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"Salinas opened up its winter warming shelter Monday night but over in Monterey, there are no winter warming shelters available for homeless people right now.The city said it is still in the early stages of preparing for the expected winter storms but that right now, there are no plans for a warming shelter.\"The conversation in the city is really just beginning,\" Monterey's community services director, Kim Bui-Burton, said.According to the last homeless census for the county, 23 percent of the homeless are living in Monterey. That's two percent points higher than Salinas.Even so, the city is so far not planning to provide emergency shelter for those people stuck out in the cold.Bui-Burton said that city crews have been making improvements to infrastructure, but have not found a solution for the homeless population.\"At this point we've been doing a lot of work looking at our storm drains, our sewer, looking at our physical infrastructure, so looking at the human part of it is really the next piece that we'll be looking at,\" Bui-Burton said.Bui-Burton said that unlike Salinas, Monterey doesn't have a city building that could act as a warming shelter, but that they would be open to the idea of a partnership.\"One of the things we're going to want to do it reach out to our non-profit partners and see what they're doing and see what other cities are doing like Salinas,\" Bui-Burton said.Currently, the Monterey Police Department is doing what they can to help the homeless. Monterey police Officer Jake Pinkas said that he and other officers work to give homeless people information on local groups that can provide shelter and food.\"I work night shift, when we find them at night, they're usually laying somewhere, trying to keep dry, we try to figure out group of the population they are, whether are they male are they female or are they a family? Each one has different services that are available to them and we are in contact with those services pretty regularly,\" Pinkas said.Reyes Bonilla leads the team at the Salinas warming shelter, he said there is a huge need for such a space in Monterey.\"We are getting rains coming now as we speak and so we strongly believe that its going to be a wet season so for that reason we believe the importance of the winter warming shelter in Monterey is crucial,\" Bonilla said.This is the third year that Bonillo along with his employees from Community Homeless Solutions have helped open a warming shelter in Salinas, he said the city of Monterey should step up and do the same.\"We would strongly recommend that the city and county looking into provide a warming shelter in that area,\" Bonilla said.Salinas is using a part of the old armory building on Lincoln Avenue to house people. It holds 50-60 people and entry is on a first-come first-serve basis. The space will be open seven nights a week until the beginning of April.Monterey city councilman Alan Haffa has been an advocate for the homeless population in the past. He said the council has talked about a regional coalition for the homeless. Haffa added that it is a county wide issue that could be solved if cities came together to offer services like warming shelters.A county-wide state of emergency for the homeless population is in the works.Supervisor Fernando Armenta proposed a homelessness state of emergency over concerns a wet El Nino might be in store. Supervisor Armenta said that county leaders are in the process of meeting to address his call for an emergency declaration, looking at what it would mean and how much it would cost..\u00A0"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.ksbw.com/article/homeless-advocates-say-monterey-needs-warming-shelter/1058099>