City Increases Funds For Motel Vouchers to Aid the Homeless

The City Council on Monday unanimously approved $419,134 in emergency funds on motel vouchers for people experiencing homelessness who are identified as high risk for serious illness or death from the coronavirus.

Under the proposal, Union Station Homeless Services will receive $290,667, and the nonprofit groups Friends in Deed and Housing Works will receive $55,801 and $72,666, respectively.

The housing department plans to come forward in January for additional funding.

This year, the weather-activated Bad Weather Shelter will not be opened and advocates are hoping the vouchers will provide some assistance to people experiencing homelessness who typically use the shelter.

“The [city Housing] Department is planning to utilize the previously approved Bad Weather Shelter funding and other available funding sources for increased motel vouchers, which are safer during the pandemic compared to congregate shelter, distributing meals and cold weather supplies such as ponchos, socks and blankets on-site at Friends In Deed, and through their street outreach teams, and partnering with existing meal programs such as those held at churches to distribute cold weather supplies,” according to a staff report updating the council on the situation with the shelter. 

Local residents called on the city to do everything possible to meet the needs of homeless residents. 

“There are very short-term and long-term effects from leaving our unsheltered residents out in the cold this winter, even death. The proposed plan set forth in the report from the housing department will protect a small portion of our unsheltered residents,” said Sonja Berndt. 

The city returned some of the 33 trailers sent to the city by the state. Several others are being used to quarantine first responders and the remaining trailers are no longer hooked up for power and cannot be used according to City Manager Steve Mermell. 

On Monday, Pasadena For All called on the City Council to consider several alternatives, including funds for motel vouchers beyond those that the city Housing Department is already requesting, tents, suspension of citations for makeshift shelters, and using all vacant city-owned property, housing, and other facilities, including the trailers. The trailers, which are currently vacant, were provided by the state for the city to use as officials see fit.

The group also called for a safe parking area and allowing people to sleep in their cars overnight without receiving citations. 

The Housing Department in March implemented the Emergency Motel Program, later known as Project Roomkey, to provide non-congregate shelter and related services at a single motel site to individuals experiencing homelessness who had been identified as highly vulnerable to serious illness and death if they were to contract COVID-19. 

But the motel operator eventually terminated its participation in the program as the usual business from tourists and other sources began to increase in the early summer. 

In order to continue providing non-congregate shelter to this vulnerable population during the worsening pandemic, the city transitioned the Scattered Site Emergency Motel Program and entered into purchase orders with local homeless service agencies that had clients enrolled in the original Emergency Motel Program for the provision of motel vouchers.

The original purchase orders were funded by grant money and had initial terms of July 1 through Sept. 30.