Council Floats $2 Million “First Step” on a Homeless Shelter

Pasadena’s interim city manager recommended setting aside $2 million as a “first step” toward a year-round homeless shelter that residents have sought, and Councilmembers embraced the idea at their June 8 meeting — even as a resident pressed them on why the City once pulled millions from its reserves to rescue the Rose Bowl but has yet to do the same to shelter more than 300 people living on its streets. 

The proposed set-aside would be assembled from money already identified in the recommended budget — a patchwork funding pulled largely from debt service reserves, Interim City Manager Matthew Hawkesworth told the Council. 

Hawkesworth called it the City’s “first step in funding a year round shelter” and said staff hoped to return in coming months with roughly $3 million more in one-time funds.. 

Hawkesworth acknowledged the project’s troubled path. 

“I know staff received a lot of criticism, rightfully so,” he said, citing frustration that the year-round shelter had been left out of the City’s work plan. 

He said he had challenged staff to bring back a plan for the coming fiscal year and that the goal — developed with Acting Assistant City Manager Jennifer Paige — was to make the shelter a standing item before the Council’s Housing, Homelessness and Planning Committee. Those discussions, he said, would work through the population to be served, the size, type and locations of a shelter, and “most importantly,” a target date for opening, which has not been set. 

The cost will be steep. Hawkesworth put the initial estimate at about $10 million in capital, plus $2 million to $4 million annually. The City has no year-round shelter funded in its current work plan — the omission that drew the criticism he acknowledged. 

“Willing to also say I choose not to fund a shelter?” 

The sharpest framing came from a longtime resident during public comment. She said the City holds millions in reserves and has tapped them before. In Fiscal Year 2021, she said, the Council — “including four of you,” she told the members — “approved bailing out” the Rose Bowl Operating Company by using operating reserves to cover the stadium’s debt service. 

“To those of you who would say that the city had a legal obligation to rescue the Rose Bowl, are you willing to also say, I choose not to fund a shelter because the city has no legal obligation to pay for it, to do so?” she asked. “I hope not.” 

No final vote June 8; budget adoption set for June 15 

The Council took no binding vote on the shelter money on June 8. It voted without objection to continue the budget public hearing to June 15, when the Council is expected to close the hearing and adopt the recommended operating budget that contains the $2 million set-aside. 

Several Council members voiced support for the approach. 

Councilmember Tyron Hampton said he was “very supportive of the year round shelter.” 

Vice Mayor Jess Rivas said she had not expected the City to “find a way to start funding it this soon” and thanked staff “for figuring out a way to start working towards that very important project.” 

Councilmember Jason Lyon said he was “really supportive of setting aside the excess funds we have now, at least earmarked toward the shelter.”