At its Dec. 3 meeting, the Los Banos City Council gave staff direction to pursue a tiny shelter village. They also recognized outgoing City Attorney Bill Vaughn and heard staff reports as well. Mayor Pro Tem Deborah Lewis with Council members Evan Sanders, Marcus Chavez, and Mitzy Perez were present. The quorum was led by Mayor Micheal Amabile.
Christy McCammond, Housing Program Manager gave the council three options: buy and renovate a motel, buy residential houses to replace the current bridge home rentals, create a tiny shelter village, or continue down the status quo with minor improvements. These options, she stressed, were due to a gap in the Housing Program.
While One Tree Village is to provide permanent housing for 58+ of the unhoused, these options are to address the immediate need for shelter for the 114 unhoused in Los Banos. “Housing of course is long-term to permanent and shelter is a temporary place for somebody to come in off the street”, McCammond said.
Currently this function is provided by bridge homes, private residences that are being rented out to the city as shelter space. Bridge homes cannot handle families and only have 20 beds currently. McCammond stressed that the rental model leaves the city “vulnerable” to landlords changing their minds.
“In the last two to three months we’ve had four to five families calling us, living in cars. We do not at this time, that we know of, have any families in the encampment. However, we do have families living in fields. We have families living in cars. And so we want to address that as soon as possible,” McCammond reported.
“Having these calls come in just recently tells us we have to not only plan for emergency shelter [needs] that we have today… We have to accept the reality that emergency shelter may be an ongoing need. We wish that wasn’t true,” McCammond told the council.
The shelter provides not only the immediate need of unhoused individuals, it’s critical to have effective case management. “It is incredibly difficult for our case managers to have effective work with somebody in the encampment or another place not meant for human habitation who is just struggling to survive,” McCammond highlighted.
The option to buy and renovate a motel was the most expensive. McCammond emphasized the potential financial risk with such an undertaking, “We don’t know what is behind those walls.”
The highest cost estimate in her report was up to $5 million. Other negatives included the loss of the 10 percent transient occupancy tax and the displacement of those currently living in the motel. The displacement would leave the project uncompetitive to receive the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) that the city wishes to use for funding.
Buying houses would switch the bridge homes from a ‘rental model’ to an ‘ownership model’, giving the city greater stability according to McCammond. The city would also have to buy two additional homes to bring the bed count up to 40. The council decided against that option as the homes would not be centralized.
The option they did choose, a Tiny Shelter Village, has a projected cost of $2.4 million and maintenance of $100,000 a year. Leveraging statewide purchase agreements, each shelter unit will have a/c and electricity. With a community laundry and bathroom unit. In total the expected occupancy is 30-40. Units “can hold two heartbeats,” McCammond said.
The location of the shelter village will be decided at a later meeting. Lewis felt that it would be best near the One-Tree Village. McCammond reported that it could take 18 months to complete.
At the beginning of the meeting, outgoing City Attorney Bill Vaughn was recognized for his 22 years of service. “He’s done so much for our city. He’s been a vital part of making our city run correctly, positively, and in the right direction,” Amabile praised. “I can honestly say, you’re the best city attorney I’ve ever worked with,” first time council member Sanders joked.
“I don’t know where 23 years has gone, but it’s gone fast,” Vaughn continued. “It’s been my honor to have this job as city attorney and it’s really the highlight of my professional career. Part of that is the people that I’ve met along the way, worked with side by side, the staff here in Los Banos, the employees. That’s the big part that I’m going to miss is the interaction with everybody on staff. However, to be honest, what I’m not going to miss are these Wednesday night meetings.”
Additionally, employee of the month for November, Rosemarie Souto a Finance Department accountant II, was recognized. Specifically mentioned was her “festive” annual decorating of city hall.
Elms reported that there will be two planning commission meetings next week due to a conflict of interest. Human Resources Director Lucy Mallonee reported 3threenew employees and five promotions throughout the city. Police Chief Ray Reyna reported that a new ‘safety pup’ mascot has been bought for the police. Fire Chief Paul Tualla reported that Santa will be touring the city on a fire engine between Dec 17 to Dec 22.
Public Works Director William Via reported that a newly hired city engineer will be coming to the next city council meeting.
In her report, Lewis asked that future developments provide video renders to better visualize what projects may look like. Perez brought up the idea of book nooks for food. Amabile thanked the Los Banos Downtown Association, Los Banos Chamber of Commerce, and downtown businesses for lighting up downtown for Christmas. “The lights look fantastic,” he said.
