Dear Council Members, City Staff and Jack Tibbetts,
Can you please include the following financial information as part of your presentation? 1) Construction budget including a breakdown of material costs (steel, drywall, electrical, landscaping, concrete, tile, fixtures, lights, etc.), labor costs, and operation costs including insurance, permits, water and sewer connections and any other costs associated with the building of the project;
2) Day to day operational costs including insurance, utilities, case managers, taxes, security, building maintenance, landscape maintenance and any other associated ongoing costs; 3) An operational budget which shows guaranteed revenue from secured sources and one that shows potential revenue from unsecured sources.
As the City/Citizens are partners in the project, the presentation is missing critical financial information regarding construction costs, operational costs and budgets.
Six months of security is not adequate. As Jack Tibbets stated in the Sebastopol Times, Homekey projects are occupied by drug addicted and mentally ill people. “When you start permanent supportive housing, people are coming in right off of the street or from a shelter, so a really rough environment. They get plugged right into a home, and all of the issues that they live with on the street, naturally, and I would say, understandably, come right into the home.
What do we have on the street? Prostitution for drug use—there’s a term for it. It’s basically more or less sex work for protection. A lot of times we’ll see women who get engaged in really bad relationships as protection on the street from being passed around to other partners, right? We see, obviously, the rampant drug use, the mental health issues. I’m gonna be the first to tell you honestly, those come into every permanent supportive housing environment right off the bat.”
https://www.sebastopoltimes.com/p/what-will-happen-at-sebastopols-next Jack Tibbets has also stated that SVP Homekey sites don’t have enough resources to manage the problems.
““It's sometimes painful for me to watch because there's a level of care required that St. Vincent de Paul just cannot provide,” said Tibbetts, a former Santa Rosa City Council member.” https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/st-vincent-de-paul-homeless-housing/ In light of this and the data the City has from Elderberry Commons, it is clear that security will be required for the entire time the facility is operated and should be 24/7 to help reduce the amount of phone calls to Police and other first responders.
As part of a good neighbor policy, SVP should provide security 24/7 for the entirety of the projects duration.
SVP needs to provide a plan for evicted residents. In the case of SAVS RV Village, residents were evicted for violent behavior and ended up living on the streets of Sebastopol. If SVP evicts a resident, they need to have a plan so the person does not take up residence within Sebastopol’s public spaces, creating a public threat to Sebastopol’s students, residents and business owners.
What will SVP do to make sure drugs and drug dealers do not have an impact on Sebastopol’s population and in specific, Sebastopol’s student population? How will you handle the inflow of drugs onto your property?
How will you handle prostitution and other criminal activity on your property? Elderberry Commons has drug use – meth and fentanyl – and prostitution. Will this be allowed on your property?
What is your policy on pets? Do you have a pet area? Are pets required to be registered and have routine vaccinations? What happens if a pet hurts another resident or neighbor? What is your policy on smoking – in rooms, on the facility grounds and on the City owned, adjacent sidewalk?
What is your policy on noise? Are there quiet hours?
In the FAQ, you note you might seek funding for TAY (transitional youth). Is it safe for younger people to be housed with adult addicts? Is is possible that younger people who are trying to become sober might not be pulled back into drug use living with older addicts? Is there the possibility of sex trafficking, which is happening at Elderberry Commons? How come when Jack Tibbetts presented to the Council, he failed to outline the social and community impacts and financial costs (police and first responder expenses) associated with this project? How come Jack Tibbetts and Diana Rich said that this project would house “Sebastopol Homeless” when clearly that is not how it works and is not how Homekey placement ever worked because it is run through the County? Why did Tibbetts and Rich lie to the public regarding placement and the impacts of this project? Several members of the public, on public record, stated that there was zero chance than you could specify who was housed in this Homekey project. Yet, there were claims that it would work in a manner to favor reducing the homeless population in Sebastopol.
Members of the public, on public record, also clearly stated there would be expenses to the City of Sebastopol in terms of police and first responder expenses.
Is SVP going to take responsibility for the economic impact and social impact of this project? Will they donate money to the City to provide additional policing, which will be necessary to mitigate the impact of this project on ordinary citizens, students and taxpayers? Thank you for providing this critical information.