Running against the clock, San Luis Obispo County based non-profit People’s Self-Help Housing (PSHH) and their CEO, Kenneth Trigueiro, were scrambling to meet the application deadline for the California Homekey Program.
Homekey is a new government program that awards grants to cities and counties around California in order “to develop a broad range of housing types,” according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development website.
The plan was to buy and convert a Motel 6 on Calle Joaquin into housing options for the homeless population in San Luis Obispo, according to Triguerio.
“Right before the deadline, we were able to work with the current owner and they agreed to sell [the Motel 6] to us,” Trigueiro said. “We applied on the very last day of the program, by 5 o’clock… it was down to the wire.”
When Governor Gavin Newsom announced the most recent round of Homekey grants on Jan. 19, the City of San Luis Obispo was awarded $19.4 million to aid in their project, according to a City of SLO news release, thanks to the efforts of PSHH.
Their goal is to convert the Motel 6 into 70 permanent housing options by 2025.
The last time PSHH was involved with a project of this capacity was in Paso Robles. During the first round of grants, the organization similarly acquired a Motel 6 and converted it into housing for unhoused people in North SLO County.
As a result, the City of SLO reached out to PSHH as Homekey co-applicants.
“It makes a real perfect collaboration to have the city as a partner,” Trigueiro said. “The city’s been super supportive and really wants to make a dent in what’s going on.”
Converting a motel into permanent housing takes some remodeling and construction in order to look and feel similar to studio apartments. Acting as their own general contractor makes the process a lot easier by hiring local subcontractors to help with the actual work.
Other organizations around the City of SLO are rallying around PSHH by financially contributing to the project, such as the Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo (HASLO), which is giving $1.152 million annually, according to the release.
“We all think it’s top priority for us to address this in terms of responding to what we’re seeing among our neighbors that are experiencing homelessness,” Trigueiro said.
