An $11 million state grant awarded to Riverside County will provide funding for programs intended to help transients encamped along the Santa Ana River relocate to transitional housing and other accommodations, officials said Thursday.
The Continuum of Care grant was received by the county’s Department of Housing & Workforce Solutions and will go directly to costs incurred by the Santa Ana River Bottom Multidisciplinary Team, comprised of personnel from several county agencies, a nonprofit and the cities of Corona, Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Norco and Riverside.
The goal is to relocate more than 200 people currently spread among some three dozen encampments, according to officials.
“We are excited to continue these efforts,” Department of Housing & Workforce Solutions Deputy Director Tanya Torno said. “This funding will allow us to build on the momentum to serve and house additional homeless persons remaining in the Santa Ana River Bottom.”
She said 332 transients who had been bivouacked along the river bottom had already been contacted and were receiving assistance.
Earlier this month, the Riverside City Council approved an ordinance declaring encampments within the space and inside municipal boundaries illegal.
The ordinance takes effect next week and permits city agencies to dismantle encampments and impound items used for habitation.
Officials consider the encampments public safety hazards because of fire danger and pollution.
The new regulations will be going into operation roughly the same time work begins on an upgraded levee network in the river bottom.
The Riverside County Flood Control & Water Conservation District announced at the end of August that crews will be initiating a four-year project to fortify levees to mitigate flood hazards between Jurupa Valley and Riverside.
The $36 million project will require removing transient camps in the construction zone on the Jurupa Valley side of the river bottom.
Both sides of the channel effectively will be off limits to transients, though camps are known to be abandoned and re-established on a re-occurring basis year-round.