Murrieta approves short-term funding to sustain homeless outreach and emergency sheltering through December

Murrieta — The City Council voted unanimously Sept. 16 to appropriate funding to maintain homeless street outreach and emergency sheltering services through Dec. 31, officials said.

City staff presented the request as an interim measure to maintain a coordinated outreach system that the presentation described as established in 2017 and now shared across several nearby cities. City homeless program lead Brian Ambrose told the council that, while voluntary grant programs have previously supplemented the city’s budget, the immediate option before the council was to fund services retroactively to the start of the fiscal year through December to avoid service interruptions.

Ambrose said Murrieta has built a shelter-and-outreach system that combines full‑time street outreach, case management (provided by CityNet), emergency sheltering (Project Touch) and a four‑member community policing team supervised by a sergeant. He said the system has produced an atypical result: more sheltered than unsheltered people in the city’s point‑in‑time count. "While Murrieta's unsheltered population according to the point in time count was 14 for 2025, its sheltered population was 185," Ambrose said, citing the city's 2025 count.

Why it matters: Council members repeatedly framed the item as a public‑safety as well as a humanitarian measure. Council Member Stone praised the local model and credited the coordinated response for keeping encampments and visible homelessness low. Several council members warned that the program cannot be switched off without creating operational strain on police and fire services.

Funding details: Ambrose told the council that contracted agreements for emergency sheltering, case management and street outreach can cost the city as much as about $90,000 per month. Since fiscal year 2019, the city budgeted $2.5 million from the general fund for homeless services but, with grants and conservative spending, actual general‑fund expenditures were about $1.4 million, he said. The city has also received roughly $2.2 million in grant awards for homeless services since 2019. Ambrose noted county and federal grant streams (including ARPA, HAP and ESG) that have previously been used but cautioned that future rounds were uncertain.

Regional context and risks: Ambrose described the Regional Homeless Alliance as comprising Murrieta, Temecula, Lake Elsinore, Wildomar and Menifee and said the Encampment Resolution Fund discussed at the county level will dry up in June 2027. When asked whether funding cuts could be significant, Ambrose said they could be "up to 100%" and warned that losing outreach partners would require police and fire to dedicate many more officer hours per behavioral‑health incident.

Public comment: Local residents and service providers urged the council to approve the appropriation. Cassin Klein, speaking as a resident and business owner, warned of quality‑of‑life impacts if funding lapses. Anne Unmock, a service‑provider partner, described rapid transfers of individuals from police calls into shelter as evidence of the program’s operational benefit.

Council action and next steps: After additional discussion, the council approved the appropriation by unanimous vote, 5–0. City staff said they will return with a follow‑up action if grant funding does not materialize to support the program after December.

The appropriation is intended to preserve ongoing contracts and outreach capacity while staff pursue regional and county funding options and prepare a longer‑term plan for the services.