Shasta County Moved Its Employment Office. Here's How to Find It, And What It Saves You

The Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency reopened its Employment Training Services office on October 1. It sits at 2600 Park Marina Drive. Same building as Child Support Services. The old spot on California Street is gone. Shut down at 4:30 p.m. on September 23. A lease expired. A parking headache ended. And the county says the move will save about $600,000 by 2028.

That's the short version. The longer version involves budget lines, EBT card printers, and the kind of bureaucratic shuffling that rarely makes headlines but absolutely changes how people get help. So let's walk through it.

Why the Shasta County Employment Office Moved Out of Downtown

Downtown Redding rents aren't cheap. Neither is downtown parking. The county had been leasing the California Street space for years. Clients complained. Many of them have disabilities. They couldn't find empty spots. They couldn't afford the fees. Some parked blocks away and walked.

HHSA Director Christy Coleman put it plainly in a statement.

"Without the expense of its lease, the county will gain a net savings of about $200,000 this fiscal year, and about $400,000 starting next fiscal year."

The move wasn't a crisis response. It was a consolidation. The county already ran Child Support Services out of the Park Marina Drive building. Adding Employment Training Services there meant one less lease. One less set of utility bills. One less parking lot to maintain.

HHSA spokesperson Kimberly Ross told the Record Searchlight that having two branches share space allowed the county to lower expenses "without sacrificing services or jobs."

That phrase matters. Services. Jobs. Those are the two things people worry about when an office moves. The county is saying both survived the shuffle.

The Numbers Behind the $600K Savings

Let's talk about the math. The county will net about $200,000 in savings during the current fiscal year. That number climbs to roughly $400,000 starting next fiscal year. By 2028, those savings stack up to approximately $600,000.

Where does the money come from? Lease costs, mostly. Parking overhead. The hidden expenses of maintaining a downtown footprint. The county didn't offer a line-by-line breakdown, but the logic is straightforward. When you stop paying rent on one building and start using space you already own or lease at a lower rate, the difference adds up.

This isn't glamorous work. It's the kind of municipal budgeting that happens in spreadsheets and closed sessions. But it's real money. Money that stays in the county's general fund. Money that could go toward other services. Or, at minimum, money that doesn't disappear into a landlord's pocket.

What Clients Gain From the New Park Marina Drive Location

The new office sits at 2600 Park Marina Drive. Free parking is available close to the front door. That's a direct improvement over the downtown location, where clients reported trouble finding spaces or couldn't afford the fees.

The building already houses Child Support Services. That means clients dealing with both employment and child support issues can handle more in one trip. No cross-town drive. No second parking fee. No confusion about which building to visit.

The office reopened with limited eligibility and employment services on October 1. It will become a full-service office by mid-October. EBT card printing starts again in mid-November.

That last detail matters more than it sounds. We'll get to it.

What Services the Shasta County Employment Office Offers

The Employment Training Services office does more than process paperwork. Staff help people apply for CalWORKs, CalFresh, and Medi-Cal. They provide career counseling. They run job training programs. They help arrange child care and transportation.

CalWORKs is California's welfare-to-work program. It provides cash assistance to families with children while helping parents find employment. CalFresh is the state's food assistance program. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program. All three require applications. All three require verification. All three can be confusing.

The office also connects people with job search resources. Resume help. Interview preparation. Training referrals. The county runs programs like STEPS, Start Towards Enrichment, Power and Success, which puts job seekers through two weeks of classroom work before placing them with employers.

None of this is new. The services existed downtown. They exist at Park Marina Drive. The difference is location. Location matters when you don't have a car. Location matters when you're disabled. Location matters when you're already stressed about money and the last thing you need is a parking ticket.

EBT Card Printing, What's Delayed and Why It Matters

Electronic Benefit Transfer cards carry CalFresh and CalWORKs benefits. People use them like debit cards at grocery stores. If you lose your card, you need a new one. The county prints them.

That printing service stopped when the office moved. It restarts in mid-November at the Park Marina Drive location.

So what do you do if you need a new EBT card right now? The county says clients can get help by phone, through the website, or at other HHSA locations. The Shasta Lake Regional Office at 4216 Shasta Dam Blvd handles eligibility and employment services. The Cascade office at 2460 Breslauer Way in Redding does too. The Burney office at 36911 Main St. serves the eastern part of the county.

The delay is temporary. But for families relying on EBT benefits, temporary delays can feel permanent. If you're in that situation, call first. The main HHSA phone line is (530) 225-5515. The CalWORKs Employment Services line at Park Marina is (530) 225-5000.

How to Access Employment and Eligibility Services Right Now

The Park Marina Drive office is open. Hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. That's the standard schedule for most county offices.

For eligibility services, CalFresh, Medi-Cal, CalWORKs applications, you can visit any of the county's five employment and eligibility offices. The Park Marina location is the newest. The others are:

• Shasta Lake Regional Office: 4216 Shasta Dam Blvd
• Cascade Office: 2460 Breslauer Way, Redding
• Burney Office: 36911 Main St., Burney
• Anderson Regional Office: 2889 East Center St., Anderson

You can also apply online through BenefitsCal.com. That's the state's portal for CalFresh, CalWORKs, and Medi-Cal applications. It works on a phone. It works on a library computer. It works.

For employment training specifically, resume help, job search assistance, interview prep, the Park Marina office is the main hub. Call (530) 225-5000 to schedule an appointment or ask about walk-in availability.

The Bigger Picture: Shasta County's Budget and the Road to 2028

This move is part of a broader pattern. Shasta County has been trimming costs across departments. The HHSA budget includes line items for software, services, and personnel. Recent budget amendments reduced appropriations by $800,000 in one fiscal year, citing vacant positions and lower operating expenses.

The employment office relocation fits that pattern. It's not dramatic. It's not controversial. It's just a county finding a cheaper way to do the same job.

But $600,000 by 2028 is not nothing. That's money the county doesn't have to cut from somewhere else. That's money that can stay in programs. That's money that can absorb the next budget shortfall without layoffs.

The county didn't frame this as a triumph. Director Coleman's statement was matter-of-fact. But the implications are clear. A leased space in a high-rent district becomes a shared space in a county-owned building. The services continue. The savings accumulate.

Whether those savings translate into better services or simply fewer cuts depends on decisions made in future budget cycles. For now, the office is open. The parking is free. The printers will hum again in November.

What This Move Means for Shasta County Residents

The Employment Training Services office moved from California Street to Park Marina Drive. It reopened October 1. It offers the same services in a different building. The county saves money. Clients get better parking. The lease is gone.

If you need CalFresh, CalWORKs, or Medi-Cal help, you can visit the Park Marina office or any of the four other county locations. If you need a new EBT card, you'll have to wait until mid-November or call the main line. If you need job training or career counseling, the phone number is (530) 225-5000.

That's the situation. No spin. No sales pitch. Just a county office doing its job in a cheaper building.

The savings will show up in budget documents over the next three years. The parking relief shows up now. The EBT printer shows up in November.