Dear Council Members,
How is it that SAVS has been running Horizon Shine for two years, costing taxpayers over $1,600,000 and only 8 out of 22 people are “housing ready?” That is not even 50% of their clients. By any grading standard that is an “F”.
Furthermore, why is City Staff time being used for this project? Sebastopol is not engaged in the management of the site. Sebastopol is not the landlord.
The transition of SAVS clients from St. Vincent De Paul’s land is an issue between tenant and landlord.
Sebastopol just declared a fiscal emergency. Our City staff is overburdened and under resourced. Why is Staff time spent on this?
As the Planning Director is moving to Arizona, I would recommend that City Staff time and Council time be spent on projects focused on the majority of Sebastopol residents and business owners. There should be zero staff time spent on trying to manage projects and people over which they have no authority and who are not residents of Sebastopol but clients of a SAVS, a Cotati/ Santa Rosa based non-profit.
Effective immediately, Council and City Staff should minimize any time spent on nonprofit endeavors which do not directly benefit the residents and business owners of Sebastopol.
As there are huge infrastructure needs (roads, fire, water, sewer) and local businesses need City support to bring in revenue for the City, Council should be spending their time and efforts collaborating with local businesses not out of town nonprofits.
Sebastopol is under two square miles with extremely limited resources and extremely limited way in which to raise revenue. Sebastopol cannot host, manage or support projects brought in by nonprofits which have many revenue sources and which do not directly benefit Sebastopol residents and business owners.
Horizon Shine did have a negative impact on Sebastopol as there were increased calls to police and other emergency services and increased levels of homeless individuals around stores and neighboring residential areas (like the encampment found at the back of Lucky’s).
Horizon Shine had many issues from management problems (there was a high rate of employee turnover) to having to expel their own residents due to violent behavior.
At this point SAVS is responsible for successfully transitioning their clients as that is their responsibility and why they received over $1,600,000 in taxpayer money. The City of Sebastopol has received zero funds, has not managed the project and has incurred additional costs. Horizon Shine was supposed to close in December of 2022; SAVS has had more than double the anticipated time to transition individuals into housing.
I hope that SAVS is able to “do good” by their clients and secure them permanent housing. If not, what has all this time, money, support and community investment been going toward? Best,
Kate Haug