Three in five campers along Joe Rodota Trail struck out on own after sweep
Three in every five residents of a massive homeless encampment that occupied the Joe Rodota Trail in Santa Rosa for six ?months left the camp with nowhere to go when it was dismantled at the end of January, according to figures newly released by Sonoma County.
Officials say 100 people received placement in local shelters, including the new Los Guilicos Village composed of 60 tiny, individual structures erected just in time for the Jan. 31 trail clearance and closure.
Thirty-five others went to local shelters. Two went to medical facilities. Two went to substance abuse treatment settings. And one person, who already had subsidized housing lined up, got a voucher for a short-term motel stay, officials said.
But it appears at least 158 people - and no one knows how many more - either refused to engage with Sonoma County outreach workers or declined the shelter they were offered and simply left the trail for what was likely some other outdoor camp or makeshift shelter, according to the county report.
The data “is probably not that far off from what one could expect, quite frankly,” given the unique challenges and needs of each individual within the unsheltered population, said Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt.
Many who experience homelessness have emotional and mental health issues, disabilities or post-traumatic stress, personal experience as victims of violence or sexual crimes that narrow the kind of housing they can tolerate, advocates say.
Outreach workers also face the challenge of not always being able to engage people with drug and alcohol dependency at times when they're ripe for recovery, Rabbitt said. “Some of those things are not on your timeline,” he said.
Overall, the challenges are “very complex,” he said. “There's a lot of moving parts. There's no easy answer.”
“We understand,” said Supervisor Shirlee Zane, “that it's going to take several efforts in order to house all the people, and we also understand that sometimes people are too sick to even be able to help themselves. We get that.”
Members of various citizens groups who worked with trail occupants, offering supplies and guidance as their growing encampment drew public sympathy, anger and alarm over the fall and winter months, say the reluctance of homeless residents to accept county help also reflects a legacy of distrust and the inadequacy of shelter options - often the same choice offered over and over.
“If we're going to continue to (say), ‘Well homeless people just can't be helped,' then we've got some problems because that's just not true,” said Marcos Ramirez, founder of the Squeaky Wheel Bicycle Coalition, which became active during the Rodota Trail encampment.
The county's two-page report was released Tuesday afternoon, 11 days after residents of the squalid camp were required to leave the trail under threat of arrest. It is the first summary of results of an intensive, weekslong effort by the county's Interdepartmental Multidisciplinary Team to connect residents with shelter and services in advance of the Jan. 31 eviction.
The teams consists of medical, behavioral health and social service staffers assigned to find out what benefits trail occupants qualify for; discuss how best to address any medical, mental health and substance abuse issues they may have had; and assess their individual housing needs and preferences.
A primary focus of the effort was to prioritize vulnerable individuals for the $2 million tiny home village set up at the county's Los Guilicos Juvenile Justice Center off Highway 12 across from Oakmont.
The shelter is intended to operate for 90 days, with the hope that by May 1, two indoor-outdoor shelters at still undetermined sites will be open, with room for 40 people each - though several supervisors have said there may still be discussion about extending the life of the temporary shelter another 90 days.
Sonoma County supervisors also are pursuing a variety of other proposals as part of a nearly $12 million emergency package approved in December to try to make a dent in a homelessness crisis that federal data show is one of the worst in the country for a midsize metropolitan area.
In the meantime, officials said they could not allow the county's largest-ever unsanctioned camp to persist, given its location on a popular, regional park trail that had become littered with trash, used hypodermic needles and human waste and contributed to theft and other crime in nearby neighborhoods.
Under the provisions of a legal settlement reached last summer in a case related to a camp that was dismantled near the trail in April 2018, the county is required to offer encampment occupants an opportunity to be assessed by a trained worker and an offer of adequate shelter “reasonably suitable to the disability-related needs of the person” before they can be required to move.
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