SLO County lifts emergency health declaration
San Luis Obispo County is no longer under a pandemic-related state of emergency.
County Administrative Officer Wade Horton and County Public Health Director Dr. Penny Borenstein made the move official today after several weeks of major improvement in the county’s COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
The Board of Supervisors approved the state of emergency declaration in March 2020.
Borenstein said, “While these declarations are no longer needed, the Public Health team and local health care providers continue to respond to this pandemic and provide resources, like vaccines and testing, to help residents protect their health and the health of the community.”
Borenstein also maintained that the county is still ready to respond to future surges.
The declarations will be presented to the board at Tuesday’s meeting.
SLO County also released more local COVID data today, reporting six more deaths from the virus, 17 people hospitalized with the virus and 257 new cases between Tuesday and Friday.
The county’s public health website is slopublichealth.org/covid19.
Carbajal safe parking bill included in Housing for All Act introduced in Congress
Central Coast Congressman Salud Carbajal’s bill to provide more safe parking options to people experiencing homelessness has been included in the Housing for All Act introduced today in Congress.
The bill, which will be introduced in both the House and Senate, is aimed at “creating more affordable housing units in California and across the U.S., as well as helping the half a million Americans experiencing homelessness and millions more who are facing eviction or spending more than half of their monthly earnings on rent.”
That’s according to Carbajal, Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Representative Ted Lieu (CA-43), the bill’s authors.
Carbajal introduced the Naomi Schwartz Safe Parking Program Act, named after a former Santa Barbara County supervisor, in the House of Representatives last year.
It was inspired by the first safe parking program in the country, adopted in Santa Barbara in 2004.
The act would establish five-year grants through the Department of Housing and Urban Development for cities and local governments to apply for up to $5 million dollars for safe parking programs, according to Carbajal.
