Delayed opening of homeless shelter at Santa Rosa’s National Guard Armory

Santa Rosa’s National Guard Armory may open as a homeless shelter as soon as Friday after two weeks of delays, as the nonprofit leading the effort found it has taken longer than expected to clear bureaucratic hurdles before launching the operation.

St. Vincent de Paul Sonoma County hoped to have the winter shelter, which could serve up to 80 people a night, up and running before Christmas after missing an initial opening date of Dec. 15. But the group postponed the debut while its proposal navigated several layers of government approval, including the California Army National Guard, Sonoma County and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The California Army National Guard decided Wednesday to open the armory as a shelter Friday evening at about ?6 p.m., said Sgt. Maj. Tom Langenberg.

“We have the contract in place, we have the fire marshal in place and everything is good to go,” Langenberg said in an interview Wednesday evening.

Jack Tibbetts, the executive director of St. Vincent de Paul and a Santa Rosa city councilman, hadn’t heard yet of the plan to open the shelter Friday.

“That’s great news,” he said. “If that’s when they clear us, then we will absolutely be ready to go.”

The delay comes amid a streak of nighttime lows at or below freezing this month, with at least 11 nights so far in Santa Rosa that have dipped to 32 degrees or below.

“It’s just trying to line up the county, the National Guard, the Army Corps and St. Vincent de Paul,” Tibbetts said previously of the delay. “I really think the only holdup is trying to streamline that communication. And I also think the holidays … come into play.”

The additional shelter space also comes as Santa Rosa has redoubled its efforts to clear out and close several makeshift homeless camps across the city, a transition that many residents and merchants said was overdue. Officials have pledged that in doing so, they would try to assure that all displaced residents who wanted proper shelter could secure it.

The armory shelter has been embraced by Sonoma County supervisors, who voted earlier this month to move forward with the proposal. County officials Tuesday returned a licensing agreement to the National Guard, which is required by law to get a local government on board to use the armory as a shelter.

Adding to the complexity is the presence of the Army Corps of Engineers, which has been using the armory to coordinate its removal of debris from the October wildfires. An Army Corps spokesman said Wednesday afternoon that about ?150 people can gather in the armory each day as part of the work, and he wasn’t aware of any impending move.

Langenberg said Wednesday evening it was up to the Army Corps to decide whether to stay or leave when the shelter operations begin. St. Vincent de Paul is planning to run the shelter daily from ?5:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. through at least March 15, according to Tibbetts.

The armory has been used as an overnight shelter in years past. It has already been inspected by a Santa Rosa Fire official who asked for some safety improvements, including the installation of smoke detectors that St. Vincent de Paul subsequently purchased.

Multiple people connected to the armory or the shelter proposal have said it needs a sign-off on fire safety at the state level. In any case, the National Guard is planning a walk-through of the facility for Friday, according to Langenberg.

Despite the postponement and the string of cold nights, advocates of the effort said they were relieved to have a dry December as they navigated the various bureaucracies.

“If it were relentlessly raining right now, it would be a whole different package, and we would want to get (people) inside immediately,” said Sam Barnhart, who was brought on by St. Vincent de Paul to manage the armory shelter. “It’s the wet that really is a problem for getting sick.”

Should the weather worsen before the shelter opens, Tibbetts said St. Vincent de Paul was prepared to offer motel vouchers to homeless people, since the organization already budgeted to open the temporary shelter earlier this month.

The shelter was previously expected to cost about $130,000 to operate, according to Tibbetts, and the nonprofit has already raised the funds. The county won’t pay anything.

St. Vincent de Paul runs a thrift store in Rohnert Park and a free dining room in Santa Rosa, but the armory would mark its first time operating a shelter.

You can reach Staff Writer J.D. Morris at 707-521-5337 or jd.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@thejdmorris.