Sonoma Valley without shelter for homeless individuals during winter storm

With two winter storms slated to hit Sonoma Valley this week, homeless advocates have stressed the need to create emergency shelters for the vulnerable individuals in the Valley.

Kathy King, executive director of Sonoma Overnight Support, said, however, no funding for a shelter was available from the city or county. **

“We're handing out sleeping bags, we're handing out hand warmers and that's the best we can do,” King said. “I made a plea last month to say, is there an emergency plan for winter shelter at the community partners meeting? And nothing happened.”

Temperatures overnight Tuesday hung below freezing and rain fell Wednesday morning across the Valley. The inclement weather caused the National Weather Service to issue a winter storm warning for Sonoma County, from 10 a.m. Wednesday to 4 a.m. Friday.

“The city has been researching and vetting potential sites for a temporary winter shelter or warming center that would open during extreme weather events, but do not have one identified yet,” said Sarah Tracy, senior management analyst and public information officer for the city.

Dave Kiff, interim director for the county’s Community Development Commission that focuses on affordable and inclusive local housing, wrote an email to King outlining the county’s budget priorities regarding winter shelters.

“Last winter we were able to use special, one-time ESG-Coronavirus funds for the Sonoma Valley winter shelter,” Kiff wrote. “We do not have those funds this year.”

Sonoma Overnight Support, a nonprofit group that helps find shelter for individuals, received $185,000 from the county — $85,000 for staff pay and $110,000 for hotel rooms over three months — but the funds for hotel rooms and staffing has dried up.

“If we have funds at all,” Kiff wrote, “my preference would be to assist (Homeless Action Sonoma) in providing supportive services for the residents in the 18+ Quickhavens to enable folks to stay warm during the winter and to stabilize and move on to better long-term housing.”

Annie Falandes, founder of the nonprofit advocacy group Homeless Action Sonoma, said during a Nov. 16 Sonoma City Council meeting that she hoped to have shelters for her property open by late December.

She explained that Homeless Action Sonoma was awaiting the approval of permits to bring Quickhaven tiny homes onto her Boyes Hot Springs property along Highway 12, but pleaded with the council for a location to put a warming tent.

“We need a location to have a winter shelter or at least a warming station. We have a tent we have a generator, we have electricity,” Falandes said. “We have heaters, we have staff, we are prepared to do this and we just don't have a location.”

Until that happens, Sonoma Valley does not have a winter shelter or warming station.

Ahead of the winter storm, the county announced in a news release it would partner with local organizations to open “approximately 50 additional beds on a first-come, first-served basis” to address the needs of the unhoused population.

But the sites identified by the county, including St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Healdsburg, Entertaining Angels Nomadic Shelter Program in Santa Rosa and Guerneville Veterans Building, are not located in Sonoma Valley.

“It would be nice if we had a winter shelter for them to go,” King said. “I wish we could do it again. We were prepared. We did need the county’s money to do it.”

**Editor’s Note: Officials with the city of Sonoma and Sonoma County announced a partnership Thursday night that resulted in the opening of a temporary extreme weather warming center at the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Building in Sonoma. Click this llnk to read more about the opening.