city staff, several members of the former Unhoused Futures Studies Task Force, members of the Paso Robles community who have lived homeless experiences and representatives from stakeholder agencies and organizations.
Starting work in May 2023, the working group conducted a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis, with the goal of creating a plan that aligns with San Luis Obispo Countywide Plan to Address Homelessness.
The 2022 Point-In-Time Count identified 239 homeless individuals living in Paso Robles in January 2022, of which 221 are unsheltered, according to the strategic plan.
Beyond the hiring of the manager, assessment of needs and budget and communications efforts, the plan has few concrete details past the first year of operations.
Whalen said the city has “done a lot to tackle this problem, but up until this point, it’s been somewhat piecemeal, and we don’t really know what our baseline is.”
“Until you develop your baseline, it’s really hard to realistically come up with achievable numbers,” he said.
The new homeless services manager will establish that baseline by assessing the city’s homelessness needs in 2024, and will develop a budget for years two and three of the plan that provides the greatest return on investment, according to the plan documents.
According to the council agenda report, staff will seek the funding for the new position as part of the city’s budget development for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 fiscal years, potentially funding the position through the general fund and grant applications.
Council member Chris Bausch, the sole vote against the plan, said while he wanted to support the plan, it would be “fiscally irresponsible” to approve a plan without a defined budget.
“I don’t want to sign off on having one person at $200,000 and then all of a sudden, we have five or more people,” Bausch said. “I’d like to know what the whole enchilada looks like, rather than starting off then seeing what else is on the menu that we have to buy as well. I want to see what the whole package looks like.”
Community Services director Angelica Fortin said the cost to hire a homeless services manager and build an action plan will free up other resources in the city government, police and fire departments that are currently being used to address homelessness.
Fortin said it would take a “very special person” to formulate and execute an action plan, but ultimately the scope of work will be determined by how much funding the City Council is willing to invest in the homeless services manager’s plan.
Council member Fred Strong, who voted in favor of the plan, said there’s plenty of work to do to get the strategic plan from the drawing board to actually making a difference in the lives of homeless residents.
“I don’t see this as an ultimate plan,” Strong said. “That’s why we need the coordinator. I see this as an expression of the community’s desired results — this is what the community ultimately wanted to achieve.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2023 at 9:00 AM.
