The number of homeless people in San Benito County has dropped, according to a new county report.
Health and Human Services Director James Rydingsword presented a homeless services report to county supervisors on Tuesday. The county is required to conduct a homeless census every two years as part of their member status in Continuum of Care with Salinas and Monterey counties.
This year, the homeless count took place on January 25 and included individuals in shelters, living on the streets, encampments, vehicles and other locations.
“Based upon this census count [the homeless population] has been reduced by nine percent from the previous year,” Rydingsword said.
There were 527 homeless individuals counted this year, down from 651 in 2015.
“We’ve already had questions about how did that happen?” Rydingsword said. “There’s a number of various answers, but I think one of the answers is that we, the board of supervisors, the city council, have really focused on this issue. Staff has really taken that focus to heart and tried to work hard on this.”
The county homeless services report also shows the new homeless services center is expected to open on December 1. The phased construction project has a $3 million budget. Phase I is expected to be completed by November of this year, according to the report. An RFP (Request For Proposal) for a shelter operator, is expected to go out in July.
The new shelter will function as a permanent, year-round homeless services center. The current seasonal winter shelter will close once the new center is completed.
The seasonal shelter, which operated from December 2016 to March 2017, provided 11,067 meals and served 930 monthly duplicated clients, 56 annual unduplicated clients and 3,689 annual duplicated clients. The operations budget was $229,388.
The winter shelter had an additional budget of $55,000 for homeless families. A total of 35 families, comprised of 140 individuals, used the program. Approximately 60 percent of the families obtained permanent housing, according to the report.
