In the wake of a statewide call to clear homeless encampments, East Palo Alto Mayor Antonio López on Wednesday proposed a plan to form a “regional partnership” with neighboring cities to share resources like shelters and permanent supportive housing.
“This agreement will establish a mutual aid partnership, whereby cities will each put a share of their own money in a collective fund,” he said at a Wednesday press conference in East Palo Alto’s Martin Luther King Jr. Park. “This will be done in order to leverage our resources collectively and minimize the migration of the unhoused from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.”
In the plan, cities would pay a membership fee based on various factors like city budget and the size of their unhoused population, then those cities would have equal access to mutual aid funds. So far, López said he has reached out to leaders in Palo Alto, Redwood City, Menlo Park, Mountain View and Burlingame, among other cities, but no official partnerships have been made. Leaders from Menlo Park and Redwood City did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the plan…