A new operator will soon take over for the nonprofit Samaritan House to run the Coastside’s first and only shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness.
The county has selected an operator to run the shelter at what was formerly Coastside Inn in Half Moon Bay, however county officials declined to name the operator until April. The change marks the shelter’s transition into a long-term program following a pilot phase that began in late December.
Ken Cole, director of the San Mateo County Human Services Agency, said the goal of the pilot period was to test out the site’s facilities and to slowly ramp up. He said the program achieved that.
“It wasn’t so much that there were specific outcomes we expected in this pilot period …” Cole said. “What people might be interested in terms of outcomes is going to come in the next phase.”
Cole said the shelter’s overarching goal is permanent housing and a stable income for residents. And when the program is in full swing, the county plans to house enough people to fill the site’s 52 rooms. During the pilot, the county set a maximum capacity of 15 rooms.
Of the 13 residents who have been housed at the shelter so far, one has found permanent housing, according to Selina Toy Lee, director of collaborative community outcomes at the Human Services Agency.
Lee pointed out that while the typical length of stay at county shelters is between 90 to 120 days, timelines are individualized. The county will track residents’ length of stay, but she said a bigger priority is for the shelter to provide the host of services, from mental health counseling to work readiness, to meet each resident’s needs.
Samaritan House has been running the pilot but the organization’s CEO Bart Charlow said it will not do so in the long run. Charlow said Samaritan House did not respond to the county’s request for proposal for permanent operators at the Coastside Inn shelter. Instead, the nonprofit plans to focus its efforts on running a similar shelter at the former Pacific Inn in Redwood City.
“We’re going to pass the program along to whoever the county finally does choose,” Charlow said.
Charlow said Samaritan House staff will consult with the new operator but said residents should experience no disruptions.
Cole said the county wouldn’t announce its preferred choice for a shelter operator until April. Half Moon Bay City Manager Bob Nisbet said the county’s selection isn’t a surprise because city staff reviewed the Request for Proposal before it was posted and participated in candidate interviews, as outlined in the memorandum of understanding between the county and city.
The county’s selection for a shelter operator dovetails with the city’s creation of a shelter advisory committee.
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