Volunteers fan out to help with Sonoma County homeless count

After enduring another bitterly cold night sleeping on a sidewalk, Mark Morton awoke before daybreak Friday to find some unexpected visitors to his little concrete patch beneath Highway 101 in Santa Rosa.

The 57-year-old homeless man looked up to see two of the 150 volunteers who had fanned out across Sonoma County to make sure that, even if it’s unclear how to best help them, people like Morton aren’t forgotten.

It was about 6 a.m., and volunteers Tom Schwedhelm, a Santa Rosa city councilman, and Tracy Weitzenberg, public policy director of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, wore toasty gloves and jackets as they stood a few feet from Morton on Fifth Street.

They took note of him and the half-dozen or so other homeless folks camped out in tents, under tarps, or in one case a large umbrella, tallying their gender and approximate age, if they could determine it, and type of makeshift shelter.

They didn’t speak to Morton or anyone else they tallied during their scan of downtown, part of a one-day census meant to get an truer gauge on the size of the county’s homeless population.

“We were told not to engage in any conversation, and we tried to be very respectful and not intrusive,” Weitzenberg said. “It’s hard because it’s not really in our natures to not engage people who need help.”

Schwedhelm and Weitzenberg moved on to survey larger groups of homeless people seeking cover under overpasses at Sixth and Ninth streets.

Morton, a Minnesota native who has been homeless in Santa Rosa for 27 years, organized his few belongings on sheets of cardboard as he watched the strangers depart.

Above him, on the concrete wall, a taped notice from Santa Rosa police ordered a stop to “illegal campsite/lodging” in the area. The notice said the order would be enforced starting Monday.

Morton, who was on his way to the nearby Redwood Gospel mission for a shower, said he didn’t know what he would do when the order was enforced.

“It’s a little scary out here,” he said.

The census is an attempt to quantify the size and general makeup of the homeless population in Sonoma County. The resulting tally, due out in April, and a subsequent survey are used to help decide federal funding levels for housing programs.

The 2017 census comes as homelessness numbers have been falling in the county for four years, though cleanup efforts along creeks and rail lines have made the problem more visible. Last year’s point-in-time count found 2,906 homeless people in the county - down from 3,107 the previous year, 4,280 in 2013 and 4,539 in 2011.

Volunteers and homeless people paid $15 per hour to act as guides hit every census tract in the county in their effort to pinpoint as best as possible whether the homeless population continues to decline. Homeless advocates attribute the drop to an improved economy and better outreach efforts.

A follow-up survey in the coming weeks will seek to paint a clearer picture of homelessness in Sonoma County through one-on-one interviews with homeless residents, gathering information about their age, family situation and any health issues.

Volunteers Colleen Meydenbauer and Waid Allred, both county employees, teamed up with Bill Watson, who is living at Santa Rosa’s homeless shelter, Sam Jones Hall, to cover stretches of the Joe Rodota Trail and Prince Memorial Greenway.

Their task was tougher given the large size of the area, the need to distinguish between pockets of land overseen by the county and those within city limits, and the difficulty in some cases of saying with certainty whether a passerby was homeless.

The tent tucked behind a redwood tree beside the Joe Rodota Trail bridge over Santa Rosa Creek was pretty clearly sheltering a homeless person. A trail of litter leading down the bank to the creek erased any doubt.

But as morning wore on, the census volunteers faced less obvious decisions. Allred concluded the woman riding down the greenway on a bicycle laden with bags full of recycling was likely homeless. A young man on a cheap bicycle was counted largely because of his large backpack. The middle-aged man cycling along with a reflective vest and LED headlamp was not.

“This is not an exact science at all,” Allred said.

He erred on the side of counting someone as homeless because, while Friday’s effort was extensive, the census will miss people, he said.

While it was too soon Friday to give an estimate on results from the count, Jennielynn Holmes, director of shelter and housing for Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa, said initial indications are that the especially wet and cold winter has pushed homeless people closer to services, mostly in urban areas.

“They’re scared like I’ve never seen them before,” Holmes said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207. On Twitter @srcitybeat.