Shelter Crisis Declared In Sonoma County

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday declared a shelter crisis in the county at an emergency meeting, paving the way to begin clearing a recurring and growing homeless encampment on the Joe Rodota Trail in the city of Santa Rosa. The board avoided—for now— selecting what some call a controversial site for an alternative managed encampment.

The emergency declaration will allow the county to close portions of the trail and use $1.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act and another $1.5 million in Medi-Cal reimbursement funds to establish at least one, and possibly two, managed encampments on county property, according to a presentation led by county Health Services Director Tina Rivera. Exactly which property was the point of much contention at the meeting, which saw 39 members of the public comment on the issue in-person and online.

The goal of immediately establishing new managed encampments that provide security, services and basic provisions to residents is to give the county enough shelter bed capacity to have the ability to legally clear the encampment on the Rodota Trail, which Supervisors and public commenters variously described as lawless, the wild west, dangerous, and hardly passable for bicyclists and hikers.

County staff identified two potential locations that could be used as safe sleeping or managed encampment spaces, including one at the Permit Sonoma parking lot on the county administration center campus that includes the supervisors' chambers. Supervisor David Rabbitt said he was in favor of limiting the move to that one site.

The new sites would potentially include tents; pallet houses, which are small, temporary structures, and spaces for recreational vehicles, which would move the county closer to creating the 200 beds needed immediately.

The other potential site — the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building — was denounced as an option by neighbors and several veterans who frequent the building. Those constituents made up the majority of the public commenters. Nearly all complained that the public was not adequately notified about Tuesday's meeting.

"If you took some more time and looked around Sonoma County, I'm pretty sure you could find some other property or other locations," said Lou Nunez, a representative for the veterans building.

He said the veterans who use the building are against the proposal to house a managed encampment in the northwest corner of the parking lot.

One neighbor of the lot, who described herself as an "irate mother," pleaded with the board not to select the site.

"This will change our entire life," she said, fighting back tears.

Several also rejected the fairgrounds as a potential location for a pallet shelter encampment, which was not part of this resolution but was mentioned as another option in the future.

A handful of commenters did support the plan, and some members of the public who said they had worked in homeless services said managed encampments are successful and do not result in the problems that the public was concerned about.

Ultimately, the hours-long parade of commenters against the proposal, which many said would have been in greater numbers had adequate public notice been given about the meeting, prevailed in dissuading the board from selecting the Veterans Memorial site for now.

Instead, the board unanimously approved an amended measure that did not specify which county property would be used, and instructed staff to further study options, including limiting the plan to the location Supervisor Rabbitt favored. The resolution also increased budgeting for security and cleanup services at the trail encampment by $200,000 in preparation for its cleanup.

Supervisors expressed a need for a clearer partnership with the City of Santa Rosa, as the section of the Rodota Trail impacted by the estimated 50- to 60-person encampment falls within city limits. Public commenters and supervisors complained that calls to the Santa Rosa Police Department about conditions or experiences on the trail seemed to be bounced back-and-forth without conclusion. Supervisors said it was the city's responsibility to patrol that portion of the trail and urged the police department to do more to enforce public safety.

Supervisor Chair Chris Coursey said a unified county policy was a key component to stop what he called a cycle that resulted in encampments recurring on the trail. An encampment of more than 200 people was cleared in 2020 and another cleared in August. The current encampment has grown from a few people in January to at least 50, according to Rivera's presentation, although Coursey said he had counted at least 71 tents on the trail as of Tuesday.

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