Months after Hollister City Council denied a request to use the
National Guard Armory as a homeless shelter, Marley Holte is still
fighting to open the armory’s doors before winter.
And now, he’s got the help of someone at city hall to ease the
way.
Hollister – Months after Hollister City Council denied a request to use the National Guard Armory as a homeless shelter, Marley Holte is still fighting to open the armory’s doors before winter.
And now, he’s got the help of someone at city hall to ease the way.
“He has been very helpful,” Holte said about City Manager Clint Quilter, who has agreed to communicate with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for him.
The city first turned down the idea of housing the shelter at the armory in May because the FAA wrote a letter discouraging objecting.
“The letter said they didn’t want anything that wasn’t aeronautical out at the airport,” Holte said. “I got on the phone, talked with another guy and said ‘is it possible to have one out there for just a year or two?’ and he said that maybe it can be reconsidered, but that the city had to work with them, not me.”
Holte, who is the founder of Marley Holte’s Community Assistance Program, a local non-profit that provides homeless residents Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, spent months looking for someone at the city who could help him work with the FAA and see the project through. After talking with Quilter, he finally saw his project get off the ground. Quitler contacted the FAA and they told him in order to reconsider the shelter, they needed a copy of the letter they sent that discouraged it in the first place.
The local representative for the FAA was not available for comment, but Quilter said, if they decide to give their approval of the shelter, which Holte said would house 20 plus county residents during the coldest months of the year, chances are the city will as well.
“I assume Marley would make the city open one,” he said jokingly.
City Councilman Robert Scattini said he supports Holte and his attempt to have a shelter 100 percent, but that the airport is the wrong location, and that it’s going to be a “hard sell” to the council members. Scattini has been a member of the airport commission for 20 years and said, even if the FAA gave its approval, aircraft owners will definitely object to the shelter.
“It’s going to be very hard,” he said. “They’re probably going to be loitering around and the armory is right next to the landing strip. I’m all for a shelter, but I think somewhere downtown would be a better place for it.”
Part of the reason for Holte’s rush to find a building is funding. He was eligible for a $345,000 federal grant to open and run the shelter, but he has to have a building before he can apply for the money. He’s still adamant about applying again in 2005, but the time delay will cost him $100,000 that has been cut from the grant, according to Holte.
Holte said it’s too difficult to know whether the FAA will approve of the shelter or not, but regardless, he thinks the need is definitely there.
“If we get to take one family or child out of the freezing cold this winter, than it’s worth it,” he said.
