The Pomona City Council has adopted and passed a resolution accepting $396,025 from the Tri City Mental Health Center Governing Board on Dec. 6. These funds are earmarked to reserve 31 crisis beds at the Hope for Home Homeless Services Center.

The purpose of this grant is to fund the year-round need for local mental health by accommodating 31 adult individuals enrolled as Mental Health Service Act clients and providing supportive services. The council also acknowledged and identified Volunteers of America Los Angeles as the site operator for the Hope For Home for a five year period – which began on July 1, 2018. The group will continue to utilize Volunteers of America as a sub recipient of Tri City and its funds.

Tri City will also provide more money and mental health services to eligible individuals at Hope for Home who receive specialty mental health services. The City of Pomona will also fund crisis housing for those who are in need with this contract. This agreement has increased the number of shelter beds by three and extended the terms until June 30, 2022.

The city also approved a new project to improve parks and renovations throughout Pomona by using Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District Measure A funds. The city will use the remaining $1,939,240 to improve 10 parks on their priority list with fixes estimated at $929,500 per park.

While several parks are currently undergoing fixes, city officials hope to be able to continue to improve other parks through partial funding utilizing other sources. The city plans to submit a separate application for each project to the RPOSD Grant Management System for approval or disapproval to improve other parks in the city.

The city council also voted to continue holding meetings via teleconference through Zoom in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Local agencies are required to provide the location of their meetings and allow the public to access these meetings under the Ralph M. Brown Act. By providing the Zoom links, and passing this resolution, these meetings will continue to be held on Zoom until social distancing orders are lifted.

The next council meeting will be held on Dec 20 via Zoom.