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Pasco describes special-needs shelters, pet-friendly operations and Pasco Hope recovery sites
Summary
County shelter operations staff outlined sheltering strategy, special-needs capabilities (including regional oxygen generation) and how Pasco Hope pallet-home and trailer sites are supporting longer-term housing for storm-affected residents.
Pasco County community-services and public-health leaders briefed the commission on sheltering strategy, special-needs capabilities and ongoing short- and long-term housing efforts following last yearstorms.
"We have BOCC staff at every shelter," said Brian Hoban, director of community services, who explained how the county and the school board jointly operate regular shelters and the countyrole in registration, case management and recovery referrals. Hoban said shelters are pet friendly; during last year's activations the county recorded more than 1,300 pets in shelters.
Trang Chittacone, the health officer at the Department of Health in Pasco County, described the county's regional special-needs shelter and said the facility's on-site oxygen generator operated for four weeks during the last activation, enabling care for oxygen-dependent residents without vendor deliveries.
Hoban described Pasco Hope, a short-term housing and case-management initiative that colocated pallet homes and family trailers at two sites to house residents displaced by flooding and storm damage. As of the briefing, staff reported about 51 residents at one site and 38 at another; case managers and partners such as Catholic Charities and Fresh Start are working on rehousing or longer-term placements.
Staff emphasized coordination with GoPasco for special-needs and general transportation to shelters, and said the county is working with the school board to identify storage for shelter supplies (including cots) to improve set-up speed for Wiregrass Ranch and other pre-designated shelter sites.
Why it matters: Sheltering and short-term housing are core life-safety and recovery tasks. The county's regional special-needs capability and the Pasco Hope housing response are central to supporting medically vulnerable or long-term displaced residents.
Staffers recommended maintaining supply caches, refining transportation call-down lists for vulnerable mobile-home communities, and pursuing agreements to store shelter supplies nearer to east-side special-needs operations to reduce deployment time.
