Nevada County removes Truckee address from Homekey Plus application after community outcry; board pauses East County project search

The Nevada County Board of Supervisors voted Feb. 11 to remove a specific Truckee address from the county’s Homekey Plus grant application and to proceed with a grant application that is agnostic about an Eastern County site, after widespread public comment and discussion about outreach and service readiness.

Board Chair Heidi Hall said staff would keep the “total dollar amount so that we do have the flexibility to go forward with another project,” and later moved the motion to approve the item with a condition limiting further East County project searches. Health and Human Services Director Ryan Groover told the board that staff had pursued Homekey because of a documented gap in Truckee’s homeless services, but that time pressures tied to grant rounds had constrained the county’s ability to do methodical community outreach.

Why it matters: Homekey and the related Proposition 1 funds are one-time opportunities to convert properties to interim or permanent housing quickly; the county sought to use the…