Hollister
– The County’s Community Services and Workforce Development
division recently announced that its transitional housing program
was taking a hefty budget cut. How big? In 2004, the program
received a two-year grant of $256,000. This year, it received
nothing.
Hollister – The County’s Community Services and Workforce Development division recently announced that its transitional housing program was taking a hefty budget cut. How big? In 2004, the program received a two-year grant of $256,000. This year, it received nothing.
“I was absolutely shocked,” CSWD Deputy Director Maria Fehl said. “I’m still recuperating.”
According to a memo from Health and Human Services Agency Director Kathy Flores, funding from the Federal Emergency Services Grant program has been decreasing for the past five years. In 2002, the biggest two-year grant a county could ask for was $340,000. In 2004, the limit was $256,000. And this year, requests were capped at $200,000, which is how much the CSWD requested. Flores reported that the state – which distributes the federal funds – denied more than 60 percent of grant applications.
“If you call the state, they’ll ask, ‘Why is your emergency any greater than the other counties that got turned down?'” Fehl said.
Since the early 1990s, the county has operated 12 mobile homes on property owned by the Migrant Center. Homeless families could stay in the trailers for six months before moving on to more permanent housing. Federal funding ended on Sept. 30, but the county has agreed to pay $11,000 to continue the program until Nov. 30.
Fehl said five of the trailers are occupied. One of those families has already purchased a home, and a second family – whose six-month stay will soon end – is searching for housing. The CSWD hopes to move the remaining three families to new mobile homes at the end of November.
“We are the only transitional housing shelter in San Benito County,” Fehl said. “This is going to have a huge impact.”
However, she said, the homeless will still have options. Whenever possible, the CSWD will refer people to the battered women’s and children’s shelter Emmaus House and to the winter shelter operated by the county’s Homeless Task Force. The CSWD will also continue operating a winter shelter with money from a different source. In addition, the Community Services Development Corporation has agreed to take over operation of the transitional housing shelter.
Without federal funding, the CSDC will have to charge residents to cover the shelter’s operational costs. Fehl said this isn’t unprecedented, because the county asks shelter residents to donate a monthly fee – varying by income, but averaging around $300 – to a “rent savings plan” that would provide money toward permanent rental housing when they leave the shelter.
“We encouraged people to pay, but obviously if they didn’t, we wouldn’t ask them to leave,” Fehl said, adding that most shelter residents were able to contribute to the plan.
Representatives from both Emmaus House and the Homeless Task Force said they hadn’t heard about the funding cut and couldn’t comment on how it might affect their groups. Task Force Chairwoman Kathy Ruiz noted that its funding would only keep the shelter open for the coming winter, and that the organization is looking for more money.
Meanwhile, Fehl said CSWD staffers will continue to keep their eyes open for future funding opportunities.
“When you’re funded by grants, it’s always a chance you take,” she said.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566, ext. 330 or [email protected].
