Grover Beach and the 5 Cities Homeless Coalition (5CHC) cemented the next step in the process to set up the area’s first year-round homeless shelter.
At its June 27 meeting, the City Council approved a 55-year ground lease for the future space located on 0.44 acres of unused property at 955 South 4th St. The lease provisions describe the facility as non-congregate temporary housing, with the exact number of housing units to be determined at a later date. The coalition’s annual rent is set at $1 a year.
The nonprofit also has the freedom to back out within a year if it can’t obtain the required finances and permits to build a shelter. But City Manager Matthew Bronson said that’s an unlikely scenario as 5CHC is already working on funding options through the state’s Project Homekey and has started the permitting process.
“However, if 5CHC did terminate the agreement, the city would have to evaluate its options of enabling a homeless housing facility to be constructed on this site by a partner agency as the city does not have the resources to build and operate such a facility,” he told New Times. “Acquiring the property and developing a ground lease are important first steps with this project, and the city has every expectation that 5CHC will be successful in generating funding and receiving necessary permits for this facility.”
Acquiring the property cost Grover Beach $425,000 of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The lease also accounts for Grover Beach’s involvement in the Central Coast Blue [CCB] project that would inject treated wastewater into the Santa Maria Valley Groundwater Basin. An easement of 28 feet is reserved on the property to make way for Central Coast Blue pipelines.
Homelessness was the most important issue that needed to be tackled according to 35 percent of respondents to the city’s 2021 community survey. The shelter project is one way of addressing that, and it also aligns with San Luis Obispo County’s regional plan to cut homelessness in half by 2027.
Bronson said that Grover Beach is actively engaged with other agencies in the county to do its part—not just with the future potential shelter, but also with 5CHC’s project putting 20 emergency pallet-style shelters on 16th Street.
“Police Chief [John] Peters serves on the steering committee for this plan along with Janna Nichols with 5CHC and city managers from all seven cities have received regular briefings from the county. The [Grover Beach City] Council also received a briefing from the county on May 9, 2022,” he said. “One of the goals of the county’s plan is to increase sheltering capacity throughout the county and this proposed facility on South 4th Street is consistent with this goal along with the cabins project under construction on county property at 286 South 16th St. Other sheltering facilities in our area will be needed to help meet the plan’s objective of reducing homelessness by half over the next five years.” Δ
This article appears in Jul 7-17, 2022.