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View Winners → Pasadena Council Recap: City Continues Efforts to Combat Homelessness
News Nov 15, 2017
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The Benefit of Homeless Individuals Program and Operation Link will provide critical health and employment services to Pasadena’s most vulnerable citizens. – Photo by Terry Miller / Beacon Media News
Polytechnic School’s master plan passes with flying colors
By Gus Herrera
With just one week to go before the Thanksgiving recess, the Pasadena City Council’s latest meeting had a relatively short agenda, but the items approved should provide long-lasting, positive impacts.
The evening’s consent calendar included the approval of two programs that will aid the city’s efforts to combat homelessness.
The first will appropriate federal grant funds to the public health department for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals Program.
According to city staff’s report, the program will provide “mental health, substance abuse, medical treatment, and social support services for individuals experiencing homelessness and other serious health problems,” in both Pasadena and neighboring Altadena.
Additionally, the city will create three limited-term, full-time positions to help carry out the work: a nurse practitioner, social worker, and community services representative.
The three new staff members will carry out various health services/assessments, as well as serving as important points of contact and case managers for some of Pasadena’s most vulnerable individuals.
The Pasadena-based Union Station Homeless Services will be contracted as the lead agency for the program’s outreach and engagement services. The contract, worth approximately $250,000, will run for a five-year period.
The city council also approved funds for a second program, Operation Link, that will provide “intensive services to individuals who are homeless with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).”
Originally started in 2012 by the public health department, Operation Link has witnessed recent success, earning the status of “special project of national significance” from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA).
According to staff’s report, the HRSA subsequently granted Pasadena $900,000 over three years to expand Operation Link and help provide treatment, evaluation, and employment services for “approximately 250 racial and ethnic minority, low income, uninsured and underinsured people living with HIV in Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley.”
The public health department will collaborate with Wesley Health Centers, Foothill Development Workforce, and the Pasadena Housing Department to help facilitate the program.
Union Station will also play a critical role in Operation Link by providing case management services and acting as a link to medical, mental health, and various supportive services.
Michael Johnson, director of public health, revealed that various individuals have begun signing up for the programs and there are even 12 clients already lined up for case management. With council’s approval of the funds, the city will now be able to begin work immediately.
Council Member Andy Wilson, who frequently volunteers for the city’s homeless count, was proud to move approval of the two programs. Wilson was especially satisfied by the programs’ efforts to address mental health issues, an unfortunate concern he described as “far too common” in the city’s homeless population.
Mayor Terry Tornek echoed Wilson’s support, “this is a program I think we’re going to be very proud of.”
Council also held a public hearing where they unanimously approved Polytechnic School’s (Poly) 15-year master plan.
Proposed rendering from Polytechnic School’s master plan. – Courtesy Photo / Moule & Polyzoides
The school’s plan proposes “to moderately increase the student capacity to meet the community demand and modernize the existing gym facility,” according to staff’s report.
Over five years the nationally-recognized private school will increase enrollment by 80 students and grow their faculty/staff by 15 members.
Poly will also demolish their existing gym and replace it with a larger, more modern facility.
In stark contrast to similar private school master plan public hearings held in the past, the Poly proposal was met with overwhelming support from both council and neighboring residents.
“I would like to acknowledge … the leadership at Polytechnic School … [they] must be doing something right, because, historically, when these types of issues come forward, we get lots of community pushback,” said Vice-Mayor John Kennedy.
Mayor Tornek concurred with Kennedy’s observation, “it really is a testimony to … how institutions in Pasadena have learned to co-exist with their neighbors … [that] the room isn’t full of howling neighbors and opposition.”
David Sinclair, senior planner, commended Poly for hosting a number of neighborhood meetings, in addition to those held by the city. Additionally, the school agreed to several mitigation efforts, developed in conjunction with neighbors and city commissions, to help maintain the character of the neighborhood during construction, as well as to avoid traffic buildup during pickup/drop-off times.
