At last night’s meeting, the Twentynine Palms City Council considered reallocating the remaining $30,510 of the Navigation and Resource Center and shower funds to residential, commercial, vacant land, and homeless camp cleanup.
An hour of public comment ensued; basically everyone agreed that the homeless should be treated with dignity and respect; pointing out that sometimes all that stands between homelessness and gainful employment is the chance to take a shower and wear clean clothes. The City Council was urged to wait with their decision to reallocate the funds until Reach Out could present a plan in two weeks, for sustainable, long term assistance to the homeless. It was argued that the $30,510 could better be used to assist the unhoused than to clean up one unsightly property.
In the end the Council voted 4-1 to reallocate the funds and begin cleaning up the blight immediately.
Staff presented the preliminary two-year General Fund Budget for Fiscal Year 2025-26 & 2026-27 for initial City Council review and direction.
Staff is recommending using Fiscal Year 2024-25 as the baseline for the two-year budget, which includes maintaining all programs at current levels. Questions were raised about a survey on strategic planning for the budget and where that could be found. Interested parties were directed to the City’s website where they could find the 5-year strategic plan.
