A plan to renovate the National Guard Armory at the airport into
a homeless shelter was recently turned down by the Federal Aviation
Administration.
The city received a letter from the FAA expressing concern about
the armory’s location near a runway and also that Hollister
Municipal Airport facilities should be used for aviation
operations, according to officials.
A plan to renovate the National Guard Armory at the airport into a homeless shelter was recently turned down by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The city received a letter from the FAA expressing concern about the armory’s location near a runway and also that Hollister Municipal Airport facilities should be used for aviation operations, according to officials.
A grassroots homeless advocacy group had targeted the armory earlier this year with hopes to open a shelter by this month. No shelter for the homeless is currently maintained within Hollister.
“I understand the reasoning because it’s close to the strip,” said Hollister City Councilwoman Pauline Valdivia, who is also the director of Jovenes de Antano. “When you have a shelter for community use, people and children are wandering around.”
San Juan Bautista resident Marley Holte and several other advocates for increased homeless services had spearheaded the efforts. His organization, recently tabbed the Marley Holte’s Community Assistance Program, has been pushing for city and county cooperation.
The city had offered to commission its hired grant writer to apply for funding to renovate a prospective site and the Salvation Army had offered to run the shelter’s daily operations, Holte said. Meanwhile, the county has not expressed an interest in getting involved.
“The county needs to take the lead on this,” Valdivia said.
Now Holte and other advocates are back to square one in pursuing a facility for a shelter; they currently have no viable options, they say.
“I don’t want to run the thing or handle the money,” Holte said. “I just want to see it happen.”
Officials have expressed concern in the past year about the city’s growing homeless population, which they say consists mostly of transients who remain out of public view. The city also has a major substandard housing problem. And a study out of UCLA released in late 2002 found that among Central Coast counties, San Benito has the highest incidence of hunger problems among its poor.
Holte and a core of supporters have organized free dinners on Thanksgiving and Christmas since 1984. As of this year, though, his holiday dinner group and the leaders pushing for a shelter combined as one organization; it is made up of 15 board members.
Holte’s organization has official nonprofit status, which would allow it to apply for a grant through the Federal Emergency Shelter Grant Program. One agency per jurisdiction – the city and county are separate – is allowed to apply. The county is regularly awarded the grant to support its Southside Migrant Labor Camp and has received the maximum award during the past two years of $340,000.
But an organization within Hollister – or the city itself – can also apply. The applicant, however, must have a plan first, in this case a building. The City of Gilroy currently runs a homeless shelter out of its armory, but only during winter months. The Hollister armory was also under consideration for use only during winter months.
“We’ve got to find a place to have it and that’s a big issue,” Holte said.
