Community concerns as Watsonville approves tiny home village

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION-TV)-The Watsonville City Council is scheduled to receive new details on a proposal to create "tiny homes" as housing for those living along the Pajaro River.

The item is set to be discussed during Tuesday night's City Council meeting. The plan was previously discussed during a special city council meeting last Friday, but details on the plan were given. During the meeting, Watson City Manager Rene Mendez pointed out the plan remains in the early stages.

“We have not committed to anything that stat I don't have to really do the command and funding or resources to come to the council. We are as a partner, city agency trying to work collaboratively together on this.” Mendez said during the Friday, June 23 meeting.

The project is focused on relocating about 70 people living in encampments along the Pajaro River. The Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency tells KION, they hope to no longer have to move the people living there for maintenance work along the river.

"They will have six months to try to work with the case managers and obtain that level of relationship and rapport so that they can see that there is an opportunity for them," Roxann Wilson County homeless services director said. After six months, if they are unable to make movement and refuse to make movement on their housing, then we will move on to the next person who is ready."

“This effort is getting these people into a better, safer, more stable environment, and alleviating the need for us to occasionally disrupt to their living situation because of the maintenance activities," Pajaro Region Flood Management Agency Executive Director Mark Strudley said.

Watsonville Resident Keyiona Ritchey said prior to the meeting, she supports the idea of the City of Watsonville helping those living along the Pajaro River.

The project comes as a significant shift between Santa Cruz county homeless population to Watsonville.

"We're hoping that by providing this low barrier navigation center and getting the right types of services attached to individuals, which is highly customizable each individual will decide what type of services they want to have access to," Wilson said.

"Officially Pajaro is in Monterey County, but because it's right here, and it's so close is still very much affects our community here in Watsonville," Ritchey said. “I think it's long overdue, they definitely should build those tiny homes, any homes for that population.”

However, Fernando Hutcheson has experienced homelessness himself and worries about some of the challenges the project presents.

"If there's some kind of stable system that they can actually, like be introduced into, which is not going to be the easy part. They can kind of work. Just boundaries and rules, basically," Hutcheson said.

The Watsonville City Council meeting discussing the item starts at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and can be viewed on the city's website.