Sonoma County extends shut down deadline for Roseland homeless camps to April 3

Homeless people living in two tent villages behind the Dollar Tree store in southwest Santa Rosa can stay about a week and half longer, an extension which Sonoma County officials hope will allow residents to find a shelter bed or long-term housing through a nearby government-sponsored services hub.

The county, which owns the Roseland property where the adjoining encampments are located, originally told residents they had until today to clear out. But officials extended the deadline until April 3 in order to let the so-called housing navigation center run for a full month.

Through the navigation center, based out of an old hardware store next to the encampments, service providers are working to assess the housing needs of the about 100 residents of the encampments. The pending move comes as shelter space remains in short supply across Sonoma County, with a key Petaluma shelter now turning away people.

So far, 65 people have completed formal assessments to guide their transition when the encampments close, according to Jennielynn Holmes, director of shelter and housing for Catholic Charities, which is operating the navigation center.

Holmes said 22 people have already moved into shelter, and about 40 more are expected to follow suit within about a week.

“The whole idea is to move them into some sort of safe option where we can work with them to continue to find housing,” Holmes said. “Even though the navigation center might close and the encampment might not be there, we will still be working with them to resolve their homelessness.”

Next week, five people living in the encampments are expected to move into the Palms Inn, a former motel on Santa Rosa Avenue that became 104 units of permanent housing two years ago. Another six people are slated to move into the Palms Inn later, but they will likely need another temporary place to live beforehand, Holmes said.

County officials want to clear out the site behind the Dollar Tree, where a tent village ?originally took root in 2015, in order to move forward with a redevelopment project that envisions a 175-unit apartment complex, a public plaza and more.

But homeless residents and activists say the community doesn’t have enough affordable,?long-term housing units or shelter beds that are suitable for everyone living in the encampments. Some are continuing to push for a sanctioned encampment on another site.

“It’s a very emotional issue, of course, not only for the residents, but for the homeless advocates who have worked with and helped camp residents,” said Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who represents the area. “But I believe that we are meeting our commitment of trying to provide multiple housing options to residents who are willing to accept services. And I’m very hopeful that as the good stories get out, as the people in the camp hear that some of their colleagues have been placed into permanent supportive housing, that more of them will come into the housing navigation center’s doors.”

Carolyn Epple, an activist who has been supporting the encampment residents, called the navigation center “very promising” saying she was pleased more than half of the residents had been assessed. Yet she remains skeptical of relying too much on shelters, which may not provide a homeless person with enough privacy and independence, she said.

“There are reasons that people prefer to stay out in the rain as opposed to going into a shelter,” Epple said. “Unfortunately, we’re not looking at those reasons, and we just continue to blame the homeless for not stepping up to the plate. And that’s not fair.”

Epple would like to see local governments designate another spot where homeless people can camp - and benefit from regular services such as visits from mental health workers and substance abuse counselors. But that idea has yet to gain much traction with either Sonoma County or Santa Rosa officials.

“We do know some people would prefer to camp in some alternate place,” said Margaret Van Vliet, the executive director of the county’s Community Development Commission, the landlord of the Dollar Tree site. “We’re not offering that. We don’t think that’s a good idea, but we understand that’s going to be what some people choose.”

In Petaluma, eight families were asked to leave the 11-room COTS shelter by the middle of this month, a decision that the group’s leaders attributed to a space crunch caused by longer average stays for homeless residents in the wake of October’s fires, which destroyed more than 5,300 homes in the county.

But Van Vliet said she’s confident the community has enough shelter beds or housing options for everyone at the Roseland encampments. She doesn’t expect to extend the move-out deadline again.

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at?707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @thejdmorris.