City Still Searching For Bad Weather Shelter Site

City staff is still in the process of identifying a site that can operate as a bad weather shelter for people experiencing homelessness.

“Staff are currently in the process of identifying a conducive site to reinstate a congregate winter shelter for the 2023-2024 season, which will be taken to City Council for approval,” according to a staff report in Monday’s annual joint meeting agenda with Supervisor Kathryn Barger. 

The City plans to use motel vouchers to shelter residents with various needs. 

City staff is currently preparing a Request for Proposals to select a winter shelter operator that will be released in July 2023. 

The entity selected through the competitive process will be recommended as the program operator and brought forth to City Council for approval in summer 2023. 

The City has been without a Bad Weather Shelter since the pandemic began.

The shelter operated on nights when the temperature fell to 40 degrees or there was a 40% chance of rain forecast.

In February, Pasadena Now reported that City was vetting a local church as the next bad weather shelter. 

Last year, the Housing Department issued a request for proposals for a new site but did not receive any bids.

But the housing department continued its search for a new site, visiting the monthly meeting of the Pasadena Clergy Coalition to present on the outstanding need and solicit potential sites. 

Three churches expressed initial interest in hosting the shelter of which two have since been ruled out. The third site is still under consideration but is not available for the 2023 winter season.

Friends In Deed began offering the Bad Weather Shelter in 1988 after a man experiencing homelessness died from sleeping outside on a bus bench during freezing weather. The nonprofit stepped forward to offer a reprieve from inclement weather for the unhoused members of the local community.

The shelter was located at Pasadena Covenant Church on Lake Avenue.

Earlier this year the nonprofit’s executive director told Pasadena Now that he was forced to ration funds which meant some people may not receive assistance.

After the comment, Mayor Victor Gordo and City Manager Miguel Márquez made plans to make sure the nonprofit would receive additional funds.

The Northwest Commission unanimously approved the language of a letter to the City Council urging the council to locate a site for a new cold weather shelter.

According to the letter, Pasadena’s housing mission, as adopted in 2000 and codified in the housing element, reads: “All Pasadena residents have an equal right to live in decent, safe and affordable housing in a suitable living environment for the long-term well-being and stability of themselves, their families, their neighborhoods, and their community.”

The letter also states that 512 unhoused residents in 2022, 32% identify as Black or African American despite only representing 8% of Pasadena’s general population and 44% identified as Hispanic/Latinx compared to 33% of the general population.

“Certainly, with all the property in the city either owned by the city or available to the city, staff should be able to find a location,” the letter reads.