Soledad City Council approves funding agreement to support unhoused youth.

Soledad City Council unanimously approved an agreement with the Coalition of Homeless Services Providers to provide $182,000 in Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program Round 5 (HHAP-5) Youth Set-Aside funding on Wednesday, June 17.

This amount was awarded to the City by the Monterey and San Benito Counties Homelessness Leadership Council. The Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program is a state-funded grant program administered by the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the California Interagency Council on Homelessness.

This funding is designated to support youth ages 18 to 24 who are experiencing homelessness in Soledad and, more broadly, South Monterey County, focusing on street outreach, housing navigation, rapid rehousing, and supportive services.

“We have a lot of youth that are experiencing homelessness, or they might be couch surfing or they might be living in their cars, so we have a big population in South County, but they're invisible at times,” Soledad City Manager Megan Hunter said.

The City has already invested heavily in initiatives for young people such as the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program started in 2025 through a $1.7 million partnership with Bay Area Community Services, which utilizes the Gateway Center, formerly the visitor center on Front Street that is now a youth-centered campus providing housing and support services.

The approved funding will be used to enhance the Gateway Center's role as a transition-aged youth campus, enabling access to computers, printing services, basic necessities and housing assistance.

Street outreach efforts will focus on connecting unsheltered youth with resources including behavioral health referrals and employment. Rapid rehousing services will provide financial aid including rental assistance and housing identification to help youth secure permanent housing.

“We've also applied for additional funding through the [U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] for continuing to operate the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program and we should know pretty soon about that and then we'll be able to put more funding into the work that we started,” Hunter said. “By opening these services we're able to serve a population that hasn't really been served because all of these kinds of services have been at the Peninsula or in Salinas.”