In today's newscast:
Monterey County homeless numbers
Fewer people overall are experiencing homelessness in Monterey County. That’s according to data from the January point-in-time count released Wednesday.
Homeless services director Roxanne Wilson presented the snapshot of people without permanent housing.
"For overall homelessness, we have seen a 15% reduction, and for unsheltered homelessness, we are actually looking at a 23% reduction," she said during a county news briefing.
One disappointing figure, though, shows the number of people experiencing homelessness for the first time is up, to 60%.
"We really do need to increase resources to address the pipeline into homelessness," Wilson said.
And she adds both state and federal funding to continue providing services remains uncertain.
Battery plan fire report
Samples of soil, sediment and surface water that were taken after the Vistra battery plant fire in Moss Landing don’t pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment. That’s the conclusion of a report prepared by Terraphase Engineering for Vistra Corp. The Monterey County Environmental Health Department coordinated with many partners.
"This report is a milestone in the process," said Marni Flagg, assistant director at the department. "It's not the end, it's just a milestone."
She says the local water board along with two state agencies reviewed the report.
"Our partners, the agencies, they've acknowledged that there should be improvements," she said.
Those could include more studies. The recent report does not consider groundwater or the broader watershed.
The 300-plus page report is now available to the public.
Editor's Note: this story has been updated to reflect that the report was prepared for Vistra, not for the health department.
