Lifeline for homeless families in Petaluma

Petaluma’s Committee on the Shelterless soon will be able reopen an emergency shelter for families in desperate need of immediate housing following Monday’s approval of a $1-a-year lease agreement with the City Council.

COTS will occupy half of a city-owned building at 1500 Petaluma Blvd. S., sharing the space with nonprofit social service provider Petaluma People Services Center, to reopen a shelter it had to close three years ago as a cost-cutting measure.

Beginning in July, COTS hopes to be able to provide almost three dozen beds for families in distress.

“It will be an emergency shelter,” COTS Chief Executive Mike Johnson said Monday night after the city’s unanimous council vote. “We are thinking in the 60- to 90-day stay range.”

From 1991 to 2011, the 10,000-square foot building, formerly the city’s Human Services Center, was shared by COTS and PPSC.

Three years ago, COTS moved its family shelter at the site to the Mary Isaak Center on Hopper Street to consolidate costs. But it was later determined that the state agency that helped fund construction of the center wouldn’t allow emergency family housing there.

In the meantime, COTS has referred homeless families in need of emergency shelter in Petaluma to a waiting list at Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa.

With the new lease, COTS can reopen its family shelter and begin providing shelter and services to homeless families in Petaluma again.

“It should be very similar to before,” Johnson said. “We will offer children’s programs and other supportive programs?for families, with the goal of breaking the cycle of homelessness.”

Petaluma has experienced the deaths of several homeless residents in the past three years, prompting authorities to examine the causes. The deaths have come as Sonoma County housing advocates are working on plans to help those without housing as winter nears.

County supervisors in August approved $900,000 to launch a “housing first” approach to homelessness that provides people with immediate housing before linking them with social services.

In Petaluma, COTS provides food, beds, a variety of housing services, case management and other support to 2,300 people each year, including about?175 children. Through its several service locations, 319 beds are offered each night and 126,000 meals are served annually.

The lease deal is good for five years. COTS will pay for the maintenance of the building and make a few minor building improvements at its expense.

In the other half of the building, PPSC continues to provide homeless prevention services, landlord-tenant mediation and fair housing programs.

A staff evaluation of the agreement determined that reopening of the shelter would not result in significant additional impacts on the nearby neighborhood beyond what PPSC generates.

The site is on the southern edge of Petaluma, near a few single-family homes and just south of a housing development on McNear Circle, a salvage business, the city’s Veterans Building and a bowling alley.

COTS says 30 percent of?individuals leaving the Mary Isaak Center’s emergency shelter go into permanent housing and 77 percent of families and adults leaving transitional housing are helped into permanent housing.

About 35 percent of COTS’ funding comes from state, federal or local government sources, while the rest comes from grants, donations, rent and event income.

The funding for reopening the emergency family center comes from the Finley Foundation, Johnson said.?You can reach Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.