To: Board of Supervisors; Board of Commissioners of the Community Development Commission
Department or Agency Name(s): Sonoma County Community Development Commission
Staff Name and Phone Number: Geoffrey Ross, 707-565-7505
Vote Requirement: 4/5th
Supervisorial District(s): All
Title:
Title
Emergency Measures to Address Homelessness
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Recommended Action:
Recommended action
Board of Supervisors:
A) Receive a Report and Direct Staff on Preferred Option(s)
B) Approve and Authorize a Budgetary Adjustment to the 2019-2020 Final Budget for the Community Development Commission in the Amount of $25,000 for Expanded Homelessness Outreach
C) Adopt a Resolution proclaiming a Homeless Emergency on the Joe Rodota Trail due to a threat to health and safety of those experiencing homelessness and to the natural environment, public health, and well-being of the community.
(4/5th Vote Required)
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Executive Summary:
Homelessness is an all-consuming crisis for those experiencing it and a societal emergency for communities battling it. In order to effectively respond, support is required from a variety of sources. While Sonoma County continues to make significant progress, we only need to look as far as those currently living along the Joe Rodota Trail to know that more is needed. The Community Development Commission (CDC) and the Department of Health Services (DHS) have aggressively worked to bring their combined expertise and research to recommend the following enhancements to our system of care - all in a manner that ensures services and housing are responsive, accessible and based on the demonstrated need. These recommendations focus on people first. They embrace the Housing First model to align resources in a way that creates the necessary permanent supportive housing and system-wide modifications Sonoma County currently lacks.
The system must meet people where they are and address accommodation needs. The following presentation centers on a list of options for the Board to discuss, which are based on proven, solution-oriented strategies that emphasize permanent housing as an outcome, rather than efforts that inadvertently warehouse people without solving underlying issues. Guiding principles include - for those who want to participate in the system of care - providing interventions that are safe and secure and provide access to running water, sanitary facilities, electricity, and connection to services.
Discussion:
Since 2011, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the County has consistently declined from 4,500 to less than 3,000, a 35% sustained reduction overall. During the past three years alone - which included three natural disasters - the CDC has successfully housed more than 3,000 individuals experiencing homelessness countywide, with 95% of those remaining stably housed after one year. This figure has been reported to and verified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 2018, the Continuum of Care achieved a major milestone when it began implementing a Coordinated Entry System to better serve and target the most vulnerable members of our community. As to the system’s ability to serve those living on the Joe Rodota Trail, since the end of October 2019 - a timeframe that included the Kincade fire - 70 individuals have been brought into the system of care through shelter and housing options being offered during continuous outreach by what is now six separate but coordinated teams. These efforts continue today.
All of the work outlined in the previous section feels inconsequential when faced with the current encampment that has grown along the Joe Rodota Trail. To respond more effectively and better serve the trail occupants, and the nearly 3,000 members of our community that remain without homes, staff and our partners recognize that we must enhance linkages to housing by providing options and equity. Solutions must be low-barrier, flexible, and promote safety, dignity, autonomy, and respect. People experiencing homelessness must be able to stay with their partners and pets. Those exiting from interim measures should only be exiting into permanent housing.
It is important to recognize that the system’s current ability to deploy any interventions in the short-term is a result of ongoing efforts that have been underway within the County and in coordination with its partners over the past several years. Notable efforts include the launch of the County of Sonoma’s ACCESS Initiative, Coordinated Entry, the redesign of the Sonoma County Housing Authority’s waitlist, and the creation of Home Sonoma County as the governing body for the Continuum of Care. At the same time as the system has been dramatically remade, resources into housing and facilities have been targeted specifically to address moving people through the system, as opposed to warehousing and stalling them within it. Such efforts have included partnering with the development and nonprofit community to preserve units at the Palms Inn; financing the creation of new units at the Gold Coin; partnering with the City of Santa Rosa on capital improvements for Sam Jones Hall; and funding smaller projects such as Sanctuary Villas that serve youth or Windsor Veterans Village that support specific homeless subpopulations. It is the totality of these efforts that make additional rapid deployment of new interventions possible.
As such, a menu of options that can be deployed rapidly in response to the ongoing homelessness crisis occurring on the Joe Rodota Trail has been developed. The options presented take many forms, but are all based on interventions that are safe and secure, have access to running water, sanitary facilities, electricity and connection to services and are low-barrier, flexible, and promote safety, dignity, autonomy, and respect. Options and their likely month of deployment include:
December 2019
Emergency Declaration
- Ongoing Expanded Outreach
o HOST/COTS/Social Advocates for Youth/Reach for Home/County IMDT
§ Secure Trail for health and safety of occupants and to enhance services for the provision of housing
- Activate Joint Operations Center
- Short-term County shelter pilot - Indoor/Outdoor shelter at Fairgrounds
o Shelter Management
o Security
o Screening and support services in coordination with Behavioral Health
January 2020
Shelter/Housing/Safe Camping
- Safe Parking
o County property
o Other sites would require outreach to potential partners (e.g. faith-based, private property owners)
- Family Reunification Program
o Modeled after Santa Rosa/San Francisco programs
§ Anticipate up to 30 people from JRT could be served
- Master Lease Rental Buildings/Units
o Non-profit service providers
§ Up to 20 people from the JRT could be served
- Public or Private Campgrounds (for those who decline service and prefer to camp)
o Group Tent Sites
o Small Tent Sites
Services
- Large Tent for On-Site Navigation
o Co-locate with safe parking
- Security - for safe parking
o Fencing
o Personnel
February 2020
Shelter/Housing
- Expanded shelter options - connected to services, semi-covered, controlled entry
o 2-3 secure sites sized at 15-20 people per site
§ Recreational Vehicles
§ Semi-permanent structures
§ Trailers
o Services/additional amenities
§ Lockers
§ Kennels
§ On-site navigation
- Flexible Rapid Rehousing (locally-funded)
Services
- Navigation
o Staffing to link individuals to units
March 2020
Housing
- Purchased units brought online to serve as Permanent Supportive Housing
o Target 3 - 5 facilities with multiple bedrooms each
§ Allow communities formed outside to remain intact
These interim measures will position the County to further support moving individuals from homelessness into affordable and permanent supportive housing currently under construction and in the pipeline. It should be noted that any of these interim measures will do little to address overall homelessness within the County without overarching, long-term system investments and improvements. The CDC will return to the Board in the near future to discuss possible one-time and ongoing capital funding opportunities pertaining to the continued development of Permanent Supportive Housing and the overall reduction of Sonoma County’s homelessness.
Prior Board Actions:
October 9, 2018, Item #27: Board of Supervisors and Board of Commissioners declared shelter crisis in the County of Sonoma and authorized participation in the State Homeless and Emergency Aid Program.
Fiscal Summary
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Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
Attachments:
Resolution
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board: