California shelters close two months after Pajaro River Levee breach

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - The warehouses inside the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds sit empty as the county has closed its shelter originally meant for Pajaro evacuees.

The county says fifty people were still staying here as of last week; that number went down to three on Monday.

"People have either been able to get back into their homes or they have been already placed into an emergency housing unit," Nicholas Pasculli, Chief Public Information Officer (PIO) for Monterey County.

The county says it's planning to secure temporary housing for disaster victims, and their top priority was to not leave them homeless.

"The application process very simple and went very smoothly. So, everybody has been placed and everybody has been offered certainly emergency housing," Pasculli added.

Not the right thing to do

Manuela Rodriguez, a Pajaro resident, still does laundry next to Pajaro Middle School because her home isn't fixed yet.

She says the decision to close down the shelter was not the right thing to do right now.

"I feel terrible for the people who are really affected right now" Rodriguez spoke.

Monterey County says if people in Pajaro are still in need of resources, they can go to Pajaro Middle School or Pajaro Park.