In a May meeting, the Morro Bay City Council gave San Luis Obispo County the green light to apply for a $5-million grant to assist with the cleanup of encampments along Quintana Road.
“This is just the very beginning stages of where the city council has approved moving forward,” Joe Dzvonik SLO County Homeless Services manager said.
The Division of Homeless Services in San Luis Obispo County is working on a tentative project that will help people living in homeless encampments in Morro Bay and it’s a project that city officials stand behind.
The model would be similar to the Cabins for Change Program in Grover Beach.
“It is a successful model which is something that we would like to replicate,” Dzvonik said.
The Homeless Services Division is in the process of applying for Encampment Resolution Funding through the state.
If approved, the estimated $5-million grant would cover operations and case management for several years.
“The next step would be to assess the land that’s available and then look at the number of individuals that are unhoused and that need to be serviced and look at trying to match those two up with an infrastructure of some kind,” Dzvonik said.
Plans are still being worked out.
“If our application for funding gets approved for this project, we could get something going in ten to fourteen months according to my estimates,” Dzvonik said.
The encampment is located on private property by businesses along Quintana Road near Main Street.
According to Dzvonik, this specific location was brought to their attention by a citizen of Morro Bay.
Caltrans says around 35 calls regarding safety concerns and customer service requests have come in for the location since 2021.
The Morro Bay Police Department has also received calls regarding this area.
Police Chief Amy Watkins says the location of this particular encampment is appealing for some because it’s in a somewhat secluded area.
Along Quintana Road, Dzvonik estimates between 10 and 20 people live at the encampment.
“Our goal is to implant approaches that could help get rapidly unhoused individuals out of our riverbeds and creeks and into places where they have shelter,” Dzvonik said.
The county is looking to develop around 10 to 15 temporary housing units as part of the project.
The Morro Bay encampment is one of the many locations that San Luis Obispo County Homeless Services is working to develop as part of its 5-year plan. Some of the other areas include encampments in San Luis Obispo, Grover Beach and Paso Robles.
