MONTEREY – A company that works to give shelter to the homeless while giving people a chance at employment, was in Monterey on Friday showcasing its new shelter units.
Pallet Shelter is a public benefit corporation. Its transitional shelter villages aim to bridge the gap from living on the street to finding permanent housing. It recently launched a new shelter line – the S2 Series – and was also selected as an award recipient for the provision of emergency sleeping cabins by the state of California.
“We’re here to introduce California communities to our new shelter lines,” said Lia Salaverry, Pallet Shelter senior manager advisory services, Friday.
Two S2 Pallet Shelters were on display and open for touring at Community Human Services in Monterey. The 70-square-foot Sleeper model and the 120-square-foot EnSuite unit were fully-built shelters with design features such as a mono-pitch roof, smooth exterior and interior panels that can accommodate one or two people. The EnSuite includes in-unit hygiene facilities and both are designed by people – more than 50% of the team — with experience in being homeless. The units are built with structural insulated panels which are easy to clean and resistant to mold and mildew.
Salaverry explained that Pallet Shelters is trying to provide technical assistance and support to cities, counties, nonprofits, or any community members who are interested in getting a shelter village project up and running.
“Some of the sort of logistics involved are identifying a plot of land, site or location for the site to be opened identifying both operational funding for the service provider who will help manage the site day-to-day, as well as funding to purchase the units and set up the infrastructure utility costs,” she said. “We are an interim shelter model – a village model – so there are lot of mechanics involved.”
Pallet Shelter has a program to provide tailored consultation to communities looking to end homelessness.
The PathForward Homelessness Advisory Services is a comprehensive program that helps cities end homelessness by providing custom solutions addressing the root causes of each community’s unique challenges, according to the company. Its services consider both long-term and short-term strategies and reflect its reintegration ecosystem – looking at effective policies, social services, housing supply and funding – in tandem with exploring shelter solutions and emergency responses to end homelessness.
Once a jurisdiction or group brings in a Pallet Shelter village, it partners with local service providers who are positioned to continue existing relationships with the clients that will be served. In communities with a limited service provider network, Pallet Shelter has national partners that are able to scale such as the Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul.
As far as infrastructure, Pallet Shelter village units can hook up to regular utility lines easily. Some sites choose to do solar arrays or septic tanks depending on the land and the community. Units can accommodate singles, doubles or families, and come with free standing furniture such as a desk, bed frame and mattress, shelving, lighting, air conditioning, heating, carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, and fire extinguisher, as well as a locking door and windows. Units range in cost from $19,000 up to $49,000 for units that include a three-point bathroom – toilet, sink and shower.
Villages can be set up with bath and shower, laundry, and kitchen and dining facilities apart from the shelter units as part of a village community.
California has embarked on the state’s largest mobilization of small homes to serve people experiencing homelessness, especially those living in encampments, according to the state.
“Gov. Newsom took a lot of initiative to put forward this 1,200 tiny home proposal across the state and the four cities that will be part of that are Sacramento, San Jose, L.A. and San Diego County, so all of those cities will have an opportunity in the coming weeks to be able to introduce new programs like this and they’ll have additional funding” said Salaverry. “We are one of six awardees in that state process. We stand ready to support all of those communities and also know that with the (request for proposals) process, this is an opportunity for cities outside those four cities to be able to participate, to buy shelters, and to create more programs to address homelessness.”
Salaverry said that nationally last year homelessness increased 12%.
“The bottom line is there are solutions out there like Pallet’s that are scalable, cost-effective, humane, dignified, they provide privacy … these are units that we hear often from people experiencing homelessness that they would love to be in,” said Salaverry. “For people in that vulnerable position often it’s very hard to get a job, to address any underlying substance use, mental health issues … those things are very hard when you’re living on the streets and you’re literally in survival mode. These programs and these shelters provide an opportunity for people to get stabilized, to get rehabilitated and to transition onto permanent housing.”
Salaverry stressed that Pallet Shelters is not meant to replace permanent housing, in fact, the organization is a strong advocate for housing first – for permanent housing. This is simply a stepping stone because the streets should not be a stop, a waiting area for people experiencing homelessness..
“These issues are growing, and until we are able to get ahead and in front of these issues, we’re going to continue to see growth in homelessness,” she said. “This is an urgent crisis we need to address now.”
Pallet Shelter villages has built more than 4,000 shelters, helped establish more than 121 villages in 24 states and more than 86 cities.
