UPDATED: Community Human Services board votes to purchase Monterey building as a possible shelter for women and families.

It took years for the Monterey Peninsula to muster the community support needed to open a homeless shelter. With a combination of political will, an influx of state money and public acceptance, Casa de Noche Buena opened to women and children just this past February, as the Peninsula's first-ever homeless shelter.

Now it appears a second shelter for women and families might be in the works. The board of one of the nonprofit agencies behind Noche Buena, Community Human Services, voted in closed session on Wednesday, April 21 to authorize the acquisition of 600 E. Franklin St. in Monterey, currently listed for sale at $3.1 million.

CHS Executive Director Robin McCrae declined to comment, saying she's "not at liberty" to speak about the acquisition yet.

Update: CHS issued a press release on April 26 confirming the vote and stating that it will be used as a homeless shelter for women and families. The acquisition is being made possible  by a donation by local philanthropist Mark Shuman and his family. The nonprofit will be undertaking a capital campaign to raise funds for capital improvements to transform the facility into a 30-35 bed shelter. The preliminary estimate of for improvements is $1-$1.5 million. Since the building is in a homeless shelter overlay zone, the improvements might only need administrative approval.

In an email sent to board members after the meeting, McCrae told the board that even though their vote was announced in an open session of the CHS joint powers authority meeting, which is open to the public, she requested they not make any public statements until the property is in escrow. A tweet posted by board member and Monterey City Councilmember Alan Haffa, which later was removed, announced the yes vote and stated the intent was to create a shelter for women and children.

The CHS agenda references funding from California and the For All The Children Foundation. The foundation is listed as a 501(c)(3) grantmaking nonprofit based in Bakersfield with the mission to "create an interest throughout the world to build and support health and human services, especially with regards to children." (For All the Children previously awarded $325,000 to Gathering for Women in Monterey, the other nonprofit behind Casa de Noche Buena.)

A real estate ad states that the property at the corner of East Franklin and Cortes Street, just a block from Lake El Estero, consists of two buildings totaling 6,340 square feet. Currently the larger of the two buildings is the site of Arthur Murray Dance Studios, which will remain open for the time being.

It's a historical property, built in 1930, the one-time home to the Union Ice Factory. It's official status as a historical property means it qualifies for reduced property taxes, according to the ad. It also calls the venue "one of the largest event venues on the Monterey Peninsula," and says it has a major assembly use permit allowing up to 300 people. The site has 29 parking spaces.

In past years Monterey officials have had a hard time selling the idea of homeless shelters residents. In a hearing in February 2017, that was only meant to adjust zoning rules to allow for a possible shelter, residents complained shelters would become a magnet for homeless people. 

Public opinion on providing safe places for homeless people to sleep and get help toward permanent housing and employment—especially in the case of women and children—has softened since that time as the problem has only intensified. 

In the lead up to the approval of Case de Noche Buena in 2019, a town hall meeting in Seaside saw about a quarter of the residents who spoke against a shelter with about half stating they supported it. A few weeks later at the Seaside City Council meeting, just a few people spoke against it. The council agreed to send a letter to Monterey County stating it supported the project. (The county provided the building, a former Health Department clinic.)

The shelter became a reality after the Leadership Council of the Coalition of Homeless Service Providers awarded nearly $1.3 million of state Homeless Emergency Aid Program funds to the project a few months later.