A recent grant award to the Homeless Coalition of San Benito County will go a long way toward helping to curtail a big problem locally and motivate people to improve their livelihoods.
The coalition won the grant designed to pay rental costs to help get individuals and families off the streets permanently through a project called “Helping Hands.” The $207,966 grant from Housing and Urban Development will pay rental costs on up to 11 units – either apartments or houses – at a fair market rate in order to provide a place to live for some of the estimated 400 homeless people in the county.
It is especially important considering San Benito County has been slammed economically for the past 10 years by a six-year building moratorium and the Great Recession that followed. High unemployment and a wave of foreclosures have aggravated the problem with homeless residents in need of housing. While the homeless coalition and other agencies throughout San Benito County are working hard from the bottom up – most notably a focus on trying to fund a permanent homeless shelter in the area – the effort on transitional housing shows they truly get it, that there are many layers of complexity to the transient community. The grant award also is a reflection of a local initiative, a so-called 10-year plan to end homelessness in San Benito and Monterey counties, which has opened doors for outside grant funding.
This latest endeavor targets those on the fringe, perhaps a few steps from turning their lives around.
“This is a huge opportunity for those experiencing homelessness to get in off the streets permanently,” Cindy Parr, executive director of the Homeless Coalition, told Pinnacle reporter Adam Breen.
Adding to the good news, as Parr noted, there is an automatic renewal possible with this grant, meaning it is a potentially sustainable program and could add hope for even more local homeless residents, meaning there is an additional motivation for people to work toward such a goal.
As long as the economy stagnates, the homeless problem will just get worse in the county, so it is vitally important for the entire community that these dedicated nonprofits and government agencies remain in tune with the needs of the population, with best practices that address sobriety or whatever other issues might be dragging down the needy individuals.
For now, however, the HUD grant will provide housing for homeless people with a qualifying disability, whether it’s physical, mental or related to substance abuse. A provision of the funding requires that case managers be assigned to tenants to make sure they are visiting a therapist, receiving substance abuse treatment, or similar services.
That means there is a structured oversight of the recipients, to ensure every effort is made to keep them on the right path.
“This is the first grant award of this nature in San Benito County, so we’re excited,” said CJ Valenzuela, the county’s housing programs coordinator.
He and the others involved should be. It is a step in the right direction and a sign of better things to come, for the homeless residents and community as a whole.
