With more than 200 people in attendance, including many elected officials, the first-ever State of the County for San Luis Obispo covered topics ranging from countywide storm damage repair projects to safety initiatives in different communities.
“It really gets together all the leaders of the region," said Courtney Pene, Deputy Director of Airports, Planning and Outreach. "You can collectively talk about what's going to happen in the future and talk about the successes in the past and then also what's yet to come.”
Though many topics were covered, District 1 Supervisor John Peschong recognized there was a top priority for the county moving forward:
“Homelessness is number one. Obviously, we have a crisis in our community with over 1,500 [homeless] people.”
In a video shared with attendees, District 3 Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg said, “There’s probably not a greater challenge from the perspective of an elected than solving the problem of homelessness.”
“One of the first things that you do is you provide a stable environment for somebody," said Nick Drews, Health Agency Director for the County of San Luis Obispo. “Once you have that stable environment in place, then you can provide the services.”
County leaders said one of those stable environments is the Cabins for Change Project in Grover Beach which saw multiple partnerships successfully find permanent housing for nearly 90 homeless people.
“We are working every day to try to make it better for people who are suffering those consequences of living in homelessness," Peschong said.
Homelessness tied into another hot topic — the discussion of county health. Drews explained that he’s excited about investments like the Sobering Center on the Health Agency Campus.
“I think we're doing more things. We're building more things. We're investing,” Drews said.
Peschong also said that another main point of emphasis was balancing the budget that is currently in a $20 million deficit.
