Economic challenges put emergency shelter construction on
hold
Gilroy – Construction work will idle for at least six months on an emergency homeless shelter in north Gilroy, as tough times for the homebuilding industry and a list of big-ticket materials make it hard to make good on a $3-million pledge, according to officials with the nonprofit developer and housing provider EHC LifeBuilders.
The agency had hoped to complete the 25,000-square-foot Sobrato Transitional Center, slated for construction at 9435 Monterey Road, by early 2007. Officials have now pushed back that date indefinitely after learning in recent days that HomeAid, the nonprofit arm of the Home Builders Association of Northern California, will not be able to provide the materials or labor it pledged last September. The local companies who had promised the materials include Eagle Ridge-developer Shapell Homes, Standard Pacific and Warmington.
“(Those companies) work to get in-kind donations from their vendors and suppliers and they’ve had a really challenging time getting those donations,” said EHC spokeswoman Hilary Barroga. “The homebuilding industry is not thriving the way it was a few months ago when they pledged to do this, and the building we’re putting together is a very industrial building so all the materials and fixtures are a lot different than would go into a single family home. The people they work with don’t necessarily supply those, so that’s been a challenge.”
While walk-in refrigerators, large generators for a more complex heating and cooling system, and other commercial-grade equipment are hard to come by for such companies, even the more common ingredients have proved difficult to round up.
“We need about 1,000 cubic yards of concrete,” EHC’s project manager Ky Li said. “It is expensive and generally we like to have one supplier and it’s hard to get someone to donate a 1,000 yards of concrete. If it’s pouring one foundation for a 2,000 square foot home, that’s a lot different than for a 25,000 square foot building.”
EHC officials have not set a new completion date, saying they hope to have more answers within three months. In the interim, they will consider the possibility of scaling back the facility to reduce both the costs of construction and long-term operating expenses. Current designs call for a single-story building with room for 75 overnight “emergency” beds, along with 25 beds and 10 studio-sized family rooms earmarked for stays of up to three months. The longer-term transitional accommodations are intended to help individuals and families regroup from financial hardship and find permanent housing.
But even if the agency marshals the labor and materials needed to finish the project, it has yet to find the funds to operate the facility year-round. Funds now used to operate a winter homeless shelter at the National Guard Armory, on Wren Avenue, would allow Sobrato to operate during the same months, but year-round operation of the facility remains a challenge.
“In general, funding operations is always a concern for us,” Barroga said. “It’s something we’re always working on and one of the things we’ll look at is to make sure the project is feasible.”
It’s estimated that there are about 20,000 homeless countywide. No one knows for sure how many of them call Gilroy’s streets home, but on a typical winter night, all 125 beds at the armory are full, as are the beds available at Saint Joseph’s Family center and the Boccardo Family Living Center in San Martin.
“I think the reason we’re always crowded is because we can’t provide them those year-round services,” said Dina Campeau, chairwoman of the South County Collaborative, a consortium of human service providers. She said Gilroy has the largest number of homeless people in the county per capita, with a recent study placing the figure at 152 people. Campeau thinks that figure is low, and predicted EHC will have to get creative to meet the needs of homeless and struggling families while remaining financially viable.
“State and federal and county attention has been turned permanent affordable housing and away from emergency shelters,” she said. “Given the shift of attention … it’s unclear where they will get the money to operate the shelter when it gets built.”
The shelter and transitional living units are the second piece of a joint project with nonprofit developer South County Housing, which earlier this year finished 60 long-term transitional apartments at the site. The Sobrato shelter represents a third of the combined project cost of $22 million.
