The National Guard Armory is still a possibility for a homeless
shelter in Hollister and now its advocates have support from both
state and federal leaders.
San Juan Bautista resident Marley Holte
– who is leading a group of citizens in favor of opening a
homeless shelter – met with U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D–Carmel, this past
week to discuss the possibility of using the Armory.
The National Guard Armory is still a possibility for a homeless shelter in Hollister and now its advocates have support from both state and federal leaders.
San Juan Bautista resident Marley Holte – who is leading a group of citizens in favor of opening a homeless shelter – met with U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D–Carmel, this past week to discuss the possibility of using the Armory.
And state Assemblyman Simon Salinas, D–Salinas – who has previously expressed support for the project – reiterated his willingness to back the undertaking, according to a spokesman.
“Everyone wants to see this thing happen and I’m just trying to make it work,” Holte said.
The unnamed consortium formed in March with a goal of opening a shelter by November. That doesn’t look likely at this point, Holte said, because the group is still in the process of obtaining nonprofit status and also applying for a federal emergency shelter grant.
Plus, the cost of the Armory right now is relatively expensive at $345 a day. And the group, if that cost stands, would prefer to find an alternate location for a shelter. “That’s pretty steep,” Holte said of the cost.
The National Guard Armory, located at the Hollister Municipal Airport, is available four months a year during the winter. Gilroy operates its homeless shelter under similar guidelines at its local Armory. It also costs $345 a day.
The meeting with Farr last week, “went very well,” Holte said. The congressman gave Holte “a binder full” of programs available and vowed to help with the Armory.
“He is completely in support of what we’re doing,” Holte said.
Holte said Farr had been aware of the homeless problem in San Benito County, a population of which many officials have estimated in the thousands.
“But we spelled it out for him,” Holte said.
Salinas called the future support of homeless services in San Benito County “very critical.” It is most efficient, he said, if all involved leaders work together.
“It strengthens the proposal,” Salinas said of collaborative efforts. “Folks in Sacramento tend to be more receptive then.”
Services currently offered within the county include a camp for migrant workers, which operates for just four months a year during the peak agriculture season, along with 16 mobile homes for homeless residents. The homeless occupants, which must be working or going to school, can stay for a maximum of six months. The facilities neighbor each other on Southside Road.
“We’ve got to develop a plan to get everything in place,” Holte said. “It’s a big undertaking, a sequence of things falling together.”
Farr, Holte said, is “going to work on (the Armory) to make it possible and more reasonable.”
