City approves agreement with homeless coalition; postpones events into November
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — The South Lake Tahoe City Council on Tuesday voted to approve a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless to combat homelessness in the community.
In July, the California Department of Housing and Community Development announced the availability of approximately $600 million in grant funding for “Project Homekey” that cities and counties could use to purchase motels and other properties for expanded, permanent homeless housing.
The coalition asked the council in August to approve an MOU to jointly apply for the funding. Council turned it down at that time, asking for a three-way MOU with El Dorado County, the city and the coalition. Since then, the coalition entered into an agreement with Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
During the Tuesday meeting, council felt more comfortable with the third party and unanimously voted to enter into the MOU.
The council also voted to postpone events until Nov. 17 because of COVID-19.
The city has reached out to SnowGlobe officials about whether they plan to cancel their annual New Year’s concert but has not yet heard back.
City Manager Joe Irvin also presented a COVID-19 update to the council. When the pandemic first hit, the council voted to send vouchers out to residents that could be redeemed at local restaurants. The restaurants could turn in the vouchers to the city in exchange for money. Of the $50,000 available, only $14,500 worth of vouchers have been turned into the city.
Both of those programs expire on Sept. 30. The short term economic recovery task force is meeting this week and part of their agenda will be to decide what to do with the extra money left over from those programs.
Finally, the council voted to deny a quit claim for a public access easement along Riverside Ave. The city entered into the easement agreement with a developer in 2009 which required the developer to build a pedestrian access walkway.
The property has since been sold and the new developers asked to be relieved of that obligation. The council voted to hold the new developers accountable for the requirement.
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