City Council
Mayor Patrick Slayter
Vice Mayor Neysa Hinton
Una Glass
Sarah Glade Gurney
Diana Rich
City Manager
Larry McLaughlin
[email protected]
Assistant City Manager/City Clerk, MMC
Mary Gourley
[email protected]
April 5, 2022
Sonoma County Board of Supervisors
ARPA Funding Review Panel
To Whom It May Concern:
The City of Sebastopol is pleased to submit this letter of support for the Sonoma Transitional Housing Project, a collaboration between Sonoma Applied Village Services (SAVS), St. Vincent de Paul of Sonoma County and Homes 4 the Homeless for Sonoma County grant funding to support community resilience programs that address community needs identified as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Transitional Housing Project will, in part, fund two years of continued operation for Horizon Shine Village, a 24/7 R.V. Village currently located at 845 Gravenstein Hwy. N. in Sebastopol. Horizon Shine is an innovative concept that delivers dignified, affordable supportive housing to those sheltering RVs.
Sebastopol’s homeless community is the greatest beneficiary of Horizon Shine Village as the Village provides basic shelter and support for 25 formerly homeless Sebastopol residents. Not only does it help these individuals, but the City has seen a clear and positive difference in Sebastopol as a result of the Village.
SAVS set up Horizon Shine, operates it on a lot owned by St. Vincent de Paul, and works under a contract with the City of Sebastopol. SAVS furnishes professional services for Horizon Shine with wrap-around services in Greater Sebastopol. SAVS has set up and is operating Horizon Shine, a safe parking village with a mix of vans, trailers and RVs which are used as primary residences for the homeless people of Sebastopol. SAVS provides site management including sanitary and water facilities, a waste management system, security, access to food and individual whole-person-care support for the residents.
We find SAVS to be a competent and cooperative partner and have had no significant problems with the Village. We hope that this successful prototype can be a model for further development of similar affordable, dignified non-congregate shelter and create communities where they can pursue goals for empowerment and improved mental and physical health in partnership with the larger community.
The quality of life and well-being of the whole community is raised by working in partnership to end the condition of homelessness and to ensure that the City of Sebastopol provides a continued delivery of services to the unhoused, we encourage you to help us keep this project functioning by providing the essential funding needed to continue this Village as well as funding the additional two villages described in this grant.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Patrick Slayter
Mayor