County officials seek to offer family sleep cabins and recuperative care at the SHARE Center.

A cheery poster of characters from Disney’s Lilo and Stitch adorns one wall and a smiling Squishmallow plush toy decorates one of the bunkbeds inside a family’s guestroom on Tuesday, Sept. 8, at the SHARE Center in Salinas. Open since 2021, the center, created in partnership between the County of Monterey and the City of Salinas, hosts families and individuals experiencing homelessness.

The room this family occupies is one of 12 family guestrooms inside the shelter, situated in the center of the building, with rooms for unaccompanied men lining the building to the right of the family area and rooms for unaccompanied women to the left, for a total of 128 beds. With no ceilings, all the rooms are open to the building and some of the rooms only have a curtain for a door. Noise travels easily throughout.

“It can get a lot with a lot of guests,” says Flor Stoudenmire, a program manager with Community Human Services, which cares for guests inside the County building, during a tour that included a sparse patio with a lone picnic table where families can get away from the bustle inside.

“Theoretically, integrating people into one space is a positive thing, but programmatically it’s nice to have separation between families and single adults living in a congregant shelter,” says Julius Mills-Denti, CHS’ chief operating officer. Ideally it’s good for children to be away from the noise, in more of a home-like atmosphere, he says.

County officials are now planning to offer that atmosphere, by adding 12 sleeping cabins to the shelter property. Each cabin would hold families of five to six people, with bunk beds and full-size beds for parents, says County Homeless Services Director Roxanne Wilson. The hope is to include full bathrooms in each cabin, but that depends on water capacity, still to be determined.

The proposed budget for the project is $6 million. If the budget allows, they’ll add a small outdoor play area to the project.

Moving families to the cabins opens up an opportunity for a 30-bed recuperative care area where people without homes can recover after being released from nearby Natividad Medical Center. The plan is to create 30 recuperative care beds.

“Living on the streets is not optimum for recovery,” says Mills-Denti. Readmission to the hospital is common – a place to recover is a much less expensive alternative for the County.

Care guests would be offered interim housing for up to six months and care coordination with physicians, pharmacy services and other referrals. Care coordinators would also look for permanent housing.

The plan for the cabins and recuperative care area are still in the early stages. It has yet to go to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, which could happen in the next month. Should the Board approve the project, Wilson estimates it would take about a year to finish the additions.

A community meeting to discuss the possibility is scheduled for 5:30-7pm Wednesday, Sept. 16, in the Whitney Room of the Monterey County Health Department, 1270 Natividad Road, Salinas. To learn more, email HomelessServices@countyofmonterey.gov.