Front Page  »  

SLO council plans slight increase in CAPSLO funding

April 10, 2013

CAPSLOSan Luis Obispo’s city council plans to slightly increase its funding to Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo (CAPSLO) for the upcoming fiscal year, despite recent reports of the nonprofit mismanaging accounts and donations belonging to the homeless.

At a two-year budgeting meeting Tuesday, the council tentatively approved $240,688 in funding for CAPSLO’s Homeless Services program in the 2013-2014 fiscal year. The proposed funding is a $1,750 increase from the current fiscal year.

The council did not address allegations of mistreatment of the homeless raised by former CAPSLO employees and others in a CalCoastNews series of articles entitled “Keeping Them Homeless.” Tuesday’s budget hearing marked the second time since the beginning of the series that the council approved funding for CAPSLO.

On Feb. 5, the day after CalCoastNews published the initial article in the series, council members Dan Carpenter and John Ashbaugh and Mayor Jan Marx defended CAPSLO prior to approving $224,688 in grants and general fund money for the nonprofit. Since the Feb. 5 meeting, Carpenter, Ashbaugh and Marx have continued to question the credibility of CalCoastNews’ reporting.

Earlier this year, the council chose to make addressing homelessness its most important city goal for the 2013-2015 budget cycle. The majority of the money the council plans on spending on homeless related programs over the next two years is slated to go to CAPSLO. The nonprofit is expected to receive the same amount of funding in the 2014-2015 fiscal year as in 2013-2014, with the exception of a projected 10 percent reduction in United States Department of Housing and Urban Development grant funds for the Maxine Lewis homeless shelter.

In addition to the $240,688 currently slated to go to CAPSLO in the upcoming fiscal year, the nonprofit will most likely receive around $10,000 in funding for its case management program from the city Grants-In-Aid Program. As with the HUD funding, the council must approve the Grants-In-Aid money after the budget is adopted. The council expects to adopt the budget on June 17.

Of the funding tentatively approved for CAPSLO, $121,988 will go toward the Maxine Lewis Memorial Shelter and $53,000 will go toward the Prado Day Center. The council is also planning to continue its financial support of CAPSLO’s proposed 200-bed homeless services center, despite gridlock over a suitable location. It has budgeted $50,000 for the design of the center for each of the next two fiscal years.

The council likewise intends to continue funding CAPSLO’s Safe Parking Program, which allows five homeless individuals to park and sleep in their vehicles at night at the Prado Day Center. Funding for the parking program is expected to increase from $8,750 to $10,000.

CAPSLO Chief Operating Officer Jim Famalette spoke briefly during public comment. Famalette thanked the council for the funding and said he agreed with the prioritization of  the city’s homeless problem.

Ashbaugh, who sits on the CAPSLO Board of Directors, said he was pleased with the level of funding proposed for CAPSLO.

“I like the direction that is being put forward by staff to reinforce the homeless services program,” Ashbaugh said.

Councilwoman Kathy Smith said the council needed to “make a strong statement” on the homeless issue and suggested budgeting extra money for CAPSLO’s proposed services center.

“It would seem to me to be appropriate as a one-time investment to set some [capital improvement project] dollars aside to invest in the homeless services center,” Smith said. “Whether it is 500,000 or a million, I think we need to set some money aside.”

 


Loading...
Subjects:         
Related:


37 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Myself is probably a self centered lonely person who never felt bad for another human being…there will be judgement in the end..talk about dirty and filthy and stinky


0

No actually I’m not,and I do, but if you people are so enamered with these defects, go collect them and take them to your house, I’m tired of the panhandlers at parking lot driveways,sitting against buildings,or park benches, although half of them take off the fake leg boot and get in their car and go home,none of them want to work a job, just panhandle, how about the one that spit on people a couple months ago, what about the one before that hit some people, if they don’t want to blend into society they can go to Camp Cuesta, but they are not going to be clogging up downtown, the downtown association ha saske dfor more police to keep the bums from being a bigger problem than they are.

What due process do you want to give to a creek dwelling bum, if they have a mental problems then they will get help at camp, they’ll get some sort of training,schooling or what they would need to get back in the mainstream,they can work at Acheivement house, at leats they will be busy,but they are not going to get help in the creek.


0

Myself is really on to something here-Camp Cuesta is a 21st century vision of the WPA/Civilian Conservation Corps which helped so many survive the great depression of the 1930’s,NOTHING like the interment of Japanese or Nazi death camps.


0

No Alaska. Myself is a realist. You are a dreamer who likes to dream with other people’s money and property. If you feel so empathetic I recommend you start housing the “homeless” in your house.


I will tell you a simple fact: The vast majority of the homeless now calling SLO their home have recently migrated here from elsewhere. Why? Because we are building places for them to come (lots of towns with good weather don’t have our problem).


While there are some unfortunates with uncontrolled mental illness, most of the rest are self medicating or are choosing their lifestyle because they would prefer to be drunk and free than have responsibilities. If you don’t believe me ask any cop who has had to deal with them daily.


If you want to give. Then give to organizations who freely give food and cook meals for them with no strings attached. That is charity. Throwing money at organizations that are feathering their nests with high salaries and cocktail parties is not the answer. An neither is building shelters for them without requiring treatment, forced medication and forced rehab.


0

How thorough do you suppose SLO’s inquiry was into the recently reported malfeasance at CAPSLO?


My guess is that they completely disregarded the reporting here at Cal Coast News, and didn’t even give a cursory look.


Cronyism to the nth degree. I tend to think of Good Ol’ Boys as republicans/producers but I guess GOBs come in all stripes.


0

…you have taken your first step! Congratulations!


Yes, GOBs come in all stripes, and it is dangerous to drink the kool-aid and think that only one group has a lock on it. They’re all equally worthless.


0

Oh great.


CAMPSLO, our very own FEMA camp.


No judge, no jury, no due process, we just toss you in, lock the door and force you to work like a slave in our very own labor camp.


Yup.


Sounds like: The Great Amerikan Dream to me!


And the (currently) 13 thumbs up? Shame. On. You.


0

I don’t get any of this. $8,750 to $10,000 to allow FIVE people to park in a parking lot????? That money PLUS whatever monies they are forcing those 5 people to sign over every month could surely put them in a motel room (real shelter! real bed! real bathroom!), or an apartment? Not to mention the fact that parking in a parking lot should be free. This CAPSLO thing is like a black hole for $$$$$.


0

This person lives in a dark place…..pity….deserves nothing more than that.


0

I’ve been waiting for a chance to clear up the homeless problem, we have a couple types of homeless here the creek dwellers, bums and transits and then our own homeless that lost their home and living in a car or motor home, we’ll leave those out of the equation for now, the rest of these dwellers and transits,we have a job for you, some who are mental cases, I saw one the other day by the county building on the corner of Montery and Santa Rosa, screaming at trash on the side walk, picking it up and throwing it in the gutter, I couldn’t tell if it was Hill or Gibson, there was other cars in the way.

Anyway why would anybody in their right mind want to build a 200 bed shelter any where close to town this just adds to the problem, remember build it and they will come, then we have more mental cases,drunks and direlicts on our street corners,wizzing on buildings, hitting people,panhandling and thjrowing trash in the gutter, I really think that we should round these creek people up and put them in a camp, Camp San Luis has buildings behind Cuesta Collage that the CCC’s use some of, for their training, we’ll call it Camp Cuesta, with a fence around it, you don’t leave here, at all, they have no reason to go to town filthy and stinking as they are, so the money pissed away by the city and county would go to this, for medical help,mental help,hygene and training to get back into civilization, there will be no going to town to panhandle or anything, those that truly have a job will go to work and be back at the camp everyday, a couple shuttle buses can take care of this, those that have an address outside of this county get shipped home, we don’t want you here, those that can function will do work around the grounds, fencing,weeding maybe even cleaning up around Cuesta Collage, with supervision, run it like a chain gang, after a while we won’t have anymore bums coming here,once word gets out on the bum line they’ll pass us up like a cheap suit.

Morro Bay has a problem with creek dwellers also, a couple resturants and churchs take food to these people at the creek, they also need to be rounded up and sent to Cuesta.

This is by far a better program than what capslo could ever do for the homeless, all this organization is in it for is the money, not to help their fellow man.

Duval was working this way but on a smaller scale.


Anything else I can help with.


0

Myself says: ” I really think that we should round these creek people up and put them in a camp, Camp San Luis has buildings behind Cuesta Collage that the CCC’s use some of, for their training, we’ll call it Camp Cuesta, with a fence around it, you don’t leave here, at all, they have no reason to go to town filthy and stinking as they are, ”


You know who else wanted to “round up” undesirables and put them in camps? Never forget.


0

Two presidents, that I can think of… Woodrow Wilson and FDR. Both rounded up citizens and interred them. Did I miss any?


0

What about Lincoln? And Obama?


0
1 2