City Prioritizes Critical Needs: Food and Shelter

Feeding people and making sure they have a safe place to sleep at night emerged as priorities in Watsonville when the annual Social and Community Services Grants were announced at the Watsonville City Council meeting on Tuesday evening.

The city council will dole out just over $250,000 in grant funding to 30 local nonprofits in the coming year. For the most part, there is no change to .

"We're spreading a thin blanket ... but we're trying our best to meet those community needs," City Council Member Lowell Hurst said.

The one significant change to the funding is reducing the funding from $7,000 to $5,000. That gave the committee $2,000 to reallocate, which it divided between Pajaro Valley Shelter Services and . The intent was to focus on primary needs: food and shelter.

"We are extremely grateful to the committee," said Margarita Cortez, the executive director of .

Her agency feeds hot lunch to hundreds of people each month, as well as offering food pantry services to a large number of individuals and families.

But Jenny Sarmiento, executive director of PVPSA, the only group to see funding drop, spoke about the counseling services her agency provides to at-risk kids and their families, and implored city council members to preserve her agency's budget.

"I would like to request that you reconsider our funding amount," Sarmiento said.

The city council did not make a change; the "status quo" budget is expected to be approved at the June 12 city council meeting. 

"We know that money is tight. ... we have been challenging ourselves to bring more volunteers to the floor," said Karen Delaney from the , where the youth programming has doubled in the past year and volunteers contribute an invaluable amount of time to the center's programs.

Several council members noted that the grant funding plan wasn't as controversial as it was in 2011, when broad budget reductions pitted agencies against each other for support. It was also mentioned that ongoing staff salary reductions of 10 percent made it possible for the city to provide this grant funding.

Norma Sanchez from the Shelter Project, which is part of the Community Action Board and helps people fend off eviction, told the council: "Thank you very much for your support."