CITY OF SEBASTOPOL
CITY COUNCIL
AGEND ITEM
Meeting Date: October 17, 2023
To: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
From: Kari Svanstrom, Planning Director; SAVS (Sonoma Applied Villages) Subject: Sonoma Applied Villages (SAVS) Quarterly Informational Report as required by Use Permit Recommendation : Receive report
Funding: Currently Budgeted: ☐ Yes ☐ No Not Applicable Account Code: [Fill in Account Number]
Costs authorized in City Approved Budget: ☐ Yes (Finance Initialed _____) ☒ No (Finance Exempt) INTRODUCTION:
This item is the second quarter report from the Sonoma Applied Villages for the Horizon Shine 24/7 RV safe parking village at 845 Gravenstein Highway North, as required by their Temporary Use Permit.
DISCUSSION:
The Horizon Shine RV Village opened in February of 2022 and has remained operational since then. The property is owned by St. Vincent de Paul Sonoma County, leased to Sonoma Applied Village Services (SAVS). Horizon Shine provides a much needed safe, sanitary, compassionate, and respectful location for RVs and other lived-in vehicles.
Wrap around services are included, with a focus on improving the lives of those residing there. We urge you to read the report from Horizon Shine carefully (see attachments).
The Horizon Shine applied for a Temporary Use Permit that was approved by the Planning Commission, and upheld on appeal by the City Council, in 2022 for operation of the site as a temporary housing use through December 2024.
As part of that approval, quarterly reports are required to be submitted to both the City Council and the Planning Commission, to address any issues or adjustments needed to the operations of the site.
Note, this report will also be presented as a regular agenda item to the Planning Commission at their next meeting.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
The proposed action of the quarterly report is ☒ Not a project under CEQA. ☐ Not exempt ☐ Exempt under Section ______ from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
GOALS:
This action supports the following City Council Goals
Goal 9 - Enhance housing opportunities in Sebastopol and, when possible, provide assistance to housing projects. and General Plan Goals/Policies and Actions:
Goal D-2: Support Housing to Meet Special Needs (unhoused individuals are a special needs population) Agenda Item Number 6 Agenda Item Number 6
City Council Meeting Packet of October 17th, 2023
Policy D-1: The City will promote the development of new housing units affordable to extremely low, very low, low, and moderate income households and housing units that are affordable to and appropriate for special needs households, including seniors, disabled persons, developmentally disabled persons, farmworkers, large families, and homeless.
Policy D-2: The City will encourage the expansion of housing opportunities for extremely low income households.
Policy D-6: Sebastopol will work to prevent homelessness and support housing services for the homeless.
PUBLIC COMMENT:
As of the writing of this staff report, the City has not received any public comment. However, staff anticipates receiving public comment from interested parties following the publication and distribution of this staff report.
Such comments will be provided to the City Council assupplemental materials before or at the meeting. In addition, public comments may be offered during the public comment portion of the agenda item.
PUBLIC NOTICE:
This item was noticed in accordance with the Ralph M. Brown Act and was available for public viewing and review at least 72 hours prior to scheduled meeting date.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact associated with this report.
RECOMMENDATION:
Receive report, provide any feedback to SAVS.
ATTACHMENTS:
SAVS Quarterly Report
Agenda Item Number 6 Agenda Item Number 6
City Council Meeting Packet of October 17th, 2023
Sonoma Applied Village Services
Horizon Shine Village
845 Gravenstein Hwy N.
Sebastopol, Ca. 95472
PROGRAM QUARTERLY REPORT
SUMMARY OF VILLAGE
REPORT DATE PROJECT NAME PREPARED BY
Date:
October 2023 quarterly report
Project:
Horizon Shine Village
Name:
Adrian Brumley – Executive Director
Art Lopez -Program Manager
VILLAGE COMMUNITY STATUS SUMMARY
Over the course of this quarter our team has fully assessed all client files during which time we made sure all required information and documents were in the file, and organized all the content in a uniformed order, and created a master list of needs in order of importance.
As a team, Horizon Shine staff the list of needs were completed, and clients were evenly divided among the three case managers. Each case manager continues to work with their clients helping with obtaining CalFresh, Medi-Cal, and steady verifiable incomes. Every client is actively enrolled in the Coordinated Entry database and has all available documentation uploaded. Staff has developed an updated version of our program policies and procedures effective as of September 1st. As the closing of the site nears, we continue to work diligently to get each client to a state of being ready for housing. We are seeking alternative through outside services and agencies for any clients we are unable to transition into permanent housing or that appear to need a higher level of care.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
TASK % DONE DUE DATE NOTES
Village wide clean up. 80% ongoing A 40-foot dumpster for trash removal was brought onsite resulting in most of the village, communal and within
client RV space areas being cleaned and cleared out
and we continue to address this daily until 100% is
cleared.
Agenda Item Number 6 Agenda Item Number 6
City Council Meeting Packet of October 17th, 2023
Compliance with city fire
department inspection
86% (6 of 7) ongoing 6 new fire extinguishers in protective boxes that meet local fire regulations have been hung around the village with proper signage showing the location. 7 signs
showing location of designated fire lanes have been
posted and unauthorized vehicles parked within these
areas have been cleared or tagged with warnings of
being towed if not removed. Those clients with extra
items needing some storage space were given the
choice of using a spot within the storage container
owned by SAVS which is always locked and accessible if
needed.
Redwood Empire Food Bank
Account setup
100% 9/2023 We were successful in completing all the requirements needed to open a account at the food bank. Which
required staff getting food handler certified and
undergoing a inspection to be cleared and able to get
frozen and perishable items. We have setup 3 months of
appointments for shopping 2 times per week for food.
Clients are pleased to have better food options available to them.
RISK AND ISSUE HISTORY
ISSUE ACTION/PLAN DATE
Communication between staff and clients was a
major issue last quarter.
This quarter we have addressed this issue
with keeping regular daily logs and case
notes for referencing. Focusing on the set
policies and getting clients prepared to be
housed if opportunity arises.
Ongoing
Villagers completing 6 volunteer hours a week at the
site as our program operation manual stated was not
being emphasized enough to bring a since of pride
and ownership.
We have created a procedure that gives
the clients the opportunity to sign up for
their hours during our weekly villager
meeting. The sign up list for the volunteer
activities are on a first come first serve
basis which give the clients more
motivation to attend the weekly meeting
and to take pride in the task they have
been assigned.
This was implemented
09/01/2023
Visitor policy not being strictly enforced. This created frequent issues for the site last quarter and triggered a handful of calls to the Sebastopol P.D.
We have made adjustments to our policy
and procedures that will help the staff be
accountable for who is on site and the
entire staff to understand who can and can
not be on property. Visitor applications
must be filled out and signed off by staff
and visitors must sign in and out and follow
all village rules. If these policies are
violated the visitor risk having his
This action plan was
implemented 09/01/2023
Agenda Item Number 6 Agenda Item Number 6
City Council Meeting Packet of October 17th, 2023
application voided. The new visitor policy
along with other adjustments in operations
gives me the honor of saying this quarter
has had the least amount of police contact
of any quarter. We had only one police
contact this entire quarter.
CLIENT DOCUMENTATION
DOCUMENTS ACTION/PLAN DATE
15 out of 23 clients have and ID or copy of it in their file. All clients have recorded social security numbers, 2 of 23 have it physically on them. We are working
with all 23 clients to get them some type of income or
general assistance.
Staff will continue to work with clients in
getting them all aid or assistance possible.
They will also continue coordinating with
other agencies to overcome any barriers
keeping them from achieving these
accomplishments.
ongoing
SITE EXIT PREPARATION
ACTION PLAN
We have begun preparations to close the Horizon Shine site. There are currently 23 clients on site. We currently have a verbal agreement with St. Vincent de Paul, Executive Director Jack Tibbets. This agreement is for 8 trailer spots at their new site in Santa Rosa. SAVS is also working with Mr. Tibbets and Hunter Scott the Director of Coordinated Entry of Sonoma County to secure vouchers for a spot in the new structures on this site. We have also put in a proposal to the county for an 80-person safe parking site that we feel very confident in. SAVS is hoping to know the results of our proposal by the end October 2023. This site would potentially house the rest of the Horizon Shine clients. We have notified our clients that the plan is to have Horizon Shine closed by March. There is no set date. March is the goal but this could happen sooner or later then that. We have also created placement strategies assessment forms for our case managers to complete with our clients to better prepare them as well as our staff.
Agenda Item Number 6 Agenda Item Number 6
City Council Meeting Packet of October 17th, 2023