On Thursday, the Paso Robles City Council decided to redirect the city's Homeless Emergency Aid Program funds to the Project Homekey funds, awarded to the city by Governor Gavin Newsom.
In April 2019 Paso Robles was awarded HEAP grant funds to build an emergency shelter on Sulfur Springs Road.
City leaders say the funds granted for the HEAP project ended up being less than what was needed to complete the full project, therefore they decided to terminate the project. The extra money needed was due to multi-million-dollar pedestrian access improvements required by Caltrans at the project site, and to the fiscal impacts of the pandemic.
In total, the HEAP grant award of $920,126 will now go to Project Homekey. This project was rolled out by Governor Gavin Newsom and intends to rapidly disburse funds to cities and counties to build facilities for Californians experiencing homelessness.
On October 16th, $15 million was awarded to the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo (HASLO), in partnership with People's Self-Help Housing (PSSH) and the El Camino Homelessness Organization (ECHO).
That money, and now the funds from HEAP, will be used to purchase and renovate Motel 6, located at 1134 Black Oak Drive, to provide homeless services, 50 emergency shelter beds, and 63 low-income permanent supportive housing units.
