Marin Supportive Housing Project Overcomes Organized Opposition

MARIN COUNTY, CA — Marin backed a plan Tuesday to convert the site of a former Greenbrae nursing home into a permanent supportive housing project.

The Marin County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the acceptance of a $15.49 million Project Homekey grant to fund the project in partnership with Episcopal Community Services (ECS).

The project is expected to be completed early next year and will house up to 50 homeless people.

Opponents of the 1251 South Eliseo Drive project carried signs that read, “Don’t San Francisco my safe neighborhood,” an apparent expression of concerns that bringing the facility would bring crime and other big city problems to the sleepy North Bay suburb.

Board President Katie Rice, whose supervisorial district includes the city of Larkspur, said she believes the transformation of the boarded-up South Eliseo property can be an inclusive process that gives stakeholders and neighbors voice.

“Tackling homelessness and housing the unsheltered in Marin County is not a one-project issue, a one-district issue, or a one-Supervisor issue,” Rice said.

“It’s something we’re all committed to, hence the progress we’ve made to date and getting behind this important project and ensuring it is a success. It will be one more large step forward in terms of taking care of those who are most vulnerable living unsheltered in our communities right now. I look forward to the work ahead.”

James Holmes was among those who addressed the board in opposition to the proposal during public comments, The Marin Independent Journal reports.

“The offer of Homekey money would be great if there weren’t so many strings attached, strings attached such as accepting the riskiest clientele, the demented, the addicted and the convicted,” Holmes said, according to the report.

But not all in attendance were opposed to the proposal.

"There's been a lot of people coming out based on fear, not understanding who the people living in the project are," San Anselmo resident Lauren Krause told ABC 7.

"Just morally it's the right thing to do," she added.

Over the past few months, the county and ECS have conducted community outreach to neighbors in Larkspur and Greenbrae and held community meetings with stakeholders to answer questions about the South Eliseo project, county officials said.

A community advisory group formed to work directly with Rice, key stakeholders, and local residents on the project’s development and actions to address community concerns that aims to build public trust in the project.

“We will be making sure that when we create our operating agreement that it has accountability built into it as well as financial accountability,” County Administrator Matthew Hymel said.

“I honestly believe the residents will be more safe when folks are housed with supportive services and 24-hour staffing.”

With the state funds accepted, ECS will close escrow on the property in April, begin construction soon thereafter, and residents will begin to move in, in early 2023.

The Marin received approximately $9.2 million in 2020 to aid the purchase of 62 new units of supportive housing in San Rafael and Corte Madera, but the Board and County staff determined that to be inadequate.

In early 2021, the state announced a second round of Homekey funding worth $1.4 billion.

The Board reiterated its determination to create more permanent supportive housing when it increased General Fund spending by $800,000 in the 2021-22 budget last June.

The move raised the local ongoing budget to help alleviate homelessness to $7 million.

The county submitted the proposal for the South Eliseo site in November, and two months later added homelessness to its list of top County priorities after it received an update about the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and state commitments for Project Homekey.