Volunteer Santa Rosa homeless operation reignites discussion about winter shelter options

The upstart volunteer group operating a mobile warming center in southeast Santa Rosa to provide emergency aid to unsheltered residents has reignited a perennial discussion about available winter shelter space in Sonoma County.

The operation, called Need a Hand of Hope, has sprung up to serve a disputed gap in homeless services: Caring for unsheltered people during the most inhospitable nights of the year, when conditions pose even greater safety dangers for already vulnerable individuals.

An estimated 2,266 people are homeless across the county, according to a January 2023 census, and about a quarter of those surveyed were chronically homeless. About 27% reported having a chronic health condition.

On any given day, only about 1,000 emergency shelter beds exist.

The current network of services, though expanded through the pandemic amid a surge in state and federal funding, just isn’t enough, particularly during winter, advocates say.

They point to the string of frigid or drenching nights in recent weeks, when official warming centers across Sonoma County rarely opened up, if ever.

Limited winter beds are open at the Mary Isaak Center in Petaluma and at the Guerneville Veterans Building, but most other emergency spaces have remained closed.

A warming center opened at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center in anticipation of a frost advisory in early January. Santa Rosa opened up its site at Catholic Charities’ downtown campus Jan. 31 as an atmospheric river triggered a flood watch and wind advisory, but it closed just as a bomb cyclone with hurricane-force winds barreled into the county Feb. 4.

Most extreme cold policies don’t kick in unless there are successive nights of below freezing temperatures or low temperatures are accompanied by extreme rain or other hazardous conditions, which advocates have long argued is too strict and has left those most at risk exposed to harsh winter conditions.

In the absence of more official resources, volunteers and advocates have stepped up efforts to provide aid and hand out winter coats, food and water.

Advocates have called on authorities to prepare earlier for extreme winter weather and to provide more flexibility when temperatures drop into dangerous territory.

Sonoma County Supervisor Chris Coursey, whose district spans Santa Rosa’s southern outskirts, agrees there’s a need for more wintertime options but said staffing and funding challenges have limited the region’s ability to increase seasonal capacity or operate warming centers on a more frequent basis.

“The cities and the county are doing everything we can to meet the needs on a day-to-day basis and having the requests to pop up warming centers in addition to what we’re doing, we’re at capacity as it is,” he said. “Trying to find staff and space for temporary shelters is a request that we haven’t been able to figure out how to fill at this point.”

Rebekah Sammet, a member of the Lived Experience Advisory and Planning Board, a group of people who have experienced homelessness and advise the county’s regional homelessness coalition, said she understands government resources and providers alike are strained but leaders must treat this as the emergency it is and with greater urgency.

“We have empty buildings, we have parking garages that can be staged as emergency warming centers. There are innovative ways to address this,” Sammet said.

“This happens every year and every year we scramble at the last minute,” she said. “It’s just so inhumane that we don’t have anything to offer other than the kindness off people’s backs.”

Advocates have offered suggestions, including calling on the county to provide funding for permanent winter shelters in each city that operate from late fall through March coupled with other solutions. Those could include setting up warming tents throughout the region and deploying mobile warming vans, which can serve people who are unable to travel to a central location like Caritas or get into other shelter space.

Sammet commended Need a Hand of Hope for taking up the charge and said she’s supported their efforts, delivering blankets and other winter supplies, and she hopes to see them continue operating.

“I’m with them, and I’m really happy that they’re out there doing that work,” Sammet said.

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