Housing Department Vetting New Site to Host Cold Weather Shelter

The City’s housing department is close to coming to terms on a site that will serve as a cold weather shelter, according to Housing Director Bill Huang.

Huang informed the Council of the potential shelter at Wednesday’s special meeting. At that meeting the City Council improved more funds to assist the homeless, including money for motel vouchers.

According to Huang, the process is in the early vetting stages and it is too early to predict the outcome or timing. 

“We have found a facility that we think is going to work, but we have to do more investigation,” Huang told Councilmembers on Wednesday.

In July, the City announced it was searching for a new location for a Bad Weather Shelter for homeless people during cold winter weather. The City put out a request for proposal but received no responses. 

Nonprofit Friends In Deed was forced to shift from its former shelter during the pandemic in 2020 due to social distancing protocols which limited the number of people able to use the shelter and the ability to quarantine people that became sick. 

The shelter typically operated when the weather was forecast to be colder than 40 degrees or there was more than a 40 percent chance of rain.

Friends In Deed began offering the Bad Weather Shelter in 1988 after a man experiencing homelessness died from sleeping outside on a bus bench during freezing weather. The nonprofit stepped forward to offer a reprieve from inclement weather for the unhoused members of the local community. 

The shelter was located at Pasadena Covenant Church on Lake Avenue.

The new shelter would continue to be operated by Friends In Deed.

Last week the nonprofits executive director told Pasadena Now that he was forced to ration funds which meant some people may not receive assistance.

After the comment, Mayor Victor Gordo and City Manager Miguel Marquez immediately began making plans to make sure the nonprofit would receive additional funds.