Questions for Nolan:
The county has 1 employee in the homeless division for every 50 homeless people in the county. The city of Sebastopol has none. Sebastopol also has no funding and no room in the budget for homeless funding. Looking at the Point in Time Counts in 2024 and 2025 that the homeless in West County move freely and in large numbers between county and the city of Sebastopol. How can the County and the city work together to reduce the burden of the homeless on Sebastopol’s budget and quality of life.
The last time someone in your position spoke to people in Sebastopol was to tell us the county had just bought our only downtown hotel and was turning it into Permanent Supportive Housing. From there the lost revenues led to chronic budget deficits, the declaration of a financial emergency and finally a sales tax increase to sort of right the ship. The County taketh but only very reluctantly giveth. How do you think about Sebastopol and the homeless in West County. Is it one population and the County should shoulder responsibility for Sebastopol or do you feel Sebastopol has to fund its own homeless workers.
Citizens here have seen no sign of county support for our homeless problems. Instead, you put 30 drug addicts and a prostitute in our small downtown area and wash your hands of the problem. We find our police making calls there sometimes several times a day. That is a cost for a small police force that the city cannot afford to even fully staff. One reason you might feel the county is doing its share may be the data you see that shows we are getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in Measure O funding (according to your presentation). Yet the funding has not appeared in any budget document during those years. Who is spending Sebastopol’s Measure O money and on what?
Your presentation also shows your MST teams are in Sebastopol almost every day. Your report says MST supported 278 calls for service in Sebastopol during the 24-25. 60 were with law enforcement and 142 without. To be honest no one I know is aware of these calls. We heard our interim police chief during one time say that the response times for MST for homeless issues were so long that they gave up calling for help. Most of the issues were resolved before they got here. Can you provide more details? How many of these calls were for the homeless vs other residents. What is the range of response times to Sebastopol. Were there really 278 calls? Who called? MST is the best kept secret in Sebastopol.
It appears you have multiple teams and can mobilize specialists to assist the homeless in getting into transitional housing and staying there. Also helping them to find “permanent” supportive housing. How can the county take that role in the city of Sebastopol. We have been paying a single outreach coordinator who has not gotten anyone into housing.
We got some data from West County Community Services related to their provision of Outreach services for the city over the last several years. The numbers show many interactions with the homeless to get them signed up for housing. They reported 1,300 applications to the COC for local homeless. There were no reports of any homeless in Sebastopol getting into any Permanent Supportive Housing. How can the County help get the unhoused in Sebastopol prioritized with the continuum of care?
The recent experience repopulating Elderberry Commons resulted in a dramatic increase in calls for police services by residents. The complaints were a combination of issues with drug addicts and drug dealing in the presence of families with children. One report of an “active prostitute” with families on each side of her room. There are similar reports from the SVdP Homekey project in Santa Rosa.
What criteria are used to place individuals in Permanent Supportive Housing? Does the county consider drug and alcohol-free sites for parents with children? Parents at Elderberry have reported that they were told this would be a family friendly spot.
Obviously with a working prostitute placed between two families with a child there is not a lot of forethought. What is the County doing about this? Many unhoused homeless people report the housing alternatives they have been offered are horrible. Recovering drug addicts report being placed in housing with drug addicts and dealers making staying sober a particular challenge.
What is the County thinking about putting recovering addicts somewhere where their recovery can be successful?
What is your policy on putting parents with children in a family-friendly environment.
With the closing of nearly all Group Homes in Sonoma County, many older foster children are now homeless. What is the county policy on putting unaccompanied youth in a safe permanent supportive home environment.
Your presentation shows $208.7MM in dollars received by the county to fund homeless services. This is $110,000 per homeless person in the county in a single year. Fundamentally here are 1,100 unhoused homeless according to the 2024 Point in Time Count and about 800 who are housed.
How many places do you have for the homeless and why don’t you have enough to house the population we have? There are many options for dwellings with a budget of $100,000 each.
Why is it so hard to provide sufficient housing for this relatively small population. Where does the money actually go if not for the homeless?
How do you feel about the term Permanent Supportive Housing? The folks put into Elderberry during Covid were told it was permanent until 2 years later they were told it was being closed for renovations. What is the county’s definition of “permanent”.? Our outreach coordinator explained that getting anyone from Sebastopol into housing is a timeconsuming effort. First, they have to meet certain criteria to get into the system. Once she got them into the cue the wait was up to 2 years. During that time, she had to keep track of where they were sleeping and periodically provide updates to the COC. Many candidates that she worked hard to get into the cue disappeared or just refused to continue providing information for what appeared to be no result. What are you doing to streamline the COE process. What is the County standard for waiting times in the COE process? There is a ton of empty land in the county, much of it owned by the County. There is land near Monte Rio that was purchased as a potential park several years ago. There are many homeless people living in the woods near Monte Rio using campfires, Wildfires are pretty common in the area. A campfire our of control during a red flag warning could threaten Forestville, Graton and Sebastopol. Why not create a safe camping area with wrap-around services and security to minimize the risk of wildfire and potentially help more people? The county owns land and buildings near the Juvenile detention facility on Highway 12 near Oakmont. The county housed homeless in tiny homes during Covid. Why not expand the efforts there with tiny homes, at a much lower cost than buying Hotels?