Guerneville community meeting muddles homelessness question

GUERNEVILLE - The search for a suitable site for a homeless shelter and service center took a turn toward direct democracy Monday night, with residents at a community meeting using colored stickers to vote for and against a handful of potential locations.

But the main thing clear from the informal balloting was the large degree of dissension and dissatisfaction among those who turned out to wrestle with the choices.

County officials - 5th District Supervisor Lynda Hopkins chief among them - were hopeful individual suggestions and group discussion notes collected during the two-hour workshop might yield enough information to help drive them toward consensus on where a future facility could go.

But the tenor of the 300-person crowd was largely informed by suspicion and anger, with many opposing any extension of local homeless services absent a significantly increased law enforcement presence in town, and restrictions preventing an influx of outsiders coming to Guerneville for help.

“People here are really angry,” said Nance Jones, a 13-year resident and member of the local fire board.

Monday's gathering in the Guerneville School multipurpose room was the second in a month to address the question of whether the county should purchase a 9-acre ranch property on Armstrong Woods Road to develop a comprehensive homeless service center offering support and referrals for everything from mental health and addiction programs, to housing and employment.

The plan, though not fully formed, includes a winter shelter that for four months a year would provide overnight housing and a place for those experiencing homelessness to stay during the day.

The nonprofit West County Health Centers, using a federal grant, also wants to locate a medical clinic for the homeless on the same site.

But though the proposal might resolve an eight-year quest for the right location for new services, while leaving plenty of room for the possibility of permanent supportive housing as well, its placement in the midst of a rural residential neighborhood, within a half mile of the local school, has prompted outrage.

Opposition has been so strong that Hopkins, eager to find community support for whatever proposal wins approval, broadened the array of choices for Monday's meeting and invited the public to discuss the pros and cons of the different sites and weigh in and vote using green, yellow and red stickers.

The results were largely mixed, primarily where the Armstrong Woods Road property was concerned. Its negative votes outnumbered positive votes by about 3-to-1.

The county must exercise its option to buy the property, listed at $995,000, by May 19 or lose it, county officials said.

Other options included the Veterans Memorial Building, site of the current winter shelter that operates four months a year; a boarded-up Bank of America building, which received very little support: a county-owned park-and-ride lot at the edge of the town center and a vacant property about a half mile east of town.

About 120 of the estimated 300 present were in favor of the status quo - a four-month winter shelter at the downtown Veterans Memorial Building open only nights - more than any other option.

Many in the crowd opposed building a new facility in Guerneville given the town's size, its dependence on limited county services and its continued effort to promote business and tourism along the river.

“This town cannot support what they're saying,” said Fred Sayers.

Some participants said they distrusted the process, objecting that staff members and officials for West County Health Centers and West County Community Services, which operates the current winter shelter, were allowed to vote.

“If we hadn't already lost confidence in the way they're operating, more people would be in favor of it,” said Jennifer Wertz, a leader in a grassroots advocacy group called the Guerneville Community Alliance.