Loss of SAY a ‘tragic wrench’ in homeless services funding process

Social Advocates for Youth, or SAY, a regular recipient of funding through the Sonoma County Homeless Coalition, had applied this year for $661,000 for its housing and street outreach programs for youth experiencing homelessness.

But the nonprofit’s collapse — it declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in February — will reshape the funding process, though to what degree is not yet known.

“This is a very unprecedented situation with SAY. It has thrown really kind of a tragic wrench” into the process, said Michael Gause, Ending Homelessness program manager at the county’s homelessness services division.

Gause said it will be up to the coalition’s funding and evaluation committee, or the full board, to determine whether other nonprofits can provide the services SAY was going to perform. Certain state funds require a percentage to be set aside for services for youth aged 18 to 24, an obligation that will be harder to meet without SAY’s projects.

The loss of SAY means Sebastopol-based TLC Child & Family Services, which also serves at-risk transition age youth, may well be awarded all the $432,664 in funding it applied for, something county staff have suggested.

Some providers have argued that with SAY gone, there is a need to focus on preserving existing services that the Homeless Coalition has already funded.

“One of the greatest tragedies in our local history is the closure of SAY,” LaSette Wellen, director of Funding Partnerships at Catholic Charities, the region’s largest provider of homelessness services, said in a letter to the funding and evaluation committee and the coalition’s board.

“It should never have come to that and as a community, we have a responsibility to make sure that the loss of a major part of or homeless system of care never happens again” Wellen said. “To that point, we need to make sure the core of our system is funded at safe and meaningful levels before we continue to fund new programs.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-387-2960 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @jeremyhay.