The Housing, Homelessness and Planning Committee is scheduled Wednesday to hold a kick-off discussion on establishing a year-round homeless shelter in Pasadena, opening what city staff describe as a process of decision-making about the shelter’s size, location, timing and cost.
At the meeting, staff will ask the committee to provide feedback and recommendations on two threshold questions: the target timing for opening a shelter, and the basic details of what it would look like.
Because the committee is an advisory body of the City Council, its input would amount to a recommendation only; the full City Council retains final authority over whether and how a shelter moves forward.
The effort matters to Pasadena because the City Council, as part of the Fiscal Year 2027 budget, identified establishing a year-round shelter as one of its top five priorities, and the 2026 homeless count identified 322 people living unsheltered in the city.
To carry out the work, an interdepartmental team led by the City Manager’s Office has been established, drawing on the Housing; Planning and Community Development; Public Works; Parks, Recreation and Community Services; and Public Health departments, along with the City Manager’s Office and its Real Property division.
A work plan was presented to the City Council during budget discussions on June 8, and staff says regular progress updates would appear as a standing item on the committee’s future agendas.
The team’s key tasks would include determining shelter details, establishing timing, completing site evaluations and conducting cost evaluations.
Staff have said they will study Rose Palace as a potential location and will also weigh other sites for comparison, with more detail to come in a future site-evaluation discussion.
In preliminary recommendations for the committee’s consideration, staff propose that any shelter serve single adults, who made up all 322 people counted as unsheltered in the 2026 count, with men and women housed in separate sleeping quarters.
Staff recommend a capacity of up to 100 beds, a non-congregate design with separate rooms or a “tiny village” concept, and a target length of stay of 90 to 180 days. They also recommend a low-barrier, service-enriched model with on-site case management and housing navigation, potentially including physical and behavioral health services, and a commercial kitchen to hold down operating costs.
If the City Council ultimately approves such a plan, the shelter could also be designed to function as an access center connecting people experiencing homelessness to services.
As a reference point, staff point to Houston’s 419 Emancipation “Super Hub,” a low-barrier facility of up to 150 to 225 beds that serves as a centralized entry point to that region’s homeless response system — a model staff say could be examined on a smaller scale in Pasadena.
Staff said that the recommended details are estimates offered to guide discussion and that decisions on beds, site and services would depend on further study and, ultimately, City Council direction.
Need to know: The Housing, Homelessness and Planning Committee meets Wednesday, Aug. 5, at 5 p.m. in the Council Chamber, Room S249, at Pasadena City Hall, 100 North Garfield Avenue, in Pasadena. Cost: free and open to the public. Attend in person or join on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/161482446, or by phone at 1-669-900-6833, Meeting ID 161 482 446. For more, call (626) 744-7311 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas/.
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