Market Street shelter's days are numbered: 30 more days added to the lease.

It took nearly two hours of public comment, some inspired by personal experiences with homelessness, or owning a business—in some cases, both—but the Transportation Agency for Monterey County finally came to a decision about the fate of the warming shelter operating at 20 West Market St., in Salinas.

It was close: The vote was 8-7 to extend the lease for 30 more days past the lease's final date of April 30.

But it wasn't as much time as the county of Monterey, which runs the shelter with the city of Salinas, had hoped for. The initial staff recommendation proposed a lease extension until June 30, 2017, plus the possibility of a month-to-month lease until Dec. 31.

The proposed two-month extension came under a lot of fire, including from the city of Salinas. Councilmember Kimbley Craig, who represents the city on the TAMC board of directors, criticized the county for stressing the city's financial resources, and approaching TAMC to extend the lease without going to the city first."I feel like the county is forcing the hand of the city," Craig said. The city’s half of monthly warming shelter operations is $20,000 a month.

A more impassioned speech came from King City Mayor Mike LeBarre, another TAMC board member. He recollected his experience with homelessness and said he lived out of a beat-up pickup, until it finally broke down and he was forced onto the streets.

But LeBarre argued against extending the lease, and said TAMC was not the right venue to be addressing the problem. He pointed a finger at the county, criticizing it for mulling over the problem of creating a permanent shelter since at least 2014, without actually creating one. LeBarre said the county has allocated $4.1 million without a lasting solution.

Other than budgeting problems, there were also conflicts about the reality of working and living in Oldtown Salinas.

Two representatives from the Salinas City Center Improvement Association spoke, one of which was District Manager Kenneth Steen, who before the meeting sent two letters criticizing the operation of the downtown shelter to TAMC.

The SCCIA representatives complained mostly about the "image" of their businesses. "I hire a maintenance guy every day at 5:30am," said a business owner and member of the SCCIA. "And every day he's picking up feces, or cleaning urine."

Similar sentiments came from a representative from First Mayor's House, an educational nonprofit across the street from the shelter. He cited crack pipes and hypodermic needles on the grounds, which are a hazard to the youth programs the organization frequently holds.

"This is all literally in our front yard," he said.

Numerous advocates for the extension of the homeless shelter's lease also spoke, many of who use or volunteer for the Market Street operation.

Advocates had not reached out with their comments prior to the meeting, according to TAMC's community outreach coordinator, Theresa Wright. But they were there at the board meeting, and they were loud.

A Spanish-speaking woman vocalized her grievances about not being able to afford housing, and she and her young child went to the shelter because it was a family shelter that wouldn't force them to separate.

Another woman, who said she grew up in poverty picking in the fields of South County and is now a business owner in Oldtown Salinas, described the relief and humanity of having something as basic as clean running water and a place to shower, and how a shelter provided these necessities for families.

A homeless mother to an 11-year-old also addressed the problem of urination out in the street. She asked attendees to imagine telling their children they couldn't use a toilet. "Most of these toilets downtown, you have to buy something," she says. "Imagine if you couldn't even use a toilet when you wanted to?"

A social worker described that in his experience working in Chinatown, the homeless are "service-weary," and that they were less likely to seek out ways out of their circumstances, when the didn't know if a warm bed or food will be gone the next day.

But perhaps one of the loudest voices for the extension was Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo, who represents District 1, which is most of urban Salinas. (All the county supervisors serve on the TAMC board.) He rejected the idea that the shelter brought more criminal activity or was poorly secured. Using photos, he pointed out the lack of trash and the lack of people queuing outside of the shelter.

Alejo advocated for extending the lease far beyond the staff recommendation, until March of next year. That's when Alejo believes the demolition of all the buildings near the train station is likely to happen as TAMC is still in the process of buying out properties needed for a railway extension.

A member of the public later chimed in and addressed Alejo, saying that a shelter staff person was in fact threatened at knifepoint, and the police were called in.

The back and forth was a constant between business owners, homeless residents and the board, but one thing they all agreed on: This is the county's problem, therefore it is a shared problem.

At one point, board member Bruce Delgado, Marina's mayor, asked Elliot Robinson, director of the county's social services department, whether it would be reasonable in future discussions for individual cities to contribute $2,000-$5,000 toward a long-term solution. That comment was met with head nods and claps from all sides of the argument.

LeBarre was less sympathetic and saw giving the county yet another extension would only kick the can down the road.

The "can" being a permanent solution to homelessness within the county, he said. The "kicking" being the county's quick fix, emergency shelter tactics that the county has used since 2014 in downtown Salinas. The road—or at least the stop in the road—being TAMC, which "really shouldn't be a part of this discussion," according to LeBarre.

"We're the transportation agency," LeBarre said. "We should be discussing things like State Route 68 and roundabouts!"

The decision was ultimately a compromise, with a hotter and more constant fire under the county to find a permanent solution. Many attendees from both sides suggested operating shelters in county-owned buildings, like those in Salinas.

Wherever the county puts it, they have 30 days to do it.

Editor's note: This post has been updated from an earlier version.