AI 6: Withdraw from city participation in
the ‘Gravenstein Commons’ Homekey
Project
At a broader county level it is clear that
funding for non profit ‘homeless’ project
organizations are now under greater
scrutiny as a result of tightening fiscal
issues, past failures and fraud, as evidenced
by the recommended Sonoma County
Homeless Coalition Board funding figures
being discussed by the BoS on June 4th.
https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Main%20Cou
nty%20Site/Health%20and%20Human%20S
ervices/Health%20Services/Documents/Ho
melessness%20Services/Homeless%20Coali
tion/Homeless%20Coalition%20Board%20
Meeting/2024/March/Addendum-Agenda-It
em-9-HC-Board-Meeting-03272024.pdf
The latest St. Vincent de Paul proposal to
‘partner’ with the City of Sebastopol puts
the City at potentially very serious financial
risk for 15 years while not creating any
housing solutions for unhoused Sebastopol
residents, because this will be a county
wide initiative for those deemed most in
need by the CDC.
The project will require substantial city staff
and police hours, exacerbate traffic
problems and brings no discernible benefit
to our city which is experiencing a serious
fiscal emergency hang over as a result of
similar previous failed projects.
I am not in favor of proceeding with this
project.
The City of Sebastopol has already gone
over and above at enormous cost to provide
care for the destitute, transients and
homeless individuals, the results of which
have been an entire city that is now
‘experiencing homelessness’ on multiple
levels.
Tax payers have a well run county level
homeless services organization headed up
by Dave Kiff. Presumably Tina Rivera will
move on or be fired from her position
above him as a result of the DEMA fraud
allegations at the former Sebastopol Inn at
Gravenstein Station HomeKey project.
The county should bear all/any risk for
county wide projects and they should be
developed in county cities and towns that
have not yet provided any homeless
facilities to share the load more equitably.
As a city in fiscal emergency we have to
stop the bleeding,, limit risk and focus on
economic development in order to be able
to resume altruistic budgeting decisions
based on future budget surpluses.
Oliver Marks
Downtown Sebastopol