Half Moon Bay and San Mateo County have reached an agreement to address public concerns that will give the city more input and partnership in the county homeless shelter program at the former Coastside Inn.
Under the agreement, the city and the community will be involved in the facility’s planning and operation, including being part of the process for picking the long-term operator of the homeless services program, which is being temporarily provided by Samaritan House of San Mateo. The city will form a Community Advisory Committee to provide input on the shelter program and be a liaison between the county and the community. It will include several people from the coast, and the committee’s initial task will be to develop performance measures to track the progress of efforts to ensure progress and impacts on the community are mitigated.
"There’s going to be a lot of work ahead with the advisory committee and building some engagement and trust with the rest of the community, but I think it’s a great project," Vice Mayor Debbie Ruddock said.
The performance measures will be to identify success and room for improvement that the city can bring to the county. The city has not made selections for the committee yet and plans to make application materials available at the end of the week and make selections over the next two weeks, with the committee starting early March.
The county acquired the Coastside Inn at 230 Cabrillo Highway in December to create a new homeless shelter as part of the state’s Project Homekey program, which included the county purchasing two hotels in Redwood City, the TownePlace Suites Hotel in Redwood Shores and the Pacific Inn along El Camino Real. The city started working with the county to address resident concerns like public safety, the effect on downtown and an increase in people from outside Half Moon Bay, which resulted in the agreement between the two sides to identify and solve issues. The shelter has 10 residents who were homeless in the area or previously lived in Half Moon Bay before coming back to the coastside, said Assistant City Manager Matthew Chidester.
The county agreed to screen potential participants for sexual predator crimes, which would preclude someone from participating in the program. If the person committed violent crimes, the county and service provider will look at each case to determine participation. The agreement also includes defined rules for those in the program to ensure community safety. The county committed to a local preference, and all locals who go through the system will be prioritized for the shelter.
“There are enough of those individuals on the coast that I believe will fill this facility, and we’ll have a local-centric program,” Chidester said.
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Wraparound services to help children and families are also being prioritized through local providers. The city also lost future transient occupancy taxes from the hotel closing, and both sides are working on finalizing a separate agreement to recoup financial losses.
The county’s purchase of the hotel included a long-term plan of converting the site to permanent affordable housing. The city said the hope for everybody involved is that the location won’t be needed as a homeless shelter long term if there is progress to address homelessness on the coast.
“This agreement commits the county to pursue permanent affordable housing at this location when the time comes that the services provided here are no longer necessary,” Chidester said.
Councilman Joaquin Jimenez said he was proud of the Half Moon Bay community for supporting the homeless community.
“I think this has given us an opportunity to open up a homeless housing possibility for our community,” Jimenez said.
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