Hundreds of Russian River residents turn out for heated meeting on homeless shelter

Worried, often agitated citizens turned out by the hundreds in Guerneville on Wednesday night to add their voices to an intense debate that has consumed this community in recent weeks, as county officials consider creating a new homeless shelter and service center at a disputed location just down the street from the local school.

Close to 500 people jammed into the gym at Guerneville School for the town hall meeting, nearly all agreeing on the need to do something to mitigate both concern about those who are unsheltered and discontent with individuals who loiter downtown or turn public spaces into nuisance dump sites.

But a proposed, still-evolving solution unveiled by public officials earlier this month involving an available residential property on Armstrong Woods Road has provoked a furious eruption of acrimony that on Wednesday found expression in booing, howling and foot stamping as one resident after another took to the microphone to weigh in on the proposal.

Citing everything from exposure to public urination and drug use to potential for violent outbursts and petty crime, opponents of the proposal said the site at issue, located among rural residential properties within half a mile of a school, was unacceptable.

“I fear for my children just because there could be that one homeless person, just one,” said Kelsey Miller, who lives across the street from the prospective shelter site. “It just takes one person to scare my child, to ask the wrong questions, to come onto our property.”

“These proposed homeless villages should not be located in anybody’s town,” said another speaker, Cathryn Tait. “No residential or metropolitan area should be considered. Rather they should be on the outskirts of town.”

But despite a vocal group of naysayers, many of whom carried laminated signs saying, “No homeless shelter near our school,” many in the crowd, perhaps as many as half, expressed support for services that could help give those experiencing homelessness a chance at finding a new life.

“I’m sure I’ll get hung by my toes for saying this,” said Amber Hamer, a mother of five children, including three who attend Guerneville School, but “I do not see a problem with having a homeless shelter on that beautiful ranch.”

“If not here, where?” she asked. “If not now, when?”

The 9-acre parcel at issue is about 1.1 miles north of the town center, directly across from the Russian River Senior Center and about midway between Main Street and popular Armstrong Woods State Nature Reserve, which draws close to a million visitors annually.

The site includes an 1,878-square-foot, custom-made home that county officials say could be converted to the service center. There are also two horse barns, including one built on a large cement pad outfitted with electrical power, water and drainage that could provide a suitable location for a health care clinic operated by West County Health Centers.

There’s also enough room on the site for an overnight winter shelter and perhaps, eventually, permanent housing, ?5th District County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said.

West County Health Centers, which provides medical services in numerous west county communities, has a federal grant for a homeless health care center and had secured an option to buy the vacant property, listed at $995,000, when Sonoma County supervisors decided last week to pursue the possibility of buying the site themselves.

Hopkins has expressed optimism that the site might provide a workable setting for a facility that would provide a place for those who are experiencing homelessness to get help accessing medical, mental health, social service, housing, education and job assistance.

As such, it would help solve a problem to which community leaders and officials have devoted years of work, only to come up short.

But even as the host of Wednesday’s three-hour meeting, she was the target of hostile criticism in several instances.

Several speakers chastised her for what one called an “insulting” column published last weekend in which she spoke of the need for people to be open to the proposal.

Many are suspicious of the county and believe deals have been made behind closed doors.

“I think what everybody doesn’t like here tonight is the fact that we feel like we’re getting back-doored by this thing, and you guys are not giving us any detail about this thing,” Tom Niclaes said.

Hopkins said Wednesday she was still undecided and wanted to hear what constituents had to say.

Among those supporting the proposal were several who spoke of losing homes and living, even as children, without stable housing.

One man, Glenn Stoneking-Jones, 57, said he lives in his truck with his five dogs.

“I’m not a criminal,” he said, to a room that went suddenly quiet. “I stay in the shadows because the people out there, such as the majority of this group, think I’m a criminal.”