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SLO County planning to fund Grover Beach and Paso Robles homeless shelters

April 4, 2019

Both the South and North County initiatives to construct homeless shelters are in line to receive grant funds needed for their respective projects following a decision Wednesday by the local Homeless Services Oversight Council. [Cal Coast Times]

The SLO County Homeless Services Oversight Council decided to recommend awarding $2.6 million in one-time grant funds to the Grover Beach initiative, which includes plans for a shelter to be open only during inclement weather and for low-income housing, and $1.5 million in funding to the Paso Robles homeless shelter project. In order for the funding to be allocated, the SLO County Board of Supervisors must approve of the grant awards.

North and South County agencies have been vying for Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP) funds that have been given to SLO County by the state in order to address homelessness. They will need to secure funds to construct the planned facilities.

In North County, the cities of Paso Robles and Atascadero, as well as local homeless services agencies, are partnering on an approximately $1.7 million shelter project. The site of the planned 5,000 square foot, 36-bed facility is next to the Paso Robles Wastewater Treatment Plant on Sulphur Springs Road near the intersection of highways 101 and 46.

Officials suggest the project would help get homeless people out of the Salinas Riverbed, where storms have led to dangerous situations. As currently planned, the shelter would initially be open overnight in the months of November through March.

The Grover Beach project contains plans for permanent affordable housing, in addition to a warming center for homeless individuals to sleep in during the cold months of the year. The 5 Cities Homeless Coalition and People’s Self-Help Housing are partnering on the Grover Beach project, which is located on the Hillside Church property, a 3.1-acre lot at 1935 Newport Avenue.

As currently planned, the homeless shelter would have 11 dorm-style rooms with up to 44 beds for homeless youth, an administration office and a case management office. The facility would be managed by the 5 Cities Homeless Coalition and would have an on-site manager.

Plans for the second phase of the project call for People’s Self-Help Housing to construct 20 permanent homes for residents whose earnings are at or below 30 percent of the median income. The permanent housing would also include an on-site manager’s unit.

Grover Beach officials have indicated they would support a zoning change for the area from single-family residential to mixed use, so the project can be built. However, a group of neighbors is opposing the project, arguing the shelter would be too close to schools and create safety concerns because of its location in a residential neighborhood.


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In the 60s and 70s Homeless people had a different title. …They were called Hippies


2

We the taxpayer are giving 4 million away for nothing,that money could have gone toward the Paso Boys school property along with Paso’s money and we would have had a camp to put the homeless in, the creek in SLO, the meadow in the middle of Los Osos, the dunes in Morro Bay and the dunes at Oceano, among numerous other places could have been cleaned up and put in the Paso camp, once that was put together and word got out San Luis county wouldn’t have a homeless problem.


8

The final nail in the coffin for Grover Beach.


Happens in every city that builds a shelter. Word gets out, transients come in droves from other areas, crime increases, property values decrease. Over a dozen homes near the church have been listed for sale in the last couple of weeks….more on the way. Get ready for security cameras throughout the area like they had to install in Ramona Garden Park.


If anyone dares to speak the truth, they get accused of “hating the homeless”, they’re given the “one paycheck away” rap and given condescending mantras about “misinformation”. For every person that is just looking for temporary help in rough times, there are several able bodied people that are homeless by choice and just refuse to work or contribute to society.


At least the vagrants that are stealing bicycles and trashing the Oceano preserve will have a new place to hang out.


31

“Word gets out, transients come in droves from other areas, crime increases, property values decrease.”

Prove it!


-8

“For every person that is just looking for temporary help in rough times, there are several able bodied people that are homeless by choice and just refuse to work or contribute to society.”


Prove it!


Wait a frickin’ minute here! To hell with that! Let me just disprove it, ‘kay?!

I am presuming by “able bodied” you are of course speaking of the “physically able”, right?! Of course you are! Pushing aside the fact that upwards of 75% of the homeless community is considered mentally ill with a large portion of that segment in that community being considered seriously mentally ill and worthy of hospitalization? Well, you’re just full of what the little boy shot at…


Just sayin’….


2

75% of the homeless are mentally ill? If this is true, and I’m not doubting it, then instead of building shelters we should build mental hospitals to house them so they can be cared for.


Of course we used to do that in this country, before we had “homelessness” but the civil libertarians and do gooders put a stop to that because forced institutionalization was deemed cruel and inhumane. Much better to release them to make their own way in the world with an inadequate community mental health system in place. If you doubt me do a little research and you will find that this move away from institutionalizing the mentally ill began with President Kennedy signing the Community Mental Health Centers Act in October 1963. Unfortunately the funding for the mental health centers never arrived and the burden fell to the states and counties.


When I was a boy I was told crazy people went to the hospital because they were sick and those people who drifted around were called “bums”, “tramps” and “hobos”. Bring back the mental hospitals for the mentally ill and tell the hobos to scram.


1

You should dig a little further in your “research” and not stay so stuck in your bashing of “civil libertarians and do gooders” as the root of this challenge, as they surely are not!

Yes, Kennedy was a very large part of this movement as his sister, Rosemary, was lobotomized while institutionalized, but he surely didn’t started it.

The 1950’s saw the advent of “chemical institutionalization” with the first psychotropic drugs being introduced (chlorpromazine being the first) which started the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill.

The 1970’s saw court rulings that expanded and started patient rights brought on by the continued mass mistreatment of patients in these “hospitals” (i.e. Willowbrook State School, New York 1972).

1973 the courts ruled that any patient being used as “labor” in these hell holes should be paid minimum wage, which of course no one wanted (slave labor is always a good financial plan when those who suffer due to it have no voice).

Yes, the feds’ dropped the ball on this when states couldn’t afford it, but in the same time period you saw the “military industrial complex” funding expand while funding was cut for the mentally ill (a trend still happening to this day, much to the delight of the fear mongering Party of Trump The Pervert)

The real kicker to all of this is of course based around that good ol’ American Corporate Standard of “”Profits Before People” (another mainstay of the Party of Trump The Pervert), when insurance companies were mandated to insure those with mental illness just as those with physical ailments (The Mental Health Parity Act of 1996) and you saw the largest decline of mental health beds available in this country.

Stop the “blame game” and “name calling” and the “dehumanization” of this segment of our communities and maybe we could get some real progress in resolving this dilemma; if not?! Shut up and wallow in your ignorant based prejudice and let the caring, informed and educated folks do their jobs to better this situation… .


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