On Nov. 8, Jim Rydingsword, director of the San Benito County Health and Human Services Agency, reminded the San Benito County Board of Supervisors that in 2014 the county obtained a $1.5 million grant, which would be used to purchase a community services center to serve low income and the homeless populations.
“We then put in an application for 2016, and on Oct. 26 we received notice that we have been approved for a second grant for Phase 2 of these operations of $2 million,” Rydingsword said. “We received everything we asked for.”
He said $1.4 million will be dedicated to completing the second phase, as well as funds for operating the service center once it is open.
“There’s money in there for community programs, such as (for) battered and abused spouses,” he said. “There was $28 million disbursed at the state level and San Benito County got $2 million.”
Rydingsword thanked the staff members who worked on the grant, stating that a lot of work goes into applying for grants.
“You don’t see it because it’s all behind the scenes,” he said. “There are deadlines and lots of things that have to be done beforehand.”
Supervisor Anthony Botelho commented, “It’s through efforts like this that we’re able to address these issues. We all have to work together with other agencies to help people. This is a big, big deal, and now we can go to work.”
Supervisor Margie Barrios thanked Rydingsword and said she had been fortunate in being a part of the project from the beginning.
“We all worry about how we’re going to get the funding for future planning of our homeless service center, and because I think we did such a good job with the initial monies that we received, we had a plan, we moved on it, we spent the money as we should have. This opened up a lot of doors and this is only the beginning.”
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