To slow coronavirus, Santa Rosa won’t break up homeless encampments

Santa Rosa will not break up homeless encampments during the coronavirus emergency, a decrease in enforcement recommended by federal health officials.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that local authorities refrain from clearing encampments in places where COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, is spreading among the community.

Rousting people who lack shelter, like the groups that have set up bedding and tents at popular encampment sites beneath Highway 101 in Santa Rosa in recent days, could further spread the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, according to the CDC. Though unsheltered living can allow plenty of opportunities for social distancing, homeless people lack reliable access to health care and typical hygienic measures.

“We certainly don’t want to make it any harder for people that are living outside,” said Kelli Kuykendall, the city’s homeless services manager.

The city announced the shift in policy Thursday but Kuykendall said it took effect last week. At least 50 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Sonoma County, up from 22 a week ago, and untold numbers more have contracted the disease but have not had a positive test result.

The CDC’s guidance does not forbid the city from engaging with people living on the streets and includes the recommendation to space out encampments and ensure that restrooms near encampments are stocked with soap and other hygienic material. Officials are looking for sites across the county to set up portable toilets and hand-washing stations, Kuykendall said, including 15 to 20 in Santa Rosa.

City police officers and homeless outreach workers will continue talking to people in encampments about social distancing and the importance of good hygiene, though they and many other city services have been limited by COVID-19

“By default, everything is a little scaled back,” Kuykendall said.

The city owns Samuel L. Jones Hall, the largest homeless shelter in Sonoma County, and has moved 45 people sheltering there into the Sandman Hotel to allow for more distance between bunks at the old military facility, which normally can hold up to 213 beds. The most recent survey of the county’s homeless population estimated nearly 3,000 residents were experiencing homelessness here in January 2019.

Sonoma County earlier this week moved to secure 450 hotel rooms to provide shelter to high-risk and symptomatic people experiencing homelessness, but a spokesman Friday did not say whether Sonoma County would join Santa Rosa in temporarily halting clearances of homeless encampments.

“We are very concerned about a potential outbreak in this population and are working with individuals in encampments via our outreach team to bring them into our housing system,” said county spokesman Rohish Lal.

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.