Opinion: Loss of Funding Endangers Rohnert Park's Families, Homeless

Editor's note: This letter came in from Jim Gattis, who is the executive director of SCAYD in Rohnert Park. Gattis responded to . The City Council on a yearly basis gives money from redevelopment fund to three local nonprofits that provide homeless prevention, youth outreach efforts, drug and alcohol counseling as well as a slew of other programs.

As you know, the city of Rohnert Park's redevelopment agency provides crucial funding for SCAYD’s Homeless Prevention program recipients.

This funding gives families an opportunity to stay in their homes, most of whom would be actively homeless had it not been for the this help. The problem goes beyond the money. There is a huge community impact that leaves families — many with children, who make up about 44 percent of those helped with this funding — homeless and without any support.

With this funding and others SCAYD has obtained, we provided the safety net for this community. This includes wrap-around services that prevent these families from losing their homes and jobs — helping them maintain their homes beyond the initial one-time rent or deposit assistance, for example. Other program are offered, such helping families as find appropriate resources, teaching basic survival needs, food stamp and MediCal enrollment, legal assistance, counseling as well as resources within the county — all in an effort to help them maintain their homes, stabilize and become self-sufficient.

It also provides an emotional revitalization, restores their dignity and brings hope to people who are sometimes experiencing this for the first time in their lives. To abolish redevelopment agencies is to decimate a community of real people, which is the human element in this tragic decision.  

Without this funding Rohnert Park stands to see another dramatic increase in the homelessness rates. Schools will see a drop in enrollment as parents scramble to support their families, they'll move around the county, schools will see increases in truancy, loss of student engagement (hunger and stress noted as a risk factor for children struggling to learn) and crime rates can and will increase.

As the community becomes stressed with more people on the streets, and a drain on other social programs such as the court system, alcohol and drug use are likely to increase — as well as an increase of child abuse due to the stressors of unemployment and pending or current homelessness.

I realize the city is doing what they are required to do by the state but the human element cannot and should not be overlooked.