ALAMEDA — State money that Alameda is getting to help the homeless should go toward providing services such as opening a daytime drop-in center, the City Council has decided.
What the one-time injection of $756,524 should not pay for, the council said, is constructing public toilets in the Webster Street and Park Street business districts, an idea that city staff put forward.
That project would have cost $516,267.
“It’s either going to become something that is built and (homeless) people are kept away from and so it just becomes a public amenity for shoppers … or it’s going to become a place where people congregate because it’s a place where they can use the facilities,” Vice Mayor John Knox White said.
The council, which considered the funding Jan. 15, cautiously welcomed earmarking $147,505 toward purchasing a hygiene bus in partnership with the cities of Fremont, Hayward, San Leandro and Union City.
The bus would be equipped with showers and restrooms and travel among the cities.
“I think it’s really inspired,” Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft said. “But bear in mind, Alameda possibly would get it just one day a week, I’m guessing, since we are one of five cities sharing it.”
The council voted unanimously to have the interim city manager work to allocate the money — without the public toilets — within a plan that will feature a possible drop-in center, funding a bus and other ways to help those living on the streets.
“I do think we should think big about what are the real needs of the population that we have,” Councilwoman Malia Vella said. “But we also need to recognize the constraints of this funding and think about how we are going to provide ongoing services. How do we start something, do it successfully and then give it room to grow?”
State lawmakers approved distributing $500 million in June 2018 to counties and cities to ease California’s homeless crisis.
The city of Alameda’s portion is part of $16.2 million that Alameda County is receiving and must be spent before June 30, 2021. The funds could be available as soon as March, according to city officials.
Alameda County requires 10 percent of the monies go toward rent subsidies or assistance, 20 percent for direct services and 70 percent for capital improvements.
The county is allowing flexibility in how the money is spent, Ana Bagtas, the city’s community development analyst, told the council.
“As we go along if we feel we need more money, let’s say, in rental subsidies, we can move some of those monies around,” Bagtas said.
A 2017 count showed an increase of nearly 40 percent in Alameda County’s homeless over the previous two years, with more than 5,600 people without permanent shelter. Approximately 204 of them live in the city of Alameda, according to the count.
Alameda has been in talks with other cities about creating a parking place for recreational vehicles and for people living in their cars through the state’s one-time funds, especially since many of Alameda’s homeless live in vehicles, Bagtas said.
“We have not made a commitment,” she said, adding that spots are being eyed in unincorporated Alameda County. “It was a conversation with the other smaller cities that identified this as a need.”
Deciding what to do with the state funds follows Alameda’s first “warming shelter” opening in December at Christ Episcopal Church on Santa Clara Avenue at Grand Street. The shelter, which can house up to 25 people at a time, opens when temperatures dip or rain is forecast.
Council members said they supported expanding the shelter into a daytime drop-in center, as well as a possible partnership with the Alameda Unified School District to provide washing facilities for the homeless. The council also supported offering rent subsidies.
“I’d like to see more toward services and rental subsidies and less toward bathrooms,” Councilman Jim Oddie said.
Sister Patricia Nagle of the Alameda All Faiths Coalition welcomed the push for a drop-in center.
“Folks would love to come and connect and hang out and just rest for the day,” Nagle said, “and get out of the cold and smoke if we have any other fires.”