PD Editorial: Wet reminder that more shelters are needed

For most of us, this winter’s rainstorms are welcome relief from an unrelenting drought.

But most of us don’t have to sleep outside.

The wet weather - more than 15 inches of rain have fallen in Santa Rosa since Jan. 1?and more is expected this week?- is exposing a desperate shortage of emergency shelter space for the homeless.

Without a dry place to go, dozens of people are seeking cover on sidewalks on Fifth, Sixth and Ninth streets beneath Highway 101. A few camp each night in small tents, but most huddle together against the rain and cold, then pack up their meager belongings each morning. The human suffering is overwhelming.

At the same time, it’s easy to understand the concerns of residents in the nearby West End and St. Rose neighborhoods, who say the encampments are unsightly and unsanitary and intimidating. “It’s become unbearable,” Catherine Dale told the City Council recently. “We are overrun as a neighborhood.”

Police can’t simply move them on. And if they could, there’s nowhere to go.

The high cost and short supply of housing in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County is an ongoing challenge for elected officials. Homelessness is an immediate crisis, amplified by winter conditions, and it requires an urgent response.

Using the National Guard Armory as an overnight shelter is most obvious. It was used as a shelter for more than a decade, and it isn’t far from the underpasses where so many homeless people are congregating. The armory was among the options presented to the City Council earlier this month. Why hasn’t this been accomplished already?

Another option presented the council, using surplus portable classrooms to add capacity at the city’s shelter off Wright Road, probably couldn’t be completed in time to deal with the immediate problem. It is, however, a creative and cost-effective approach that should be pursued for the future.

Homelessness isn’t Santa Rosa’s problem alone. Neither is the city alone in responding slowly to the human toll. Sonoma County officials say turning the old Sutter Hospital on Chanate Road into a shelter would be too costly, but months have passed without any apparent progress on their plan to place tiny houses for the homeless on vacant land at the county administration center.

The overall picture has improved. A one-day census conducted a year ago found fewer homeless people than in any year since detailed counts began in 2009. Yet more than 1,900 were living in cars, encampments or on the street - almost double the number of people staying in homeless shelters. More than half of them are in Santa Rosa, and, contrary to claims that this community is a magnet for drifters, eight in 10 had homes in Sonoma County at some time. Nearly two-thirds lived here for more than 10 years before becoming homeless.

No one aspires to become homeless, especially during a cold, wet winter. Finding shelter for those still on local streets can’t wait until spring.