Monterey County awarded $8 million in joint project to create a tiny home village for unhoused Pajaro River residents.

Long before a levee along the Pajaro River breached on March 11, causing massive flooding in the community of Pajaro in North Monterey County, plans had been on the books to make permanent repairs to the levee system. It was also known that the unofficial Pajaro River community of unhoused people living among the trees and bushes on the river’s shores needed safe housing away from the annual threats of flooding, as well as during the upcoming construction of a levee expansion project.

That’s why the County of Monterey—in partnership with the County of Santa Cruz Department of Health and Human Services, the city of Watsonville and the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency—began planning temporary housing for the river’s residents of both counties in a 34-unit tiny home micro-village in Watsonville, paired with services with a goal of transferring people to permanent housing.

In February they applied for a grant from the state’s Encampment Resolution Fund to pay for the village. “And lo and behold one month later the levy breached and our worst nightmare happened,” said Roxanne Wilson, the County of Monterey’s homeless services director in a press conference on June 16.

On June 14, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the state was awarding $8 million for the tiny home village plan, one of 23 projects statewide to move people living in encampments into housing. Wilson said the state recognized the importance of the project involving the two counties and the city of Watsonville, as well as PRFMA’s upcoming levee expansion project.

The village is expected to be constructed on rented church property in Watsonville by the end of the year at a cost of approximately $4 million. (Westview Presbyterian Church on First Street in Watsonville, less than a half mile from the river, has indicated interest in hosting the village, according to Watsonville City Manager Rene Mendez.) It will be developed by nonprofit DignityMoves using 64-square-foot prefab homes from a company called Boss Cubez.

The rest of the grant will go toward two years of services provided by contractor HomeFirst services of Santa Clara County. Those services will include help finding permanent housing and obtaining health care, among others. It's possible the Central California Alliance for Health—which is the Medi-Cal provider for both Monterey and Santa Cruz counties—will help fund services to keep the project going long term, said Dr. Robert Ratner, County of Santa Cruz Housing for Health director.

“When we’re talking about a complex issue like homelessness we need to have more of this cross jurisdictional collaboration with people that are willing to reach out and talk about challenging things and get things accomplished together,” Ratner said.

Wilson said as plans were being developed, outreach teams visited the people living along the river—there were an estimated 70 people living there before the flood—and asked them what would convince them to leave the encampment and enter housing. Privacy and dignity were a couple of items residents listed as important to them, which influenced the decision to pursue individual tiny homes. She said 45 people signed up on an interest list should the village be completed.