County of Monterey moving forward with homeless encampment grant application

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV)- On Tuesday, Monterey County Supervisors decided to move forward with an application to address homeless encampments in the southern part of the county.

The funding would come the the state's encampment resolution fund and used for things like motel vouchers, a tiny village, and rapid rehousing.

The money would be used for two projects, one in Soledad and another in King City.

In Soledad, officials are looking to help people living along a growing encampment along the Salinas River by moving them into housing.

Meanwhile in King City, they're hoping to prevent anyone from returning to an encampment along their stretch of the Salinas riverbed.

“We want to avoid the reestablishment of the Salinas River encampment along King City which is almost solely in the unincorporated areas of the county and resolve King City's entire unsheltered issue," County of Monterey Director of Homeless Services Roxanne Wilson said. "The theoretically could hit functional zero with this one project."

Two weeks prior, King City officials announced a lawsuit against Project Homekey developer Shangri-La Industries for allegedly breaching their contract. People there had already moved from an encampment into temporary housing in motels.

“I am aware that the legal teams of both the state and the cities are in conversations with each other. Wilson said. "So everything is being done in full transparency."

In terms of the timeline, the county said they expect to be notified of the application status by March 31.