Third amendment to city agreement phases out night-by-night beds, expands 90-day shelter model as business owners voice concerns over neighborhood impacts
PASO ROBLES — The Paso Robles City Council unanimously approved disbursing $111,000 to the El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO) and adopted a Third Amendment to the city’s ongoing funding agreement during its Tuesday, Aug. 19 meeting. The latest amendment marks a significant shift in ECHO’s approach, formally discontinuing its night-by-night shelter beds and transitioning fully to its 90-Day Shelter Program.
Since 2022, the City Council has supported El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO) through a Supplemental Memorandum of Understanding (SMOU) that allocated $444,000 over two-year budget cycles. The agreement initially required quarterly reporting, a Community Stakeholder Committee, and funding capped at $222,000 per fiscal year. Amendments refined the terms, including dedicating 45 beds to a 90-day Shelter Program, maintaining five night-by-night beds, reducing stakeholder meetings, and creating a crisis room for public safety agencies. By mid-2024, the council extended the agreement, transitioning reporting and payments to a biannual schedule while maintaining the $444,000 funding level for FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26.
From January through June 2025, ECHO raised $685,385.90 through grants, events, and community donations to support the Paso Robles Emergency Shelter, while expenses totaled $813,104.81, leaving a temporary deficit of $127,718.91. Because much of ECHO’s funding, including the city grant, is reimbursement-based, its budget position fluctuates throughout the year depending on the timing of expenses and incoming funds.
In April 2025, ECHO requested a further amendment to discontinue the five night-by-night beds and focus solely on its 90-day Shelter Program while continuing to operate the Crisis Emergency Resource Room.
City staff helped ECHO prepare a Third Amendment to its SMOU, shifting operations away from night-by-night shelter beds to focus entirely on its 90-Day Shelter Program, which they say has proven more effective in helping participants achieve stable housing. While nightly shelter services would end, ECHO secured funding to open a 10-bed warming center during cold months and will continue offering nightly dinners and showers for drop-ins. The amendment also dissolves the requirement for biannual stakeholder meetings, replacing them with monthly newsletters and a community concerns hotline. Additional provisions include maintaining 50 shelter beds under the 90-day program, keeping one crisis room available for public safety.
Some business owners near the ECHO shelter have raised concerns about vandalism and loitering by unhoused individuals, noting that despite ECHO’s positive work, the impacts are negatively affecting their businesses.
Wendy Richardson, a Templeton resident who owns Bubble & Squeak Self-Services car wash on Riverside Avenue with her husband, shared her concerns and how the unhoused population is affecting her business.
“There is a piece of the puzzle that I’m not sure you truly understand how some aspects of ECHO, regardless of the work they do … the businesses in that neighborhood suffer from certain elements of ECHO on the outside,” Richardson explained. “They sleep in our bays, they urinate, they defecate in our bays. They steal water by the buckets from our sink … we have to do something to curb what’s going on … There’s a certain part of this homeless thing where they don’t want help … the businesses are suffering because of that.”
Councilmembers agreed that ECHO’s presence and services are needed within the city.
Councilmember Chris Bausch added that “The comments do call upon the fact that there’s still yet a lot to be done. It’s something that Ashlee [Hernandez, the city’s homeless services manager] I am sure, is working on.”
“If this situation were easy, it would have been solved already. And one of the things I’ve learned … is how complicated and how diverse the population is that find themselves unhoused,” said Councilmember Kris Beal. “It does require a multifaceted approach, and it’s going to be even more important that we coordinate our city data, coordinate ECHO data, coordinate with the county so that we’re all operating on the best information to be able to pivot and try to adapt to what we’re seeing and what we know works and doesnt work.”
Council unanimously approved to receive ECHO’s FY 2024-25 end-year report and direct staff to disburse payment in the amount of $111,000 and approve the Third Amendment to the ECHO SMOU for FY 2025- 2026.
The next Paso Robles City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 6 p.m.
