Sonoma County leaders eye $12 million in state funding to curb homelessness

A Sonoma County group tasked with curbing homelessness moved ahead on a plan, requesting more than $12 million in state funding for future shelter projects and street-level services, even as residents and some of its members demanded more immediate action.

Tentatively named Home Sonoma County, the fledgling group made up of local government and housing officials and advocates met for the first time last week. Formed after a county consultant in 2017 found local efforts to address homelessness were fragmented, it’s meant to provide more coherent leadership in tackling the problem.

“For once, we are going to do this work in a coordinated fashion,” said Margaret Van Vliet, executive director of the Sonoma County Community Development Commission, who shepherded county leaders through the first-of-its-kind meeting.

Home Sonoma County is led by a nine-person council that includes a formerly homeless person, two Sonoma County supervisors, two Santa Rosa City Council members, a Petaluma councilman, an assistant city manager from Rohnert Park, and officials with Burbank Housing and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The five elected officials are a new wrinkle to Sonoma County’s Continuum of Care program, one meant to keep the major local governments on the same page as they explore regional measures to reduce homelessness.

About 3,000 homeless people were counted in a point-in-time census earlier this year, with dozens citing the October 2017 wildfires as the primary reason they were homeless.

In its first meeting that ran for nearly three hours, Home Sonoma County agreed to apply for $12.1 million from California’s new $500 million Homeless Emergency Aid Program.

The one-time grant program was approved by the state Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this year.

Sonoma County officials expect to receive $11.5 million in grant funding to go toward permanent supportive housing, emergency shelter or navigation centers, rehousing programs, street outreach and senior homeless prevention efforts.

They also expect about $600,000 for administrative costs, paying for staff time needed to support Home Sonoma County’s efforts.

This financial stimulus marks a critical opportunity for local officials to make waves. It comes on top of the roughly $3.4 million Sonoma County and its agencies currently receive annually in Continuum of Care funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the $3.2 million Santa Rosa spends on homeless services each year.

Santa Rosa Councilman Tom Schwedhelm, who was elected chair of Home Sonoma County, said he wanted to prioritize spending on projects such as permanent housing to assist chronically homeless people.

“This one-time $12.1 million is huge,” Schwedhelm said. “I am a proponent of investing in strategies that will end homelessness, versus just manage it.”

A chunk of the money could go to making improvements at Sam Jones Hall, the largest homeless shelter in the North Bay, said Jennielynn Holmes of Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa, which operates the facility.

Holmes, the nonprofit’s director of shelter and housing and a member of Home Sonoma County’s 25-member advisory committee, said the shelter needs a new roof, estimated at $1.5 million. Its need is acutely felt during wet winter weather, she said.

“When it rains, you know,” Holmes said.

The leadership council’s initial meeting last week focused on clarifying and shaping funding and policy recommendations presented by Community Development Commission staffers, eying how the state funding might be spent once it is released in mid-2019.

Numerous members of the public, Home Sonoma County’s advisory committee and even some on the leadership council were insistent about current needs, noting that people living on the streets can’t wait until the next fiscal year.

The dilemma was underscored by Katrina Thurman, CEO of Social Advocates for Youth, who publicly lamented the narrow failure of the nonprofit’s application for $200,000 in federal funding over three years to support its street outreach.

The decision against SAY was based on a scoring error but can’t be appealed, according to Thurman, forcing the nonprofit to rely on private fundraising to supplement services over the next several months.

Thurman said in an interview she knows the government grant process is slow by design and didn’t expect a quick resolution to the nonprofit’s funding dilemma. She said her public comment wasn’t meant as a request for Continuum of Care funding.

But at the same time, Thurman emphasized that “we have young people every day who need us.”

“I very much sit with the same frustration that other folks are mentioning, which is that tonight, people are going to be sleeping outside,” Thurman said.

Home Sonoma County members Julie Combs, who also sits on the Santa Rosa City Council, and Rebekah Sammet echoed the public outcry for more immediate action. Combs pushed the leadership council to discuss immediate supportive services, such as RV parks and encampments in addition to long-term capital projects at future meetings.

Sammet, who has been homeless before, made her case for more lenient requirements on potential service providers. “We need to get people in shelter now,” she said.

Van Vliet said it was clear that the Home Sonoma County leaders wanted to pursue creative solutions to address homelessness. She noted the new group’s work was on top of other local efforts, including Santa Rosa’s Homeless Outreach Services Team.

“We have other things in motion,” Van Vliet said. “It’s not like we haven’t started.”

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt on Twitter @wsreports.