Declaring a shelter crisis in SLO County is a good start; now let’s build from there

The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors deserves credit for becoming the first government agency in the county to declare a shelter crisis — a move that will make it easier to open public buildings for use as warming shelters, should that prove necessary.

We’re especially impressed that the oft-divided board made a unanimous decision to declare a crisis and to allocate $10,000 to organizations providing shelter to homeless people on cold, wet nights. We join the board in encouraging individual cities to take the same steps. If $10,000 is a stretch, then each city should allocate what it can.

That said, declaring a crisis is the easy part. The hard part is developing a comprehensive plan for the entire county — one that removes barriers that are keeping some homeless people away from existing homeless shelters and warming centers.

The Board of Supervisors talked about some of those barriers on Tuesday. One that often gets overlooked: what to do about pets.

This may seem like a small point. It’s not.

Supervisor Adam Hill put it this way: “If someone asked me to go somewhere else and leave my dog behind, I don’t think I would go.”

Other supervisors shared similar thoughts.

“My dog would probably go to the shelter and leave me,” said Supervisor Frank Mecham, “but I wouldn’t leave my dog.”

Other challenges:

Finding room to store people’s belongings.

Getting people to and from shelters.

And, as we’ve said before, finding volunteers to staff the shelters, especially for the long, overnight shifts.

These issues aren’t unique to San Luis Obispo County; other communities have already tackled them.

Some warming shelters provide kennels so that people don’t have to be separated from their pets. Others have storage lockers available for belongings. Opening campgrounds — where there’s space for pets and for belongings — is another idea that can work, provided there are tents and sleeping bags available.

As for volunteers, we urge reaching out to organizations that have not been tapped. How about Cal Poly fraternities and sororities, for example?

Another idea: Get the business community involved. Instead of sponsoring canned food drives, sponsor a competition to see which business will provide the most community service hours for warming shelters. Employers could help out by allowing employees who are coming off overnight shelter shifts to sleep in the following day.

Greater coordination of services also could help with staffing and organization issues. Right now, there are various warming centers operating in different parts of the county, each with its own rules, regulations, volunteer recruitment programs and operating procedures.

Contrast that with what’s happening in Santa Barbara County. There, warming shelters in several communities — Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Isla Vista, Lompoc and Santa Maria — come under the single umbrella of Freedom Warming Centers. That simplifies operations; there is one administrative staff and one budget for the entire organization.

It also streamlines communications. For example, the organization operates its own hotline, so there is a single number to call to learn the status of warming centers throughout Santa Barbara County.

Another difference: At Freedom centers, paid staff members serve as overnight monitors, and volunteer hospitality teams help with setting up and serving meals.

Of course, Freedom Warming Centers operate on a much bigger scale and budget. The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors recently allocated $130,000 toward their operation. The centers also receive private donations and fundraising revenue.

We aren’t expecting San Luis Obispo County to match that effort.

We do, however, strongly urge public agencies and nonprofit organizations to work closely to develop a plan to serve the entire county — not just population pockets here and there.

The crisis declarations and funding allocations are a good place to start, but if we’re going to provide an effective safety net for those who are without permanent housing, the effort cannot be allowed to end there.

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 1:42 AM with the headline "Declaring a shelter crisis in SLO County is a good start; now let’s build from there."