Homelessness outreach efforts expanding in downtown Santa Rosa

Catholic Charities is expanding its street outreach efforts in downtown Santa Rosa with the addition of two dedicated workers who will provide a permanent presence in the city center.

Santa Rosa City Hall administrators and officials with the nonprofit homelessness services provider say the workers will be able to better engage with unsheltered residents and connect them with services.

Officials also hope the team can better coordinate with downtown merchants and property owners, who have raised concerns that homelessness, among other issues, has contributed to challenges attracting customers and retaining workers, to address their concerns.

Catholic Charities’ Homeless Outreach Services Team, or HOST, already provides services downtown as part of its citywide outreach work but is often called away to other parts of the city.

Growing the team has been a goal of both agencies.

“This is something that we’ve dreamed about, both Catholic Charities and the city, for some time,” Catholic Charities CEO Jennielynn Holmes said. “The existing team already works closely in the downtown core, but these two dedicated outreach workers will provide an ongoing presence that we hope will enhance the work that’s already going on.”

The Santa Rosa City Council in late October approved designating $100,000 in federal pandemic aid to hire the two workers.

Plans call for the pair to focus outreach efforts from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays in the area around Old Courthouse Square, Railroad Square, the West End and St. Rose neighborhoods, as well as in downtown parks.

There’s no detailed accounting of how many unsheltered residents are in those areas, but a handful or so people who Catholic Charities regularly engages with stay downtown, Holmes said.

The city is finalizing its contract with the nonprofit, and Holmes said the outreach workers will hit downtown streets as soon as the positions are filled.

The Homeless Outreach Services Team has served as the city’s dedicated outreach provider for eight years and the city currently funds four outreach positions, said Kelli Kuykendall, the city’s homelessness services manager.

Outreach workers fan out across downtown two times a week to meet with unhoused individuals and offer services. The city’s inRESPONSE crisis team, which includes an outreach specialist from Catholic Charities, also regularly responds to calls downtown.

The downtown outreach team will allow Catholic Charities, which opened a revamped homeless services center at Morgan and Sixth streets just over a year ago, to have a more active presence in the city center and in surrounding neighborhoods.

Holmes said the team will proactively patrol downtown, engaging with unhoused individuals and checking in with businesses. The team will also be available to respond to any emergencies involving unsheltered individuals in the area, she said.

The expansion comes as downtown stakeholders call on the city to take greater action to stem a perceived uptick in homelessness in the core and as the city increases enforcement efforts to curb camping in the area.

The City Council included funding in this year’s budget to hire two additional officers in the Santa Rosa Police Department’s downtown enforcement team. And in August, the City Council approved an ordinance prohibiting camping in city parks, sidewalks and other public spaces. City officials said both will help better manage unsanctioned camps and mitigate health and safety impacts.

Holmes said her team has not seen homelessness rise to the levels of a few years ago, when Santa Rosa authorities cleared several large encampments that cropped up at Highway 101 underpasses between Third Street and College Avenue.

And the number of people experiencing homelessness in Santa Rosa decreased 30% from 1,658 in 2022 to 1,160 this year, according to a January count.

Still, Holmes said she understands businesses are concerned.

“That’s why this is such a critical resource,” she said.

Outreach workers are expected to regularly meet with Nexstreet, an organization that contracts with the Downtown Action Organization to provide maintenance and other services in Courthouse Square, and coordinate outreach with the police’s downtown enforcement team.

Holmes said having familiar faces downtown will help build stronger relationships with individuals experiencing homelessness, which can in turn help outreach workers better understand their needs, engage with them long-term and connect them with proper resources.

It can also help strengthen relationships with businesses and get a better understanding of some of the challenges they’re facing and how the team and others working downtown can collaborate, she said.

Catholic Charities will be required to submit quarterly reports detailing the number of people the team has engaged with and the outcomes of those engagements, such as how many people were placed in a shelter or received other services.

The new downtown team will help the city meet a goal of growing the number of outreach workers citywide to 10 workers.

The city received a $3.9 million state grant earlier this summer to hire an additional four workers, two case managers and purchase an outreach vehicle to provide a suite of wraparound social services in southeast and southwest Santa Rosa.

Kuykendall said it’s critical that as the city steps up enforcement it also increases investments in services and other programs to address root causes of homelessness.

“The city’s approach to homelessness is leading with services and this expansion is part of that bigger strategy,” she said. “If we’re stepping up downtown enforcement team efforts and putting in new camping rules then we need to meet that with expanded outreach efforts.”

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.