Soledad relocates homeless residents to temporary site with support services

By Brooke Kinebrew

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    SOLEDAD, Calif. (KSBW) — Clarissa Duran, a single mother of two, has been homeless in Soledad for three years.

She is one of 16 people who have been relocated from the riverbed near Premiere Cinemas to a temporary encampment with showers, 24-hour security, and a case manager on Los Coches Drive.

“I don’t see how this place is a better place. They [the city] make it seem like it is, but it’s not,” Duran said.

Duran says she’d rather live in the riverbed — no restrictions, warm water and shade.

She feels the city is treating her unfairly by already housing people who haven’t been homeless as long as she has.

“We all wanted you guys to come so you guys can see the real truth, how they have us living, because it’s not what they make it seem like,” she said.

The city received a $4.7 million grant from the state to help move people out of unsafe encampments.

Fourteen modular units will be up and running on Los Coches Drive by mid-September.

They will stay until June 2027.

The city’s goal over the next two years is to find transitional or permanent housing for these residents while providing social services.

They partner with a non-profit called “Step Up” to provide motel vouchers and other services.

“Without those comprehensive wraparound services, we can provide a roof and we can provide some shelter, but we’re not going to successfully sustain the transition to transitional housing,” Community and Economic Development Director Beatriz Trujillo said.

Since May, the city has helped more than 10 people find homes.

“Those are people that are going to have an opportunity to be successful, that are going to have an opportunity to get the resources that they need to be able to have jobs in the future, to be able to have a good quality of life,” Mayor Anna Velazquez said.

At the end of the two years, the city hopes to transform the units into a center for teens.

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