Homeless Service Providers Can Partner With County to Secure Sleeping Cabins for Homeless People
Today, Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer welcomed Pallet shelter CEO Amy King to the County Administration Center to display two new shelters: The S2 Sleeper (70 sq ft.) and S2 EnSuite (120 sq ft.). Today’s event was part of an 11-city California roadshow.
The County of San Diego in November developed a sleeping cabin program. It is acquiring about 100 Pallet shelter cabins that it will make available to qualifying organizations. The County has designated $1.5 million to purchase, deliver and assemble the sleeping cabins on-site. Qualified partner organizations cover the operations, and establish the onsite infrastructure, zoning, permitting, and ongoing facilities and maintenance of the site. Next week, Supervisor Lawson-Remer is introducing a policy to make County land available for emergency homeless shelter solutions, which could include a sleeping cabin program.
“There is no single solution to helping people who are homeless, and the small shelters serve as one of the tools we can use. They are good transitional places for people to stay and receive the support they need before moving into a permanent living situation,” said Supervisor Lawson-Remer. “It was good to have the Pallet shelters on display at the County today for our partners to see up close.
“Next week, I will ask my colleagues to pass a policy to conduct a preliminary screening for suitable County sites for emergency housing options, focusing on these types of small home shelters, sprung shelters, safe parking, or repurposing existing structures for homeless services.”
“The time to act is now. No one should go unsheltered when a shelter village can be built in a day,” says King. “We commend the efforts of County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer to reduce the barriers to enact emergency housing solutions and look forward to working with the County to address this crisis with urgency.”
To learn more about the Pallet shelters, click here, and to read more on the Supervisor's policy, click here.