Monterey, CA Homeless Issue Debated By City Council

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There have been a number of meetings over the past month to try to come up with a viable solution to deal with the growing population of homeless people in Monterey County.  After a homeless person murdered a store owner in Santa Cruz, the police chased many of them out of town and as you can see by walking through the downtown area, many of them arrived here.  Some people believe that the city should have places dedicated to the homeless where they could sleep at night, while others want ordinances passed which would make sleeping in public illegal.  It's a touchy issue, to be sure, and one law which had been drafted would have made it a crime to sit or lie on sidewalks or other places.  It stirred up quite an emotional debate and now appears to be off the table.  On the positive side, there are some options being considered which would appear to help the problem such as providing bus passes to the homeless so they could get to places where there is shelter, meals and other services.  The city council is also trying to create jobs for them.  Funding, of course, is a huge issue.  The city spent $123K last year on homeless services and is expected to only have $80K this year due to federal budget cuts.  "To create a new program without any new revenue sources will likely require the city to cut something else," City Manager Fred Meurer told the Monterey Herald.  Stay tuned as the city council holds more meetings on the topic, which will be open to the public. 

http://www.montereyherald.com/bartertown_news/ci_23296764/compassion-or-crackdown

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of Hands to Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.