Health, Housing & Human Services Committee - Regular Meeting

I wanna see.

Getting started. So the venue

My supervisor asked you.

You know what

you're about? Can you guys hear me okay? Yes.

I can hear you. Help. If if I'm This

is all mine. Hi, supervisor. We'll give it another minute and then go ahead and get started.

Cool.

Is there anyone else that we're waiting for?

Nope. I think we're ready to go.

Okay. Well, let's just wait till it's 01:30 officially, and then we'll go ahead and call the order.

Lucille, if you catch Randy Ishi and joining us, can you just send him blood?

Alright. It is Monday, 06/16/2025 at 01:30, and this is the Health Housing Homelessness and Human Services Committee with supervisor Lois Alejo and myself, Wendy. We are calling our committee meeting to order. We are active on Zoom as well as from the Monterrey Room of the Government Center in Salinas as well as from the District four Supervisor's Office in Marina, as well as on Zoom. Are there any additions and corrections or corrections to our agenda today?

There are none. Alright. And supervisor Alejo and myself are both present. We'll go ahead and start with public comment. Is there any public comment anyone joining us for public comment for items that are within the purview of the committee but are not listed on the agenda this afternoon? If you could raise your hand so that we can call on you.

I'll be gentle. I'll pass.

Wow. Alright.

Alright. It doesn't look like there's anyone in chambers, and I'm not seeing any hands raised on on Zoom. So we will close public general public comment and move right along to our regular agenda, which starts with a presentation of the Rainbow Connections Mental Health Services Act MHSA Innovations Project. And we have Melanie Rhodes with Monterey County Behavioral Health Bureau present with us to present.

Yes. Good morning. Thank you, supervisor Askew. With me today is Fabrizio Chombo, our assistant bureau chief with behavioral health, and also online is our subject matter expert regarding the Rainbow Connections initiative, Casey Rodenbush, who I believe has been promoted to a panelist and will also be weighing in. She's out of the area today and was only available to connect via Zoom.

So Rainbow Connections, I believe there we go. We have the presentation up. So Rainbow Connections is a five year $7,800,000 MHSA innovation project that's led by county behavioral health and really is about a collaborative effort with many different system partners, and it's really designed to interconnect our youth serving systems and community based organizations to cultivate an environment of support, inclusion, and belonging for LGBTQ plus youth across home, school, and community settings. So really integrate across those different settings. And the project goals are outlined here really to empower youth to have that voice, to be able to express themselves, to develop leadership skills, to be able to provide input into the program and the offerings and the services that would be helpful to build capacity within the system, increase access to affirming care, and just really enhance within and across system collaboration with the different partners.

And hopefully, Casey will be able to come online and speak to really highlight the work that's being done by the different partners here in a minute. But it's really about creating a provider network to increase access to LGBTQ plus affirming care and to cultivate an environment of belonging within and throughout our county system for youth and really addressed, you know, some of the trauma that they've experienced by having not so great experiences. It's a collaboration with different partner groups here, and I and I really appreciate the Board of Supervisors,

you know,

recognizing all of the partners in behavioral health this month at the Board of Supervisors meeting with the resolution and all the partners being able to be there. You saw from the turnout that was present at that meeting just what a collaborative effort this is. And, Casey, are you there? Are you able to come off mute?

I am off mute, and I can share as much as you'd like me to share. Just wanna check and make sure my sound is is come if you can hear me okay. Alright. I'm gonna talk slowly because my my enter I've gotten notification that my Internet connection is not super stable.

Great.

But I want thank you.

And if and if needed, Casey, if your Internet gets wonky, maybe just stop sharing your your camera, and then your audio may come through. But I just wanna turn it over you to speak about the collaborative partnerships, and then we can advance the slides. Super.

Okay. Alright. So this top row were our original I was calling the OG providers because they were the ones at behavioral health. We were working with them already when I first started envisioning this whole project. So partners for peace, harmony at home, and the epicenter, we've had long standing relationships with them.

So I really started with them, and then the project started to grow over time. On the bottom row so we have those top three. They were, in one way or another, involved with behavioral health working in the school system because that was really where I've spent a lot of all of my time in in behavioral health. Then we have You Will Rise, which is bringing maybe on your way in, if you're there locally, you saw the beautiful mural that's that's now installed at the government center, and that was completed through the brilliance of You Arise. We have Dragonfly Forward, Gender Health Training Institute, and the Diversity Center.

And I'll explain a little bit more about each of their roles here in the next few slides. So go ahead and advance. So behavioral health, we have a Rainbow Connections care team where our I love this part of the project because we're really starting to see the interconnection come alive. Where at behavioral health, we have multiple programs within our child adolescent system of care. So we have internally a care team that can provide specialized treatment and support and navigation for any of the services and supports that we have available through our provider network.

So we do not only the individual therapy. We work with the families. We can provide family therapy. We can also link to our clinics, to our Monterey County clinics at the Laurel Family Practice where if a youth needs hormones, then we can help link there. And then we are also providing some skills building groups in in the schools. Next slide, please. Partners for Peace. This is a very integral component of the project because it's all about our family relationships. LGBTQ plus youth really struggle can struggle in their home environments. So Partners for Peace has not only support groups for our our parents and caregivers, but also one on one support.

We have two family support partners that are now available to not only work with families one on one, but also link them to support groups available through their organization and then also to other parents because we wanna really develop a parent network. Because once we provide those human bridges, then those we can we can let their connection strengthen over time. So it's not just dependent on the organizations so that we can help grow this parent network throughout Monterey County and beyond. And what's also important is we have Spanish speaking providers that can that can support the the parents and caregivers and their native language and really connect with them on cultural stressors and and oftentimes religious stressors that can get in the way of our families being able to embrace the youth for exactly who they are. They're also helping build our faith leader network, which is very important because our families do turn to their faith leaders for support and counsel when they're experiencing confusion or need support.

So Partners for Peace is helping us. We're about to have our first faith leaders net break network breakfast, which will be wonderful, bring everybody together. Next slide, please. Harmony at Home, we started working with them in the schools years ago, behavioral health did, and they have a bullying prevention component to their programming. So they work with us in collaboration with the other providers, and we're we we did a lot of work in PG this past school year, which sorry.

Pacific Grove Unified School District. That we did a parent learning series and partnerships of behavioral health and Harmony at Home as part of this project. We did a four part online learning series and helped parents navigate not only the the complexities that social media presents, but also any type type of bullying or cyberbullying that is bias based. They also are helping us implement the welcoming schools program, which is a part of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. And we're starting to see that part grow, which is really fun and amazing to see these schools now are coming to us asking for for this training, which is wonderful to see.

They offer parent workshops, which I mentioned we do online, but we also do that on-site. And then, also, they help with starting up anti bullying clubs and in collaboration with another one of our our providers helping start up the gender sexuality alliance. So the epicenter, one of the things that I realized after I got going was that because epicenter does focus on transitional age youth, that has been their focus for since inception. So I needed to work to develop that component and then also look at the younger aged youth. So the Epicenter does partner with another one of our providers.

I'll introduce here on the next slide. But with Epicenter, if you're familiar with them, they're wonderful. They've been doing lots of work in our community for I think they just had their ten year anniversary, and they have a program called Our Gente. And they've been doing this work for a really long time. And I approached them a while ago, asked them to to do this together with us, and it's just been wonderful because the project is really about interconnecting all of our resources so that we're not operating in silos.

So the epicenter, because they've been active and involved in the community for a really long time, they have developed and established networks. So we're not only we're building upon what has already existed. So we're not coming in to replace anything. We're just here to enhance and provide more resources. They also have a group called Queer Trans Youth Collective, which is an important piece because our queer youth really do need mentoring and support to be able to look to community to see themselves reflected in other people.

So we have that available through the Queer Trans Youth Collective, and they've been an active part in our Rainbow Connections programming. They also provide a youth empowerment council, which is our Zoom offering that can bring students not only in Monterey County together, but also San Benito County. And we've been able to offer a few different youth led activities that they really wanna see, and then they are part of our governance structure because we need to have our this layer of the youth feedback. So the Youth Empowerment Council has been able to act in that capacity for us. Next slide, please.

Diversity center, I'm really grateful to bring this this provider in because as I mentioned in the previous slide, I was missing that early the elementary school age youth. So adding the diversity center on as a partner has helped us provide the support for all the entire youth population and young young adult population. They've been doing wonderfully in helping produce events. We did our our Rainbow Connections student wellness expo at the county office of education little earlier last month, which was wonderful. They're also writing inclusive social emotional learning lesson plans that we're implementing in select school sites.

So now that we've we have this project fully operational, we have districts coming in and requesting specific s they call it SEL because we're in a world of acronyms. So inclusive SEL curriculum. So going into classrooms, providing lessons on gratitude, and how do we enhance our awareness of gratitude in our lives so that if we're struggling, what can we be grateful for? And then they bring that the inclusion piece into. They work in collaboration with the epicenter.

So the way this model the way that I've designed this model is wherever we go, we go together. So a provider is not ever working in isolation, that whatever we're doing in this particularly in a school setting, that the the providers are working together as a team. Next slide, please. Okay. So this is a big component. It is training. So the the really important piece around this project is that we build capacity. And what that means is really providing as much training for people as possible. We have our all of our providers that are have been doing the trainings all along. We have the family acceptance project.

We have doctor Jen Hastings, doctor Sean John Mate, and Luke Pasha. So we're offering three trainings a month, and that's it's going well. I can tell you this is global. We now have people coming from all over the world to these trainings. So in any given training, they're usually has been around four to five different countries coming into our trainings.

So that's something that I had not anticipated when I started dreaming this up, but it's really a beautiful resource that we've been able to offer to the world because people can come in and get these types of trainings at no cost. So it's just I've just I'm so grateful for this piece. They're also helping to continue an education component so that the providers that do need the CE credits, they can get those credits. So if they're in Santa Cruz, San Benito, or Monterey County, all those providers can get their continuing education credits at no cost. I'll also mention that the trainings are recorded.

So we have, oh my gosh, probably about 25 trainings up there at this point that are on digital available for digital replay. They're all three hours in length, and I'll be working this summer on a school. I'm calling it the Rainbow Connections Masterclass series for educators and school based providers. That's a very big title. But this is based on feedback that we can give our school based providers a one hour dose of best practices once a month for the entire school year, and that will be replicated for the the next school year and the next two following.

And at that point, our funding will have sunsetted. Okay. Now you will rise. So I've just love I'm in love with this component because it's so wonderful. We get to see this freedom of expression in our youth. They need that. They need us they can be able to be themselves, and and creativity is just such a neutral way to go with this type of work. We can it's a wonderful entry point. Paul Richmond is my twin flame in this work. I just appreciate him so much, and we see things in a systems type of a way.

So I'm so grateful for him. We're doing work all over the county. Thanks to the You Will Rise project. And then next slide. Okay. We're almost through y'all. Thanks for hanging on. It's really complex. Okay. Dragonfly forward.

So at the heart of this project, what what got it funded was this innovations idea is that if we create a mechanism to interconnect all of our resources, will it work? And we we applied it to an underserved population, which is those are the requirements. Dragonfly Forward is coming on. They're a national expert in school systems interconnection, mental health interconnecting mental health into systems. So they're working with us to create a blueprint so that this blueprint can be installed in any school across not only the nation, but across the whole world.

I don't know how other people in other countries operate in their school systems, but I do know that all counties in our country have a school system. They have a juvenile justice system. They have a child welfare system. They have hospital systems, and they have communities because we're working in an ecosystem. So what we're developing is a way to essentially script the moves so that any school this is specifically around working in the classroom and working with the the school system.

So it gets really, really technical. So for this group, I'll just say, when we're done, we're gonna have a document that's published that can be picked up and installed at a new school across the country. So next slide, please. Okay. So the evolution. We were approved. So I would first off, I wanna say thank you, board of supervisors, so much. I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without the approval from y'all. Every single contract that has come through, you have all approved. So I believe you when you say you stand behind this project because you've approved every every layer of it along the way.

So once we got the y'all's green light to say, yes, you can you can you can implement this project. It took a while. We finally got our first activity going in October with the epicenter. They hired their rainbow connections wellness and outreach and engagement coordinator. Then in in January, family acceptance project began. I really believe that this is in the roots getting into the root system for our youth is working within the family system. So we got that going. Then in March, Partners for Peace hired their family support partner. This is in 2024. July, we had about 18 people trained in welcoming schools.

So we have 18 trainers that can go and facilitate welcoming schools. September 2024, we brought Dragonfly Forward in. And going into the next calendar year, this year, diversity center begins. And then we brought in Paul Richmond with Art Makes Us, and that's where UCU will rise as a component of Arts Makes Us. And then March, we added another bullying prevention coach.

We also added another family support partner so that we can provide services far and wide in Monterey County. And then April 2025, our training program with Gender Health Institute officially began. And if I went on, I would fill up another three slides about what's happened between now, 04/20/2025, and now. It just it just keeps getting bigger and better. So I think this might be the last slide here.

I just wanted to let everybody know there's a QR code if you wanted to look up on our link tree. Our our we're in the process right now of developing the website. I anticipate that will be ready by August. That's our our official soft launch date. So there's a lot there. If anyone has questions or feedback, I I would love to hear them.

Thank you so much, Casey. Yep. I'll pass it back to to whoever we have presenting. Okay. Great. Thank you. Is there more to present?

No. I was just thanking Casey for Oh. And and explaining all of that. She did a great job, of course, and this is her passion project and her heart work. So I'm glad she was able to join us today.

Yeah. Thank you again, Casey. And thank you, Melanie, too, just being I know you stepped in midway through the as director of behavioral health midway through the process, but we really appreciate. I think having vision and having leadership that's willing to embrace vision really does allow for projects like these to move forward. So thanks to you. And thank you also to the Behavioral Health Commission that I know takes a lot of pride in the the youth how our MHSA projects get get pushed forward to the full board for for approval as well. I'll take it first to our our committee, supervisor Alejo, for comments or questions, and then we'll bring it out for public comment.

No. I I think Casey did a great presentation. I wanna thank, the the Behavioral Health Bureau for supporting this work to be able to take place to serve, our young people, with with the this particular programming. Casey, just a question I have, how many youth are we reaching with these programs? I know it's growing, and you've done a lot of work in trying to amplify these programs. But, just like for the public, how many youth are we serving with these programs, and and how many do we expect how many more do we expect to reach in the next when all these programs are fully operational?

So I would say to that, right now, we have because of all those different providers, we're in the process of preparing our annual report for '25 2425 because of this past up until now, basically, I've been building this this multidimensional project. I can say within behavioral health, we're serving about 12 youth directly with our treatment, which is really involved. So multilayered intensive treatment where that's needed. And then when we get broader into the number of youth that each provider has been able to impact, I'll have your numbers for you within about a month or a month and a half. So if I tried to estimate, I don't think I'd do it justice.

Okay. Alright. No. No. I I really appreciate all the work, and thank you for the comprehensive presentation.

And it really shows that a lot has happened, in a short amount of time, which I I really, I think, appreciated that we're we're doing these programs that really could, have a great benefit for our young people throughout Monterey County, especially the bilingual component, as you you rightly say, with some of our Latino families and and, how some of these challenges inter inter intersect with, religious beliefs. But having these kind of programs available and support for parents, hopefully, we're, we're better serving our families to deal with some of these complexities, within within, some of the norms that we have within within our bilingual Latino community. So I I know it it's really can't can't stress it enough. I I think that these really help families confront some of the the challenges that that they they face every every day in in our county. So thank you for that.

You're welcome. And, you know, it's wonderful to see they're just they just did a or they're they had to reschedule, but they're doing a parent recognition ceremony for our our parents that have been involved in the partners for peace component. And it really is beautiful to see because we don't it's just about meeting people where they're at. You know, we don't need to go in and and be any, like, judgmental about what people believe or what their you know, what what that mindset is. It's more about how do we support you wherever you're at.

Mhmm. Great. Awesome. Good to hear.

Yeah. Thank you. And I'll just comment. I had a chance to sit actually with some of the parents that have been participating in some of the early supports at a a program at the epicenter that I attended with my mom and my son and some of our family friends and some of just the conversations that we had with the other families that were attending the event and listening to the it's just it's hard to be a parent, and there are no guidebooks for how to do this. And so hearing my mom reflect on her experience raising my sisters and I, and then while we were chatting with some other parents and their experiences raising their children and how helpful it was for them to be able to have the space that was created to get support from other parents who were also raising children in the space that was created through programs that were available through behavioral health and through I don't know if it was if it was specifically through Rainbow Connections at this point, but it was through the programs that are aligned with Rainbow Connections for students that were trying to navigate their own path and figure out where they fit.

And so for the families to be able to have space to figure out how we can best support our children within the context of what is, you know, what are our values as a family? And how do we do that in ways that are aligned with our values while also supporting our children? And, you know, our all of our all of the complicated parts that go with being a family. I think it is so important. And the feedback that I was listening to was it was acknowledging how complicated it can be and how it's not, you know, there is no there is no one here's the book and here's how it here's how to do it because every situation is different and every child is different and every parent is different and every family situation is different.

And so being able to meet people where they're where they are, it does require it requires it requires a lot of capacity embedded in community spaces where people feel comfortable and safe with the with the supports and structures available so that when people are ready and and where they're where they're most comfortable, they can receive the support that they that they need in the way that they're they're looking to receive it. So I just want to say I acknowledge how complicated all of this has been and how what a labor of love it's been to pull everyone together. But I do know that for so many of our children that are that are that are that are navigating their their own way in through this world, maybe not in the in the way that we've defined as you know, a SIS experience that that one of the biggest risks for those children is choosing to not stay in this world with us. And so the one thing that we as parents and caregivers and people in this community that love that love these children and my fellow parents is, know, that if we can meet these kids where they're at, and we can meet our fellow parents where they're at and say, hey we're gonna figure this out together and we're in this with you.

If we can just we can just find the path together to get through this period of life, we can come out the other side and we can as long as we can stay here, we can we can we can walk this path together. So my goal and and with, like I tell my all my son's friends, like we've got this and we'll figure it out and I'm here with you for whatever whatever that experience ends up looking like. So thank you, Casey, and thank you to the entire behavioral health team. We're here with you on this. So let's open it up to public comment.

If you're with us online and you're able to raise your hand, we can call on you for public comment. We do have a Q and A feature. I'm not really sure how we do that in public meetings, but I will just read there were a couple of Q and A comments. If you're with us and able to make comment, that's probably the easiest way to do this, but I will just for the record, there are a couple of anonymous comments. One of them states that I'm sorry, but we do not appreciate any of you indoctrinating our children. These issues need to be discussed in the home with their parents and at our schools. What a etcetera. What a shame. Stop this nonsense. Please stay out of parental rights.

Another comment reads that this is not all about you brainwashing our children. You should all be sued. And a third comment states that this is so sick and evil. Our children are not yours. So we'll go ahead and open it up to public comment. And I see one hand raised for Catherine, if we could allow Catherine the ability to unmute. And we have two minutes for public comment, and we typically don't engage with public comment, but we appreciate your feedback today. Can we give Catherine the ability to unmute? Yes. Okay. Thank you.

Hi. Thank you so much. I appreciate you allowing me in to speak. And I'm I'm very sorry that these things are not announced more in advance so that people who do not agree with what you all agree and that you are all trying to sell to this community, frankly, I'm tired of it. I am a grandmother. I'm 61 years old. Monterey County Child Protective Services kidnapped my infant grandson from the hospital and committed fraud upon the court. The social worker was Linda Castillo. She was fired for lying in a case in 2021. My case was 2012.

I'm coming after Monterey County. I am gonna sue you guys for civil rights violations, and I'm gonna get back into the nature of children. You guys are working in the schools for the board of supervisors. You have no business doing this to our children or about our children. That's our job. That's a parental right. I'm tired of these schools sharing all the LGBT, stuff. That was never in schools when I was young. Never. Never.

You guys are part of the problem and the insanity in our youth, and they're so confused. And you guys are part of that problem. I want you to read a story about James or, excuse me, Jeff Younger out of Texas. He had two twin boys. The mother is mentally ill, turned to be a lesbian after she was married to their father for several years.

She divorced him, became a lesbian, then decided to tell her the kid's father that the one of the boys wanted to become a girl. No. The little boy didn't wanna become a girl. The mother was, doing that to make him wanna be a girl. She was paying his fingernails.

Thank you for your comment. Your time's up.

Thank you, you fucking liar.

Thank you for your comment. We appreciate you joining our meeting today.

Sick.

Is there any other public comment, joining us today? You can raise your hand, and we'll have you join us. I don't see another hands raised. So with that, we will

On your

board. Move back to the board. Any other final comments or, remarks, supervisor Lehau?

Can I speak? Wes White has some public comment?

Oh, good. Thanks for joining us, Wes.

Hi, Wes White. It's Lee's monitor account at home machine. That's how I always started. But I also have a YouTube channel, John Doe 13 k. I go to a lot of events, and, I found that, you know, I I really appreciate it this presentation.

I I I I know it saves lives. I know it improves lives. A a lot of I have a lot of admiration and respect for so many, like like, youth for action for one thing. They're they're also with the leadership council or at least it used to be. But but the most intelligent beings I've I've come across and, you know, respectful, mindful, always trying to to to broaden that umbrella, it's it's just been a joy and a privilege, to to be around such wonderful people.

There's nothing wrong with this. In fact, when I was going to school, they were in school. What are we talking about? They were our friends. So it's like, there there's no reason to try to attack. You know, I think about Carrillo College when when their flag got burned, other billions get their their windows smashed. What she's talking about is violence. And that's not that's not what these folks are about. That's not what any of these programs are about. It's it's about love and inclusivity and saving lives. You know what mean? It it's so I I just appreciate

you guys.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments today. Is there anyone else in chambers for public comment?

No.

No. Okay. There was, let's see here. Thought I saw another hand raised. Caroline? I

see a hand raised on Zoom.

You do? Okay. Yeah. Caroline. Okay. We can have everyone raise if you're if you'd like to make a little comment, if you could raise your hand now so that we're able to call on you and not miss anyone, that would be great. Caroline, we'll have you up next. Thank you for joining us.

Is this to comment on the agenda items or just the presentation? Point of

It would be the the first agenda item, the Rainbow Connections Mental Health Services Act item.

Okay. Thank you. I'd like to retract my lower I'd like to lower my hand, please.

Okay. Great. Thank you. And I will just check with County Council. I'm not sure how we typically would handle the Q and A. But since I read the first set of Q and A questions, I will read the last. I don't see any other hands raised. So we'll go ahead and close public comment after I read these just to make sure we have them on record. The additional Q and A comments are what exactly is the $5,000,000 going to be used for to collaborate question mark. Another one is that no, no question.

Just want to say thank you so much to the board and Rainbow Connections for the amazing work you are doing. Children deserve the right and ability to be themselves, and this is very important work. And then another one says, you are so mentally sick. And a final comment says that says the man who thinks housing is a constitutional right, they were not in our schools. All right.

With that, we're going to close public comment and bring it back to the board. I don't think there's any action for us on this item. It's just a presentation. So we'll say thank you again, Casey, to Melanie, to the entire team at Behavioral Health that's worked so hard to put this together and to all the partners. Please keep inviting us to the events so that we can join and show our support in all of the ways that are physical and tangible to be present. But keep up the good work and we'll look forward to hearing updates and getting some some data about deliverables and outcomes. But thank you again.

Thank you.

Alright. With that, we'll move on to item number two, which is to receive a verbal presentation on the Monterey County Sheriff's Office Reentry Center. And it sounds like we have Charles DeSilva from the sheriff's office with us today.

Alright. Good afternoon, and thank you to supervisor Leo and supervisor Askey, Roxanne Wilson, and the committee. Appreciate you guys having me here today. This is an exciting time for me and and I believe for our staff at the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, particularly the Monroe County Jail. My name is Charles Asilva.

And, again, for those of you who don't know who I am, I'm the director of programs at the Monterey County jail, and I'm excited to be here because this is an opportunity to share and educate our community about the new reentry resource center. I believe that the Monterey County Reentry Resource Center is going to be an important milestone for this community. It's going to finally get us a journey towards rehabilitation and reintegration. I believe that the center is gonna bring a place of hope, support, and opportunity for our men and women at who are incarcerated at the facility. The idea around this goes back about eleven years.

I started at the jail eleven years ago, and it's always been kind of a dream and a passion of mine to incorporate all of our community and the folks in our community who are doing, you know, their individual work out there to incorporate and bring everyone together, working with us to make sure that we have a bridge to the outside, to make sure we're connecting these people to resources and support systems. For me, it's important, to centralize services for our men and women when they're coming out and for those who are on the outside who need services, who are the outside alone, homeless, who need a place to go, for some kind of support or or just an hour of just sitting down in a safe place. And that's what the center is gonna provide. It's we're partnering with behavioral health. We're community based organizations, our justice involved, and county and state departments that hopefully, you know, altogether, we can make some kind of a a difference in our community.

Services that are gonna be offered there, mental health, substance abuse treatment. It's obviously resources bringing them in to meet with these folks on an individual basis to connect them to services on the outside, whether it's a program that's on the outside that we can we can get them to or a housing program. I know I've been bugging, miss Wilson's here for for a while, and and and she's the one that kinda guided me here to to kind of just to to to put our our our resources in place and to have people understand, why we're doing this. And and so housing support, public benefits, teaching them how to just, you know, go and get their DMV information or just their Social Security information. So we're starting on the inside.

We we go out ninety days. We look at who is discharging within ninety days, and then our team meets with these folks on the inside. We set up a reentry plan with them, and then we connect them to services based on their needs, based on on what they really need. As you know, when they come in, some of them are are are kind of at the bottom. They don't know. They don't have a family to go to or the family has disowned them or they don't have any connection. So our job is to try to connect them. And some of them, while they're in there, they're they're doing their programs, and they have access to their family because they're now showing their family, hey. I can I can I can talk to you now? I understand what my problem is.

And so a lot of those things do change. Those needs change. So we do a pre and post assessment on them. And so you'll notice that the post assessment, things start changing. No longer do they need a place to stay. Now they just need housing or they need or or sorry. They just need a job or they need a resource to go and help with their addiction or anything like that. So, so it's a it's a a center that's going to, I think, bring a lot of people together and families. At that center, we are gonna have a a centralized area for the children. Some of these men and women who have children can't afford babysitting while they're going out and doing, you know, their their their work or or meeting their needs or or getting some help.

And so we'll have a center there for them so they can be there with their family, with their parent, so they don't have to go and pay for a a service or something. So it it'll be a little section there for them to hang out with their family and also be a part of it to to understand, you know, how they can help as well and how we can help the children as well to help their parents, become better parents, right, and and successful parents. That's what we want. We want successful parents in our community. So for me, many of our clients, they face barriers, employment, housing, health care, mental health.

And then without these supports, obviously, they they've there's a risk of reoffending again. And those those those people the those the increases. And so that's why thinking about this center, I thought it would be a a great opportunity for us to to bring everyone together and not work in silos and work together as a team, as a community. It's successful for me. This is going to be a successful reintegration for a safer community.

It's a model that's gonna create stability, which in case and to in lieu, we'll reduce recidivism, and then everyone in the community benefits when these individuals thrive. I know that it could be one of my neighbors, and I'd rather have a neighbor who's who's going to be successful than someone who's always gonna be in and out of jail. For me, that's important. And to help them, grow while they're inside and then connect them to the outside, Obviously, it's it's a it's a hard process, and and so to at least guide them and to give them the resources, meet them halfway, I think, is at least what we can do. Help them with job readiness and placement.

We do meet with them on individual basis, and we do work with them on the inside. So this this organization, this building will provide that. We'll have opportunities at computers to write resumes, type in the resumes, to, work on a computer if they don't have one at home to come in and and and just, you know, spend some time there to get, some of these guys and gals don't understand how to work with computers. So it'd be a perfect opportunity to teach them and show them how to, you know, surf the web and things like that. Stable housing equals better outcomes.

We've been working with miss Wilson here, and, you know, and so if we can kinda open up that door to help them to understand what what's out there, some of these men and women don't understand what's out there. They have no idea what their resources are. And so, this would be a place to educate them, to help them, you know, find that that, helping person on the outside. Key benefits. For me, it's it's connecting them to mental health services, substance use support, and general medical care.

We're trying to connect with our local, folks. And with behavioral health, we already work in tandem with them, so they know who we're working with and who we're dealing with. And so it's just kind of tightening those the the belts a little bit more and understanding what better services we can create. They come in within fourteen days, behavioral health does, and they come and do assessments on them, making sure that, you know, we can connect them to behavioral health as well. Social services, we're working with social services as well and helping them out, understanding, you know, what programs are out there for them and their families.

Again, personal case manager. This is where I think is a change of the jail with my staff, the program staff. I'm blessed with amazing staff at the jail, and what they do is just incredible. They meet with these folks, sit with them, create a plan with them. They go over them.

They actually give them the time of day to to listen to their issues and what they have. And so to sit down with them, do a fifteen to twenty minutes, sometimes thirty minute interview with them about what they're going through and what they need is definitely a key thing to a successful discharge. So we customize reentry plans for each one of them. So not everyone like, the the past presentation said, we're all different, and, we we come in different packages, so to speak, and so we have to treat everyone individually. And so to me, that's an important key that we're doing now as they discharge.

They have their own individual resources and packages that we create for them. And then support from it from the, reentry, we're we're looking long term reintegration. I don't just wanna set them up with something that's just gonna fail. I wanna make sure that there's a connection there. And so having that resource center there is a long term idea for me that as they go out into the community, they have a safe place to come back to with a familiar face and and that connection so that they can feel that there's an opportunity there.

If if they do fail, they can still come back. Instead of going to jail, come to the center and come work with us. Come work with that person that worked with you who was on the inside. And I think that's an important thing, a different change in how we're doing things as well. Obviously, with this comes, you know, tracking.

We wanna start tracking our progress and refining the strategies that we're doing, looking at software, reentry software that's out there specific to to just reentry and how people are are, you know, kinda tracking them, making sure that we're connecting with their providers or employment providers, housing environments, you know, where they're going. So we kinda keep them in the loop so that our folks can go out to the community and meet with them out in the community as well. And then this also ensures accountability for us and then a measurable impact because this is you know, we are we are working with taxpayer dollars and and grant money, and I think that's a fiduciary, you know, responsibility on our end. You know, the grant money is key. We have to report to the state what we do.

And so, it's just a a form of accountability to have those tracking systems in place. A path forward for me is continued collaboration. For me, that's critical. It's not just the Monterey County Jail. It's everybody. It's a community. And we all we all working with the same folks. We're working with the same people. And to me, that's important. I think working together as a community, we're gonna have a better support network, and it's gonna share more holistic care, I believe, for these men and women.

And then commitment to me, I'm I'm a I'm a guy who's all about second chances. And I think some of us were given, probably the wrong deck of cards and didn't have a couple aces in there. And so I think it's, important that we restore dignity and hope in some of these men and women and then help these individuals to build meaningful lives. And so for me, that's that's one of the key goals for this center. And, again, deep grad gratitude to all of our partners in behavioral health, folks that we work with, in making this happen.

And then, you know, if we can commit, we can we can shape a safer and stronger committee a community, with Monterey County. Again, today, we're laying a foundation for the future, and I think just a small modular is is gonna be something they in our community. So, again, we're we're about changing lives. At least that's what my program is about at the jail and and creating a long lasting impact on people. Thank you. Any questions?

Yeah. Thank you so much for the presentation the verbal presentation today. We appreciate having you here. I know I'm keeping, us updated about the status of the the project was something that I was interested in staying staying abreast of. So I I did have a couple of questions, but I'll pass it to supervisor Alejo first to see if you had questions, and then I'll jump into mine.

No. I I I just appreciate get having this presentation because when we off when we talk about public safety issues from the sheriff's department, it's often the jail, the patrol, but we rarely hear about the support that we're providing for inmates. And I know I know I I've seen some of the news coverage of some of the programs that help them even before they get out. And, obviously, your your your services, it's it's it's, imperative. The state had a major shift, right, when with AB one zero nine, inmate populations that would otherwise go to the California Department of Corrections or many of them are now housed here locally.

And our our certainly, our goal is to not have them make the same mistakes they made previously, and and you giving them that that kind of support with with the wide range of issues. It's it's helps them keep that recidivism rate low and hopefully get them back on the right track and, find those with opportunities that exist versus going in and out of of of our our jail system. So I I just wanna emphasize how important this work is, and and it it sounds like you really had a passion and and you believe in this. But for our public, this is also part of that critical public safety. So we're not having to spend public dollars housing them in a jail or, having, our our patrol, having to respond to to crimes, let's get them back on the right track and not make the same mistake.

And and in the end, that benefits all of all of our communities and it keeps us safer as well. So I just wanted to salute the work that you're doing and the added programs and those opportunities to help them connect with resources that are available out in our in our communities. Thank you. So thank you for your work.

Yeah. Definitely. Yes. And so I I guess some of the questions that I have are related around are related to the funding, the CalAIM dollars that are helping us move this initiative forward. And the the way in which I know one of the things that came up for us at the department heads retreat that we had, gosh, that must have been back in March, was opportunities to have our departments working more closely together on some of these initiatives.

So I don't know if you could maybe share a little bit more about about the funding and about the departments that are working and sort of what the model for that collaborative working relationship is currently looking like.

Sure. Sure.

So the CalAIM grant was path three funding, and it was $5,000,000 that we received. And that $5,000,000 covered the modular, and several positions that we have working to deputies, couple civilian staff or so, and then, obviously, the program itself, the software, and things like that, that go into creating this project. We work we're working collaboratively with behavioral health, with social services, with some nonprofits out in the in the organization. We are working with, obviously, our state partners with DHCS and connecting with us and and helping us kind of move this forward. And then, we have what's called an ECM, an enhanced care management focus as well that comes with CalAIM, and we're looking at some of that funding going towards that as well.

And that's someone who will help us take what we're doing on the inside and then continue those hopes to metrics or, those resources on the outside, connecting them to the outside, with medical and mental health and those those specific areas. And so, it's not $5,000,000 goes quite fast. So, with that comes, we we do have a biller that we're gonna be working with so we can build some of these services so that we can keep the program sustainable. And that's kind of the the goal is looking at other avenues to sustain this project, in the future.

Great. And with the partnerships that are in place, I know just sort of similar to how the, Rainbow Connections, sort of it takes sort of this all this all the coordination to bring everyone together. Is that with weekly meetings, or maybe you could talk a little bit more about the the coordination, the structure of the coordination is is working with a team of folks that have been identified. Are there dedicated folks from social services who've been assigned? Is it a department head level, or do we have folks within eligibility, social workers?

It's it's a little bit of all of everything. And I it started weekly. Now we're at monthly, but we still have connected with we still connect with social services on a weekly basis because our our two deputies who are the case managers inside the jail work with social services, identifying those who are out ninety days who need Medi Cal, and so they work with them. So there's different variety of of different check-in points. I know we meet with behavioral health on a weekly basis.

On NDT, we talk about those folks on a weekly basis. Every Tuesday, we go to NDT, and we talk. And so, at the, administrative level, probably once a month. And then there's different forms like these where we meet and then we talk about, some of these, projects that we're doing, and we connect with each other. Like, that's how Roxanne got me here. So I'm working with Roxanne and folks like her to to connect me to the community. So that's been my goal is to start to reach out on these past several months with the community to start educating these organizations, and that's why I'm here today to anyone who I'm soliciting my myself to go out and and to have, more presentations out there so that we could connect the bridge to the Monterey County Jail.

Great. Thank you. And so then with the number of people that so it's ninety days post release ninety days pre release that folks would then have eligibility to start working with the reentry center to receive to get hooked in with Medi Cal, to get hooked in with all the services. How many individuals do you foresee, like, on a on a monthly basis having contact or or receiving services through the reentry center?

So our goal and with with our our new chief, his goal is that anyone who goes through our ninety day program is to discharge through our reentry center, not through the intake where they came in. So those it's obviously volunteer based, so we wanna make sure that we connect these folks, as soon as we can. So we have a fourteen day assessment. We meet with them at intake. Some of those folks don't stay too long. Right? They're there for three days. They leave or of them are seventy two hours, and they're gone. Right? So it's those folks that we're looking at what what supervisor layouts at the a b one niners and those guys that we're looking at, they're doing long term a little longer terms, but and then those those who actually want resources.

So right now, we're working about 15 or so a month or so. It's been kind of that number. We're thinking it's gonna increase here sooner because the word's gonna get out here soon. But, again, it's also ebbs and flows because we're looking at seasons. You know, in the jail, we're we work in seasons. You know? When it's the wintertime, the numbers go up. Summertime's kind of, you know, slower. So it's it just depends on, again, how many people have incarcerated and who wants to go on through the program. But we are not I don't wanna say pushing.

We we are really going to these men and women saying, hey. This is probably a resource you wanna take. We're advocating for them, and we're we're we're letting them know that you have these things in front front of you if you wanna utilize them. Again, I can't I can't tell them what to do, but I can at least give them the opportunity and and the resources in front of them.

Great. No. Thank you so much. And I think, again, similar to our earlier presentation, it really comes down to having someone who is believe who believes strongly and is a champion and who, you know, who is sort of holding holding the commitment and holding the vision to to get a program like this off the ground and up and running. And I know you've been that person really championing this vision and this program.

So thank you for being here to present to us. I think having the oral presentation is fantastic. If you had a one pager that had some more information and maybe a little bit of data that would be great. I think it's one of the ways that we can then you know use some talking points and share information with potential partners both in the community and with folks that we, you know, we I talked to people all day long. I know Louise is out in the community talking to folks all day long as well.

And so that's a great way for us to be able to tell the story about what's happening locally. And, you know, people people start talking and and that's how how things how things grow. So if you if you're able to share that with us, that would be great. And then also just to the degree that the I'm sure you also have some internal documents around the structure of how things are getting organized and who's getting served. I'm very interested in, you know, paying more attention and monitoring and learning more about how that all is working and where the gaps are.

I know you're aware, but I sit also on the Central California Alliance for Health and ensuring that the ECM process is working the way that we want it to and that all of the folks who you're touching through reentry are many of those same folks who are utilizing our medical system of care. So the better the better we can get them connected when you're providing services, better the better our entire system is going to be able to provide them with the broad base of services that they need. So I think our interests are aligned for so many reasons and in so many ways. So definitely appreciate you being here in the presentation today.

Thank you.

Let's go ahead and open it up to public comment. What I am going to do instead of doing the Q and A just because I think we are double dipping on public comment is instead of reading Q and A for this item, I'm just going to call on people for comment. So if you are with us and you would like to make comment on this item, this is item number two, I am going to ask you to raise your hand so that I can call on you. That way we'll be sure to touch everyone who wants to make public comment without giving multiple opportunities for public comment. So with that, please raise your hand now so that we can call on you. We'll start with Catherine and then go to Tim next.

Hi. First of all, I'd like to thank you very much, sir, for your dedication to law enforcement and to the people that had made poor poor choices and ended up in a gel cell. I I experienced personally the gels as I am a former grand juror, And I was impressed with the gel when I toured the gel back when I was a grand juror. And as a mother of a child who was addicted to heroin for thirteen years, She is now two and a half years sober, and she is working for fall for the Soledad prison system via Amity. And they're also really working hard on preventing reentry.

So she's getting back, you know, counseling for drugs so they don't, you know, reenter and end up going back into the to the drugs. So I think that this is a very important program, and it's it's humane. Many of these inmates have never been treated humanely. Many have trauma from their childhood. And I think it's a very necessary program. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. We'll go next to Tim.

There we go. Unmute. Yeah. I'm excited to to hear that there's programs being offered to people being released from incarceration. I think that's big step in the right direction. You know? I I just my question is if if if folks are gonna be provided with housing assistance, I think that's my big question. And then also, if there was any plans to to hire folks with lived experience because that would give, you know, people something that they could, like, look forward to as far as, like, possible job opportunities and way to give back. So thank you.

Thank you. I'm not seeing any other hands raised. So with that, we'll close public comment unless there's anyone in room. Okay. I see West White. You got your hand up. West.

Sorry. I'm so mousy. So it's Monterey County Home shooting West White. For this, I guess I wanted to give you a couple of tips on, like, the transformative justice center, if you're aware with them in Monterey, as well as, Jacqueline Simon, doing, like, the George Floyd, you know, trying to, reimagine policing. And then, so I'm just wondering, they have a piece of pie in this? You know? And and, like like he said, the lead committee, has a lot of, you know, people that have been in the system. So that would be a resource that that we'd like to get a cut of funding. I mean, you know, if we're gonna fight about contracts and paper and all this stuff. And then, of course, the big thing I worry about is the remainder.

Who doesn't end up in these programs? Where are they gonna end up? More than likely, outside. And then they end up being my problem and your problem, and everybody don't wanna talk about it. But there there needs to be like like, you're gonna spend all this money for all these contracts for a handful of people, maybe a couple 100 or something, you know, in this time frame. And everyone who gets let out, we're gonna spend all kinds of money getting rid of them. And, that is like you know what mean? We we need to be doing more of these kind of programs, no kind of sweeps, allowing people to have the affordable housing that they've provided for themselves. So, so, yeah, no money.

Great. Thank you, Wes. We see one more hand up. We'll go to Samsung Galaxy, or it looks like Samsung Guest. If there's last call for public comment, if you could make sure you raise your hand when we call for public comment, we won't. We'll be sure not to miss anyone, but we'll go to Samsung next.

You can go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hand went down. Okay.

Samsung, this is your last call for public comment.

They lowered their hand.

Hand went down. Okay. Wanna make sure we don't miss anyone for public comment. Okay. With that, we'll close public comment for this item. I don't think there was any action required from us. This was just receiving a presentation. Thank you for the presentation. Very informative. I really appreciate all of the work, Charles and yeah definitely send us some more information and we would I would love to read through some additional information and keep us posted.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right. With that, we'll move on to our next item, item number four, to receive a verbal update on the current encampment resolution funding projects. We have Roxanne Wilson with our County Homeless Services Director.

I think we're on three.

Oh, did I skip one? No. Oh, I totally skipped item three. Okay. I even crossed it off on my paper and everything. So we'll do item number three. Receiver presentation assessing the extent to which Monterey County ordinances and policies align with governor Newsom's model ordinance for addressing encampments and provide direction as necessary. It's still you, Roxanne.

Thank you so much. Good afternoon. My name is Roxanne Wilson, and I serve as the county's homeless services director. Today, I'll be presenting, as mentioned, an overview on how governor Newsom's model ordinance on addressing encampments aligns with the county's current ordinances and policies. You'll note that the state also has a body called Cal ICH that makes recommendations on policies, and the governor had directed Cal ICH to further release another guidance on addressing encampments.

You will see throughout my presentations reference to the Cal ICH guidance as well. And of course, this is a timely and important conversation because I think all jurisdictions across the state of California face pressure to respond to unsheltered homelessness while balancing the legal mandates and providing humane care. So just a little bit of background. In the recent months, again, governor Newsom's administration released a model ordinance intended to create guidance for local jurisdictions. But this started much earlier than that, back in June it says 2024.

What year are we oh, it was 2024. Sorry. I had a moment. The US Supreme Court had ruled six-three when and basically, I cannot speak, a case that overturned Martin versus Boise. Excuse me.

And in July 2024, governor Newsom ordered state agencies to clear homeless encampments on state land and encourage local jurisdictions to adopt encampment policies that align with the Caltrans policies, and that was through executive order n 01/24. Then in January 2025, Monterey County Board of Supervisors approved my office's encampment resolution policy. And during that time, I had also disclosed that there is likelihood that the state was going to start tying a encampment resolution policy to our ability to receive homeless funding, in which we did see in the HAP six application. And then, again, in May 2025, governor Newsom had released the model ordinance for cities and counties. So one of the core differences between all of the different documents that my office has reviewed is in the model ordinance.

It does have many banning elements in which our county encampment I mean, our county ordinance does not include. For example, it does state that in the governor's ordinance that there's bans on camping, sleeping, and the use of structures in certain public spaces, specifically near sensitive areas like schools, parks, and critical infrastructure. The county's ordinance is a little bit more broad than that. It does define that you know, we're talking about erecting tents or shelter for the purpose of sleeping, arranging bedding for the purpose of sleeping, or use of standing or parked vehicle for the purposes of sleeping. And then it further talks about no camping is allowed in any public space unless it's otherwise posted.

And then we have the encampment resolution policy where we do talk about 500 feet from a preschool day care center, elementary school, or high school. So there is some alignment between all three well, the two ordinances in the county policy. But, again, it's not very clear when it comes down to sleeping. And then when it comes down to the service connections, I think that this is where our policy really does stand out. The model ordinance does talk about how the every jurisdiction should make reasonable efforts to identify shelter or emergency shelter, navigation centers, appropriate housing for people who are being displaced from encampments.

Cal ICH also says that local jurisdiction should offer shelter before taking action on removing an encampment. And then there's no reference to that in the county's ordinance. However, in the encampment response or resolution policy, we do talk about how we should work with internal and external partners to ensure a range of supportive services are available to individuals who are voluntarily or involuntarily displaced from encampments. And since the Board of Supervisors had approved the policy, my office has been working closely with different departments and with the continuum of care for us to get all of the engines going and ensure that we we have all of the resources ready avail readily available when we have knowledge that an encampment cleanup is gonna happen. And further, the model ordinance says that we should give local jurisdiction should give a minimum of forty eight hours before the action is taken, and CalICH's guidance does align with that forty eight hours.

The county's ordinance does not have any reference to that. However, the encampment policy gives an extra day, so we do seventy two hours not including weekends or holidays. And that was actually at the request of one of our constituents who had come to our first reading of the policy in this body. And the reason why we added that extra day and took away the weekends and holidays is because we also know that people need to have time to access policy those resources, and many programs are not open on the weekends or holidays. Another area that the county really does stand out, the model ordinance says that we local jurisdictions should store belongings that are either left behind or that are left behind from individuals being displaced from encampments that have a apparent value of $50 or more or has an apparent personal value.

So we're talking about photographs, urns, things of that sort, for no less than sixty days. The county ordinance does not have any reference, but, the county encampment resolution policy adds an extra thirty days to that storage and is has very similar language to the model ordinance as far as how we value property. And, I must state that even though it's thirty days more than the state's recommendation, it is in alignment with the city of Salinas'. So we do have some consistency. As we all know, there is nuance when it comes to invisible lines.

And here is just a very long comparison of items that the county will not store versus the model ordinance. In general, it's pretty much in alignment. We're not looking at toxic sharps, chemicals. Actually, so much of this seems to be very much in alignment. It's almost as if they had our policy or something when they wrote this.

So the final assessment is essentially the existing county ordinance combined with the adopted incumbent resolution policy generally meet all of the components of the governor's model ordinance except for certain banning elements, particularly around structures and sleeping in public. The county offers a more human centered approach through an additional twenty four hours of notice. That does not include weekends and holidays. We do have an additional thirty days of storage. And we also have different levels of interventions. So that is essentially my presentation, and I will stop sharing and take any questions.

Great. Thank you for the assessment. Roxanne, I I do you need any direction from us on this? It's just sort of a update on where we're at. With timing? I guess for we don't need to make any changes, I

guess, is what you're saying. Oh, I I would leave that up to the direction of the committee. But from my assessment, it does not appear that we need to make any addition additional changes to the county's ordinances.

Okay. Great. Supervisor Alejo, comments, questions?

Oh, it it, obviously, we we went through our process to, adopt our our policy that Roxanne presented, and this that was before the governor released its his model ordinance, which which is good to be able to do the comparison. So thank you, Roxanne, for that analysis. But I think I think as Roxanne said, we we we were ahead of the we're ahead of the game, head of the governor. And I think unless we see some issues, I don't think there's an there's no we don't need to adjust our ordinances since they're mostly aligned.

Yep. I would agree with you on that. I think ours is really solid, and I appreciate all the work that we did to get an ordinance put together, not knowing if we were gonna get one from the state or not. Think but this is this is great. I feel really good about where we're Let's open it up to a public comment. Again, if you would like to make public comment, if you could raise your hand now so that I can make sure that we don't miss anyone. We'll open it up to public comment, and we'll start with Tim, and then we'll go to Katherine. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate your feedback on these discussions. Tim, you should be able to unmute yourself.

I'm I'm unmuted. I was just waiting for

you to just Yeah. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you, Wendy. Tim Heaven, lead chair, CSE leadership council member, CSE California State policy advisory board member. I just wanna put out there, like, every time I see these, you know, camping ban rules, it's just like we're we're gonna it's such it's so dangerous to just say that we're gonna offer services knowing damn well that we have no housing for these people. We don't have any shelter space that's available. Zero.

And whenever I've done I've done outreach last four or five years, and I've not been there's never a space for, like, one person available, let alone hundreds. And I really, really hope that we could start humanizing people more and and really looking for ways that we can create safe spaces where people could be because it's just so it does so much damage to people, their well-being, their their, mental health when we sweep them around like they're trash. You know? Instead of like like, these ordinances, they don't do anything to identify where people are gonna go. They're gonna either end up in jail or just chased around town to the different jurisdictions.

It's insanity to keep doing the same thing, wasting taxpayer dollars and not really coming up with any real solutions. You know? Like, the most immediate solution is creating a safe space where people could be at and identifying that. And so I'm gonna keep coming to these meetings and mentioning it until hopefully something gets done. Thank you, guys.

Thank you, Tim. And thank you for all of your guidance and support on the getting the initial ordinance drafted. We'll go next to Katherine and then to Caroline.

I thank you once again. I don't know how my name came up on the screen because I chose to be anonymous, so I don't appreciate that. But with that said, my question is to the lady that was speaking, Hilda, I believe, is her name. Why do we have three motels that were designed to house or help house the homeless people that are now all boarded up, fences all around them? That's our taxpayer dollars.

Why were those three motels shut down when that was intended to leave part of the problem of them residing in Chinatown and other areas such as Creek Bridge, etcetera? The other thing is, you know, the homeless I have compassion for the homeless because we do know that in Monterey County, you cannot work at a McDonald's and afford a studio apartment. There really needs to be something done with, you know, having fair rent. So I know that that's an issue that's on the on the you know, that we're we're filing petitions to stop that. But, you know, with the homeless, part of the issue is I think people would be more willing to help if they weren't so flagrant.

Many of the the homeless are either addicted to drugs or they have mental health issues. You know, all the litter that we find we see everywhere on the streets. I mean, this has gotta be a a community process, the homeless and us trying to help each other. The homeless people need to have a little more respect for the fact, yeah, you may be homeless, but that doesn't give you the right to just be a pig and throw your trash everywhere. It's it's a safety risk.

And and as far as, the health department, you know, look at all the sweeps we're doing. We're we're spending thousands of dollars to do sweeps, and we're just the problem still continues. You guys don't even know how to manage money.

Thank you for your comments. We've time's up. We're gonna go next to Caroline and then to Samsung. Do we have Caroline? Did we lose Caroline? K. We'll go next to Samsung or Caroline. Got Caroline back. Samsung, and then Caroline? Hi.

I don't know if you can hear me or not.

We can hear you. You've got we've got two minutes for public comment. Thank you for joining us.

Okay. I just wanted to say, I agree with Tim with the with helping the homeless. We all were all the county is doing is taking them from one spot and putting them in another spot, and it's not working out when they don't have housing. So I I totally agree with that. And I have a my own outreach program that helps the homeless, and that's what I've been hearing

is

that the cops, all they do is harass them and harass them and harass them and take their stuff and put them in jail. And they get lost in the system, and then they get out of jail, and they have nothing. That's all I have to say, Ed. The system does not work.

Thank you for your comments. We'll go next to, looks like iPhone, and then we'll try Caroline again.

Hello. I just wanted to say that you guys are doing a disservice to the middle class by wasting so much taxpayer money on trying to fix the this homelessness problem that we have. I have to disagree I have to disagree with what Tim said. Part of what he said is not true. We have shelters. We have space available. We have the help. Some of these individuals just don't want the help. They want a easy life. They don't wanna struggle. And by us giving them crutches and saying, oh, pity party. You know, we're gonna try to help you. We've been having this problem for years. Your guys' help isn't really helping people. It's just wasting taxpayer money.

You guys should be ashamed of what you guys are doing.

Great. Thank you for your comment. We'll go next to Caroline, and I don't see any other hands raised, online. So we'll go to Caroline, and then we'll bring comment to the chambers. Caroline?

Hello.

Let's try one more time for Caroline. Can you hear me? We can hear you now. Thank you.

Thank you, supervisor Askew. I just wanted to piggyback off of what Tim said and sanctify a section of any city. It's just that that, like, allowing people to be, to live, to rest in a dignified and humane way isn't too much to ask. And there are other cities. I think it's San Jose or Sacramento that have already tried that out where their spaces are clean and well kept.

But I don't believe that sweeps are the way, and and I do hope that as the COCs come together that they're able to provide those services before the seventy two hours and, you know, the whole that this doesn't become a a cycle of, you know, getting going into or into jail, coming out, not having stuff, and it's it's it doesn't need to be that way. And I just wanted to remind everyone that thirteen thousand five hundred of our students in Monterey County are homeless. Out of seventy five thousand or a 175,000. So I just wanted to give that perspective as a formerly homeless mother with with two small children at the time. You know, the and that was during COVID.

I mean, it it it can get tough, and I just just there's not enough services out there to service everyone. So if we could potentially go the other way and just have a dignified and sanctified space for homeless, then that might be an alternative. Thank you.

Thank you. We have one more hand raised. I'm gonna once again do a last call for public comment online. The final comment will be Robert O'Donnell, and then we'll move to the chambers. Robert O'Donnell?

Can you hear me?

We can. Thank you for joining us.

Yes. Homelessness and addiction are two separate issues. A lot of times, people become addicted when they're out there on the streets with not nowhere else to go, nothing to do in despair. For for one to say that just because you're homeless, homelessness is not the is not the, you know addiction and homelessness are not are not the same thing. It's two different issues.

To criminalize someone for being homeless is absolutely, ridiculous. I agree with what Tim was saying. I think the the the community needs to really pay more attention to a solution to the problem. And, I worked for a program that where we house over a 100 people, and, they do great once given the opportunity to, you know, get on their feet and then and not have to worry about whether they're gonna rest their heads or whether their children are gonna sleep. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, and thank you for joining us today. With that, we'll move into chambers, and I'm assuming we have common in Chambers. West? Thank you. West

Wisely, it's Monarch County Homeless Union. A friend of mine actually lost his mother's ashes, like, couple weeks ago, and this was kind of a tussle between CHP and Salinas PD because they were along South Main 101. You know, the Caltrans operators told them to move over away from the fence. Not even twenty minutes later, the city come, say, why don't you take off? And then they lost all their possessions.

So your partnerships. You know, we have a leadership council, and, and it's good that Monterey County is looking out to make sure they get their funding squared away. But as other people have mentioned, how much money is being spent on sweeps? How much money is being mismanaged doing all that? And then we we find out, well, obviously, we can't do anything to help that. You know, Salinas is gonna close down the navigation center, so no more funding for that. You're you're losing half of your, funding for a share center likely. So, I mean, we're looking at more people on the street. And what gonna do? They're kinda trying to push as many point people out onto your property so it becomes your problem, not theirs.

So maybe what you need to do is start, going after your jurisdiction a little more than the the public. You know, what was a really good solution was Robertson Lake to colonel Durham. That was a great, cheap you know, people provided their own housing, about forty forty people in RVs, and we even had a shower. We're getting access to to laundry. So, I mean, you know, like like, all this is cheap.

Do a, like, a livability license or a minimal standard on a policy to pass people over. What does it take if if it's just hitting ground or vehicle in ground? It's not a blanket of trash. There's not litter everywhere, which, of course, when people do sweeps, they leave the litter behind. They take everything of value, but not the litter because in that way, the next person comes, you did that. Lies. We don't clean up. We steal. We're robbing people as a policy. And and what you're doing, h is the new n word, and that needs to stop. You know? Because everything we do, scapegoating. You point a finger, you got three pointing right back at you, so you better be triple sure about what you're talking about about yourself

because this

is for your comments, Wes. We're out of time. Appreciate joining us today. Alright. With that, we are going to is there any other public comment in chambers today?

No other public comment.

Okay. There is another hand raised from Samsung, but we've closed public comment online, and we only do one public comment per per round. So thank you all for your comment on this item number three. It sounds like Roxanne, you didn't need any direction unless we wanted to change our current ordinance. There's no need given that our ordinance exceeds what's required in the state ordinance in terms of providing for the needs of humane response to what the state would require us to do.

So without that need to make changes, it sounds like supervisor Alejo and myself are comfortable giving direction to keep our ordinance as is. And thank you again for the presentation and the comparison between the two. Luis, any other comments or questions given the public comment we heard?

None.

None. Okay. Great. So with that, we'll receive this report and we can move on. We can now move on to item number four. I won't get ahead of myself. And I think this is our final item for the day. This is to receive a verbal update on our current encampment resolution funding projects, our ERF projects. Again, we have Roxanne Wilson presenting.

Thank you so much. I will try to keep it as brief as possible, but there's a lot to report. There are 2,436 individuals that were counted in the homeless point in time count in which 18% of those individuals were located in unincorporated areas of the county. Vastly, more mostly, those individuals were made up four encampments. One was in King City, Salinas River.

One is in Soledad, Salinas River. The other one is Pajo, which we're all very familiar with. And then another one is right outside of Salinas' jurisdiction. So my office had pursued three encampment resolution grants to serve the individuals that are current that were in currently in those encamp that were or are currently in those encampments. And we were funded for all three that we pursued.

King City, that one has been fully resolved and has not had people return since it has been resolved. All of those individuals are currently staying in a motel. And the supervisors may be aware that King City had fallen into a little bit of a bind when their developer, Shangri La, had purchased the hotels that was supposed to be permanent supportive housing and then had later on foreclosed on the hotel in King City. King City then reached out to our office, asked us if the county would help, in which we did. And we rallied together many, many partners to try to salvage that permanent supportive housing project while also maintaining the temporary sleeping arrangements of the individuals that were moved from the encampment.

We were very successful in doing that, and King City is waiting any day now because we are currently in escrow, and we are expected to close. So that project will take in all of the individuals that were inside of the motel. Those in it is permanent supportive housing. I think it's important to note this is not shelter. The individuals, once they move in, they will no longer be considered homeless.

They will be paying a their fair share of rent, and there are vouchers that will be covering the difference because we do understand that most of those individuals are chronically homeless, meaning that they have some sort of disability which may limit their ability to to make the 1,700 to $1,900 that it takes for you to afford rent for a studio apartment. That one, we're very excited about. The next one is the Soledad Salinas River Encampment. We partnered with the city of Soledad to address a very long outstanding encampment that is right outside of their jurisdiction along the Salinas River. During the storms of twenty twenty three, we really did see how dangerous the Salinas River can get.

I'm sure that many remember some of the incidents that happened in the Salinas River. So we had deployed outreach teams, and the city police officers and city community development went down to the encampment and started talking to people, trying to figure out if there was an interest for people to get services, in which we did hear that there was an interest. So the county pursued funding. We do have the capacity to manage grants. We were awarded that funding.

We had temporarily moved everybody out of the encampment and onto city property for a provisional site. Those individuals are currently receiving services in this provisional site while we build a tiny village. That one is a shelter with supportive services. It is temporary, and we do plan on breaking ground within the next month to start building that tiny village of non congregate units. Individuals will receive wraparound services, rapid rehousing, housing navigation, and all of those types of services to try to stabilize get them back into permanent housing of their own.

And then the third encampment resolution grant that we received was in partnership with the County Of Santa Cruz to assist people who are living along the Pajaro River. That one has become challenged several times by appeals from a local neighborhood. However, we are anticipating to receive our building permit hopefully this week or next week. We are hearing that they have no further comments to our design plans. So that one will take about six to nine no, I apologize five to six months for that 34 unit, non congregate, low barrier navigation center to be built.

In the meantime, we are working with the continuum of care for us to try to offer services to individuals that are raising their hand today, saying that they want services started a couple of weeks ago. And we have found permanent housing solutions for about five individuals so far. There is a lot to be said about the complexities of the Pajaro River. In our records that we're collecting, the vast majority of individuals do have ties to the Santa Cruz County social services and benefits. So far, I've only identified one person who's tied to Monterey County's benefits.

So we are having to navigate, again, very complex, highly bureaucratic programs to make sure that people access. But regardless, there are several entities, I would say easily seven or eight agencies, including the two counties, that are meeting weekly to try to navigate these very difficult situations. Again, most of our services are in Salinas, Monterey, Marina, which is pretty far away from the Pajaro Levee. But regardless, our local continuum of care did vote to prioritize these individuals for services for ninety days. And we are working doing our best to try to get them connected as quickly as possible before that ninety days expires.

And that concludes my oh, actually, one more. The fourth encampment, I am working with the city of Salinas to see if there is a viable partnership there. If anybody watched the city of Salinas' city council meeting, they did talk about an empty asset that they have in which we are seeing if they would be willing to allow us to use it for the fourth encampment and unincorporated areas. And that actually concludes my verbal update.

Thank you, Roxanne. Supervisor, have comments, questions, anything to add?

No. I I just, I was very concerned with the governor's budget because he didn't he didn't include any, money in January and then in the May revised for a next round of of the homelessness funding for the next fiscal year. And and and a lot of work went up to, went into, creating these shelters and these encampment resolutions funds. It's just troubling that the state is isn't keeping its commitment to continue to provide additional rounds of funding that help sustain some of these programs. As Roxanne said, just the the project in in Watsonville took a lot of work, And I'm just concerned that once we get some of these programs up and operating, that the state funding is gonna dry up, making the ability to keep these programs functioning much more difficult or at risk of closing.

And I hope that I I provided a suggestion that I hope, like, least at the share center, that they should invite our legislators to come visit them because these are the programs that will be at risk of closing if nothing is done to provide additional funding before the end of the legislative session, which I think this year ends in mid September. But I think we have to be our partners need to be proactive whether they come or not. I think we get extend invitation to give them a tour so they could see who the people that we are assisting because we have a window of opportunity. Otherwise, some of these programs, that we work so hard to, hopefully get across the finish line, many that Roxanne has been working miracles on, I'm just worried that that they will be at risk not too long from now without additional state funding. That's it.

There's actually something else I wanted to add. I'm if you don't mind. Soledad, so far, 97 tons of trash and debris have been removed. A is people So will physically see the benefits pretty soon of us providing services to individuals and getting them in alternative places to stay. And I do anticipate another easily 20 pound 20 tons is probably being collected since the last time we we weighed in.

And then for the Pajaro levy, we are working with Community Action Board to establish a program where we pay people who are staying on the levy to clean up trash for incentives. So there's

a lot

of these are multifaceted. There's lots of things happening at the same time. But we're trying to figure out how people can see the benefits of bringing humanity to these encampments and working with the individuals to meet the needs of the community.

Yep. It it's hard to it's hard to understate the the the reality of the state budget and the loss the impact that the loss of state dollars would have will have on the programs that we've worked so hard to put in place here locally and across the state. I mean, I think your your your suggestion, supervisor Alejo, are are prudent. We have a a lot of folks on the call with us right now, and the the the significance of the state dollars that have allowed us to be able to to move forward and make create create solutions locally are are significant. If we were to lose if we if we do, in fact, lose those dollars, the the harm will be felt locally.

The harm will be felt across the state. And so to be able to for us to be able to communicate and tell the story of how those dollars are being invested, what those stories look like, what those how those lives are changed locally, I think I think there is there is opportunity in this short window of time that we have to to to do to do that. And it's it's with the service providers. It's with the coalition. And so I guess I just wanna, you know, I you're you're you're sitting in sort of some of those spaces, I think, with CSAC.

They've been a a really strong voice in in communicating those those those realities. Roxanne, in the spaces that you're at, guys have been, you know, just really championing championing the work that needs to be done. It doesn't happen by chance. It happens only because we're investing in the right spaces and doing really intentional strategic work. And anyway, just reflecting on the comments that you both made and echoing the significance, there's no there's no amount of County budget challenges that we're facing here locally as well.

And the reality is that none of our cities nor the County will be able to backfill the full loss of state dollars if those end up disappearing. So I think our challenge is clear and our task is clear to communicate those challenges. So with that, I'm going to open it up to public comments so we can hear the public comment. It doesn't sound like there's any action required from us on this. So let's if you'd like to make public comment on this item, please do raise your hand so that I can make sure we cover everyone. I wanna say thank you to everyone who's joined us and shared your thoughts and feedback and ideas and suggestions and disagreements with us today. We appreciate all of it. But please do raise your hand so that we can make sure we cover everyone. I don't wanna miss anyone. And we'll start with Tim and then go to Katherine. Thank you.

Hi, Tim Heaven. So, yeah, I think, we were kinda confused when they initially released the HAP funding notice. It was 500,000,000. We thought it was gonna be we thought we had we had a win because they were gonna do it, but then come to find out when we read the document the next day, it was for possibly for next year. So that leaves a lot of funding out there that we need.

And I think it's important to realize that without this funding, like, in our area, a lot of our programs are are are ran off this HHAP funding, and it it's it's really, like, it's preventing people from falling back into homelessness. And so I think we need to really advocate and and try to figure out a plan if if they're not gonna include it. When I went to meet with the the the governor and his his, like, frontline staff, his cabinet members, I think Tim Burton, he threw out a a deal, like, if if we would support a camping ban, if if they got the hack funny. And that's just kinda, like, just the idea of, like, what the governor's thinking. You know?

And it's so it's so just illogical, but I don't know. It's just hard to talk sense into into these state officials sometimes when they just don't care. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. And we'll go next to Catherine and then to I've just got Catherine. If you and yet last call for public comment, please do raise your hand so we can call on you. Catherine, you're up next. Thank you.

Hi. Thank you again. I didn't get my question answered. Why are there why are the three motels shut down and boarded up?

And, Catherine, we Can typically I get an answer? Yeah. Catherine, typically, don't do back and forth during public comment. We answer items that are within the that are within the items on the agenda. If you have questions you're always welcome to follow-up with staff outside of a board meeting.

That is the agenda. Why do we have three motels designed for the homeless that are now all boarded up? Why?

So we'll make sure that on the agenda, we can make sure we put a email address into the maybe into the answers. And if someone if you wanted to follow-up directly with staff, I'm sure someone can provide more information. But it wasn't a part of a presentation today, so we're not able to answer questions during public comment. Do we have any other public comment? We have one from iPhone. This will be our last call for public comment online.

Hello?

Thanks for joining us.

Catherine, I'll answer that question for you. Any any place where we put homeless or unsheltered people, they just end up destroying it. That's why we have these problems that we have. Are the solution should be Monterey County needs to be focused on building homes, not apartments, not low income anything, homes. We need more homes to decrease the value of all these other homes so that we can have a place where we can house people house people for good.

Is there any other public comment in chambers? K. I've got West White's hand up.

West White's lease money account home chairman. You know, if if this money does go away, I I'm gonna implore you the same thing I guess I already brought up, which is some kind of policy, a backup policy plan of, like, how do we how do we get people to behave? You know, if if you're worried about it being all literate and everything, then reward positive behavior. If folks ain't are not causing a disturbance, then pass them over instead of robbing them for everything they got. It wouldn't be that hard to redirect behavior and reward positive behavior, and you would see night and day of of all these stereotypes that that that you're worried about.

You know, peep people could function inside their tent if they if they felt like like they could not be harassed on a on a constant basis at any moment. Are you wondering where a lot of trauma comes from or why people wanna be doped up? It's because we're not providing any yeses. We're giving them plenty of noes. What do you think is gonna happen after you have no money for HAP? Are we gonna increase funding to sweeps? Are we gonna increase funding? So who's getting the paycheck? And who's who whose human suffering is paying for that? Because it's a constant. We're it's like kick the can or pinata. You know, those candies. We're we're grabbing them, stuffing in our pockets. That's human life right there. That's their life potential, and we are we are abusing people on a constant basis because we want to.

Hey. If you ain't got no money, where's your protection money or rent? Well, then we can we can beat you up and take everything you got every single day, and it's your own problem because we got cheerleaders who who just have no humanity or compassion in their soul. And then they're claim to go to church. I bet you. You ain't gonna know Jesus if we if we are a Christian nation at all. Are we? Probably not. People ICE are getting picked up. People are getting picked up by ICE right now. You know? If if you have no documentation, and, of course, that's gonna happen if you get swept, you have no ID, no medication, no no sunglasses, prescription glasses. That those are things you're supposed to look for, but nobody ever does that. That's still constitutionally protected. But, yeah, we're not gonna do that.

And then people are gonna get rolled out and disappeared because they have no identification. It's gonna be United States citizens, not just the illegals.

Thank you for thank you for your comment. Okay. I don't see any other hands raised for public comment. And I do see that we were able to provide Roxanne's email address. So for the question that was asked, there's some more to follow-up with.

Thank you, Roxanne, for getting that information posted. So with this, I think we don't have any further agenda items. Roxanne, I know we didn't have this on the agenda, but just I'll take the personal privilege of asking if you could just provide or an update. I know we had given direction at our last meeting to do the letter of support or to direct the letter of support to go to the full board for the Seaside Homekey project. But the Seaside city council wasn't able to direct that that move forward.

They hadn't received any communication from the developer as of the the day before the the city council meeting when they were asked to give that direction. So in the absence of any communication from the developer, it was difficult for the city council to direct forward action and take on the risk of a home key project without a developer that they had confidence in at that point in time. So there was a quite a bit of public comment, and our CAO was able to be present to make public comment at that meeting. But thank you for the work that you did to bring it to this committee, and we appreciate the opportunity to weigh in. But with that, our next meeting is scheduled for 08/18/2025 in the Monterey Room and via Zoom.

I want to adjourn this meeting and thank everyone for taking the time to join us and participate and share your thoughts. We appreciate having you.