Front Page  »  

SLO awards $150,000 to nonprofits to fight homelessness

May 11, 2023

By KAREN VELIE

San Luis Obispo recently awarded $150,000 to 19 nonprofits including programs that focus on homelessness and transitional housing.

The city provides financial support through grants to non-profit organizations in San Luis Obispo and in neighboring communities. The city budgeted $150,000 this year to help support service providers with a focus on preventing and addressing homelessness in San Luis Obispo.

Non-profits awarded grants include:

  • $8,400 for affordable housing production at the Waterman Village through Smart Share Housing Solutions.
  • $10,000 for rapid re-housing and homeless prevention assistance through 5-Cities Homeless Coalition.
  • $10,000 for homeless prevention work provided by Community Action Partnership of SLO County (CAPSLO).
  • $10,000 for Meals that Connect through the Senior Nutrition Program.
  • $15,000 for 2024 Youth Empowerment Program provided by City Farm.
  • $20,000 for hot showers to those experiencing homelessness provided by Shower the People.

Loading...
Subjects:     
Related:


5 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

The “Homeless Industrial Complex” scores more taxpayer funds to waste.


28

Throwing more money at a problem, because all the other money, after salaries and various expenses, didn’t work either.


40

What do you think we should do? (Nothing unconstitutional)


-12

Many of the homeless need help, not a cute, but temporary, tiny-home, or a tepid bowl of soup, nor, the indignity of being removed from a “homeless shelter” (think Prado Rd.)


They need professional mental help in a facility where drugs and alcohol can be purged away. All these government monies, and government programs, never do that. Many try to blame Reagan for the lack of mental facilities. But Reagan turned that responsibility, and rightly so, back to the states, by cutting off federal funds (as required by a Carter law). Newsom has billions to throw away for so-called reparations, but not a dime for mental health.


Note, I said many. MOST are living homeless by choice, and not by a crappy twist of fate.


10

You’re actually mostly right.


From a Tribune article a couple months back (https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article271699922.html)


“Currently, San Luis Obispo County can treat a maximum of 16 Medi-Cal or indigent patients placed on mental health holds at the Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF) in San Luis Obispo.


There are no sub-acute psychiatric beds and no beds for adults with private insurance, or pediatric or senior psychiatric patients in the county.


A 2021 report from Rand Corp. evaluating the psychiatric bed shortage in California said communities of about 100,000 residents, roughly a third the size of San Luis Obispo County, need about 50 psychiatric beds to serve local needs.


By that measure, SLO County should have close to 150 mental health beds to properly serve its population of 282,000 people. Beds at the PHF are only available

to adults who are deemed indigent, incarcerated or use Medi-Cal.”


One of the hardest things about homelessness is that there is such a range of types. We need law enforcement for homeless who are nothing more than vagrants, immediate housing for those down on luck and living in their cars, prevention and support programs for those with mental health issues, hospitals for the disabled, rehab for the addicted, jobs for people without many skills and housing that can be afforded on a modest budget (something the market could provide with some fixed zoning). None of us like it, but actually solving homelessness is going to be really expensive. This City of SLO financial support is a cotton ball on a foot long gash – better than nothing…


3