Los Gatos homeless resident Cassie Fuqua puts a gallon of milk in the cooler at her encampment that resides along Highway 17 behind the Los Gatos post office. The encampment consists of tents and structures with a makeshift kitchen that stores numerous canned foods. Fuqua who is the newest resident of the camp takes pride in keeping her new home clean and safe. (George Sakkestad/Staff Photographer)
Los Gatos Town Council this week doubled its budgeted allotment to support the town’s unhoused residents to $50,000, which will go toward temporary short-term shelter and public restrooms.
Some said the amount was far from enough. At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Councilmember Rob Moore proposed upping the contribution to $100,000 to give each of the 16 reported unhoused residents in town approximately one month out of the year in a hotel.
“About half of our folks… have grown up in Los Gatos and have gone to the high school here,” said Jo Griener, founder and director of St. Luke’s Pantry Program, which provides free meals every Tuesday. “And others have lived several to multiple decades in our community, so it’s very much their community.”
Council initially allocated $25,000 of its American Rescue Plan Act funds to support unhoused Los Gatans at its Feb. 1 meeting following the intense rainfall and winds this winter that left some residents outside during the worst of it, some developing hypothermia, Griener said.
Councilmembers weren’t quite on board with Moore’s proposal, which would have allocated $70,000 for hotel vouchers and $20,000 for portable bathrooms and $10,000 for to support an existing shower program, saying it was too costly given the town’s impending budget deficit.
Councilmember Rob Rennie proposed bumping Moore’s proposal down from $100,000 to $50,000 and asked staff to break down how the voucher program would work.
“Instead of spending money on a program that’s not clear at all, I’d rather allocate some money to it now, but before the money gets spent have staff bring back what the structure of this program” is, Rennie said
Moore says spending $20,000 on hotel vouchers would give just 10 residents a little over a week in a hotel per year, which does not meet the current need.
“Right now we have no options for folks, so I think we need to do something to provide shelter for our homeless residents rather than do nothing,” Moore said. “If we do not invest in a voucher program tonight, we are saying we are not going to do anything to shelter our homeless neighbors.”
Local churches that volunteer to feed local unhoused residents said there are 16 regular residents that utilize local services. St. Luke’s Episcopal Church provides weekly meals and grocery bags of healthy food to residents.
United Methodist offers free showers, and local St. Vincent De Paul volunteers provide laundry vouchers at a local laundromat and handed out hotel vouchers during the most recent extreme weather events.
Ed Lozowicki, who volunteers at St. Vincent De Paul, said an unhoused community member was stuck in a tree for 10 hours this winter because the ground was flooded and he couldn’t get down.
The church volunteers had a focus group meeting with the local unhoused residents and found they needed 24/7 public restrooms and emergency shelter during rough weather.
Kylie Clark, who works with unhoused residents through West Valley Community Services, said she talked with some of the residents ahead of the meeting.
“When I asked why they stay here, one resident said, ‘We love it here; it’s our home.’ Another said, ‘It’s hard to leave a place where you have all your memories,’” Clark said. “We need to acknowledge that some people living here have infinitely less than we do, and we therefore need to invest more resources in our most vulnerable community members.”
The town has been contracting with West Valley Community Services to provide services like financial assistance for utilities and rent, and access to food and financial training.
In 2021, town council adopted a resolution in support of the county’s community plan to end homelessness.
Council added supporting the town’s unhoused residents to its strategic priorities for the year.
Los Gatos police spent at least 20 hours each month helping unhoused residents access services, and an officer checks on them at least once a week.
Originally published at Hannah Kanik