Homeless Emergency on Joe Rodota Trail

[Dustyg]

Fantastic plan. I clicked on the Community First! Village and was really amazed and inspired by what they are doing. I hope we can do something similar to show our chronically homeless that we care and want them to have a place to live that they can call home.

[foxrosie]

thank you for mentioning this Community First! Village . I've been reading about it (it's outside of Austin, started by someone with Church backing) and it sounds AMAZING. I was praying that something like that would happen here. I think would could get tremendous local enthusiasm for something modeled on what they've done there.

[Stargazer]

The Sonoma Development Center (SDC) is the perfect place to to do a planned community like Community First in Austin. SDC is vacant with many empty buildings on 820 acres in its own town of Eldridge. Currently the county is spending over $2 million dollars to do EIR studies. More wasted dollars. Just another scam. I wish as a community, we could stand together and force our state and county representatives to open this facility immediately. I am guessing that it could house 3,000 people and many more while offering lots of services that are desperately needed.

[karenm97]

Some great quotes about the work that would need to be done are in this article. Dozens of millions of dollars of work would need to be done on the whole place? Maybe parts of the place could be ok, but how to keep people from exploring the unsafe spots?


(part of the Press Democrat Network)
Sonoma Developmental Center quietly closes its doors
December 31, 2018

The Sonoma Development Center (SDC) is the perfect place ...

[occihoff]

But what should they do with their piss and crap? Just keep it on their side of the fence?

... Restraining orders against specific campers, the ones tossing piss and crap over fences, being threatening and confrontational, have helped a bit. ..

[Barry]

14 answers to frequently asked questions about Sonoma County's homeless

(Here are just the charts from this excellent article - See the full article here)

[Barry]

The Sonoma Development Center (SDC) is the perfect place to to do a planned community like Community First in Austin. SDC is vacant with many empty buildings on 820 acres in its own town of Eldridge..

There's more info about the Sonoma Development Center on the county's website here

[cyberanvil]

More information.
I would encourage everyone to read the Sonoma County HOMELESS CENSUS & SURVEY COMPREHENSIVE REPORT PRODUCED BY ASR2019 You can download this (and other) reports here

[Farmer Lynda]

Reposted from Lynda Hopkin's Facebook page

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For 60 Joe Rodota Trail residents, this is what the future looks like.

For the half-million people who live in Sonoma County, this is what innovative, first-in-the-state solutions look like.

For the hundreds of County employees, non-profit partners, and community volunteers who have been working around the clock and through the holidays and at our Emergency Operations Center to try to generate urgent solutions to our ongoing homelessness crisis... this is what the result of hard work and collaboration looks like.

A few facts about the Los Guilicos Village project:

7 days ago, the parking lot at Los Guilicos was just that — a parking lot. Today, it is a tiny house village with more than 50 single occupancy units, a shower trailer, a triple-yard dog run (complete with gravel to prevent muddy paws), a shipping container for storage of personal belongings, port-a-potties, picnic tables (made by hand by our local probation camp residents), and a freshly poured cement pad that will soon host a Navigation Center trailer. The final few housing units will arrive tomorrow; they are dual occupancy units to allow families to stay together.

Sonoma County is the first jurisdiction in California to deploy Pallet Shelters to create a village for homeless residents. And as the Pallet Shelter staff said, “nobody anywhere has done it faster.” (Who knew local government could build an entire neighborhood in 7 days?!)

Pallet shelters cost $4,000-$7,000 each (depending on size/model), and are created by formerly homeless or incarcerated workers. They offer a simple but dignified shelter with heat, lights, and electricity. Importantly, they provide homeless residents with a safe place to live and to store their belongings. One of the biggest challenges with living out of a tent is the fact that when you leave the tent, your belongings are likely to get stolen, which makes it difficult to seek job opportunities, social services, or even go to obtain food. This shelter solves that problem.

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Importantly, we do not want residents to stay in these units forever. This is a pilot project expected to run for 3 months; during this time, we will be accepting proposals from community based organizations and developers for longer-term village shelter sites. We will continue to work to find residents permanent housing solutions, and after three months will transfer remaining residents to a new site. We hope to establish two separate sites: one site will re-use these Pallet Shelters, and an additional site would utilize yet-to-be-determined structures.

Finally, we know that there are more than 60 people on the Joe Rodota Trail, and the Los Guilicos Village will not hold them all. However, our awesome Interdepartmental Multidisciplinary Team members are out there on the Joe Rodota Trail every day offering other housing and shelter solutions to homeless residents in order to achieve the goal of clearing the encampment by the end of the month. We know that a homeless encampment does not belong on the Joe Rodota Trail, and I understand the frustration, anger, and fear in the adjacent neighborhoods.

Please know that we are all working around the clock on THIS. On SOLUTIONS. On creative, innovative models of addressing homelessness... on initiatives that can bring much-needed HOPE to our community... and a HOME, however modest, for our homeless residents.

PS: Cheerios did not pay anyone for that shameless product placement. 😉

[Thad]

As a thing to think about for a pilot program is to have an option a person can get financed or work to own their shelter if they like it, and have the means to transport it to another site of their choosing. Pride of ownership is a big thing. Replace the shelter when one moves out. Congrats for a workable prototype.

Reposted from Lynda Hopkin's Facebook page

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For 60 Joe Rodota Trail residents, this is what the future looks like.

[Mayacaman]

Here's a piece of Bad News. Can this event be reversed? How about a re-run?

‘Right to Housing’ Bill Dies Mysteriously in California Capitol. What Happened?

[Mayacaman]

Grist for the Mill

Have you noticed yet that the political establishment does a little two-step on the Homeless issue? First, the Democrats and the Republicans play soccer with the Blame Game, kicking that ball back & forth...

=OR= it’s the Feds versus the States, each Party shifting the Blame to the Other…

Then, one side makes a move that looks positive. And then, they back-track. They seem to think that the public won't notice their moves when they pull the plug after they make their promises. After all, they have better uses for the Money. -And besides- the Homeless are "the dregs of society."

=OR= If the Money IS allocated - & sometimes it is many millions of dollars - somehow it always gets siphoned off and not much that is tangible is left to show for all those $$. "Homelessness" is a real Cash Cow for the Bureaucracy. That's why it's called the "Homeless Industrial Complex."

Let's be vocal enough to let the politicians know that they are being watched. Yes, let’s let them know that we are watching them while do their little dance. –And that we are hip to the real reason for the two-step. Meanwhile, folks are freezing to death on the streets of our cities.

Meanwhile, the bi-partisan Jokers on Capital Hill - now at loggerheads - just a few months past were enough in agreement to approve a Military Budget for 2020 that is, to put it mildly, Way Big: 738 Billion $$ for the Department of Defense alone. What is wrong with this picture?

We, the Public, need a permanent Solution to both the Housing Crisis & the Homeless Crisis = Which are the two sides of the same coin. I'll say it again: The Bureau of Land Management is sitting on over two hundred and forty-five million [ 245 , 000 , 000 ] acres of "Public Lands" in twelve Western States.

Does the BLM really care about "Conservation" ? Is that the Real Reason why the Lands that were once, formerly known as the "Public Domain" were closed to Homesteading in 1976 ? Ponder the Question. Study the Issue.

[Barry]

From News of the North Bay:

[karenm97]

I love how he thinks that only housed people deserve health and safety. "our safety and well being is at risk"

As bad as it is for the homeowners, at least they don't sleep outside and have had power and running water, trash disposal, possibly health care, and, hopefully, regular meals this whole time.

Wow we have an angry "child of government" ...

[wisewomn]

This article is in today's Press Democrat:


As Santa Rosa homeless camp grew, frustrated residents flooded government leaders with emails

[Barry]

Part 2: Lynda Hopkins and the crisis of homelessness
By Laura Hagar Rush, Sonoma West Editor, [email protected] Jan 27, 2020

This is part two of a two-part profile on Fifth District Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who is running for a second term in the upcoming election on March 3. Find part 1, "Lynda Hopkins’ first term was a trial by fire and flood," Jan. 22, 2020, at sonomawest.com.

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Lynda Hopkins has been wrestling with the problem of homelessness ever since she became Fifth District supervisor four years ago — first along the Russian River and now along the Joe Rodota Trail. If elected for another term, she says dealing with homelessness will be her first priority, followed by climate change and infrastructure improvements.

Early in her term, Hopkins worked hard on the homeless problem in Guerneville, even wading in with rubber boots and gloves to help clean up encampments before the rains washed everything into the Russian River. In addition to this hands-on approach, she worked closely with local homelessness agencies and looked into purchasing a property to house the river’s homeless population. (Neighborhood resistance to this latter idea proved impossible to overcome.)

“I’m proud of the investment that we made in addressing homelessness in the lower Russian River,” she said. “We’ve seen a 20% decline in homelessness in that area since I’ve been in office, despite floods and fires. That is really the result of working very closely with the community and with our service providers and investing $1 million in one-time funds to try to address what was a crisis when I walked into office.”

She also took the lead on the dispersal of a homeless encampment that popped up in the Park & Ride at the corner of Mirabel and River Road in Forestville.

“Obviously though, the homelessness crisis continues and has become very, very visible in western Santa Rosa again in recent months,” she said, referring to the large encampment on the Joe Rodota Trail, which the county planned to clear on Wednesday, Jan. 29 (after press time).

Continues here

[seedavelee]

I am glad to read this article (the full article) as it explains the complications of homelessness without a policy in place on any level of government (local, state and federal). It also reveals what happens on a local level when our elected officials are slow to act, in this case Lynda Hopkins. It further explains just how committed she is, what she has done in other areas of the county and now what is happening with the Joe Rodota trail homelessness (encampments gone in a couple of days with a solution for where the homeless there can go). In a way I see this is a good illustration of what happens with so many problems when community seriously gets involved, the "heat" that is generated and real solutions come to light.

Part 2: Lynda Hopkins and the crisis of homelessness
By Laura Hagar Rush, Sonoma West Editor, [email protected] Jan 27, 2020

Continues here

[luke32]

Recent PD articles on JRT Homeless crisis:



Clearing of Santa Rosa homeless encampment off to a slow start
The journey of a thousand miles begins, according to a Chinese proverb, with a single step.

The emptying of the sprawling, unsanitary homeless encampment on Santa Rosa’s Joe Rodota Trail began Sunday with a similarly modest feat.

Declared a homeless emergency by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in mid-December, the 2-mile long tent city was a muddy, rat-infested home to some 250 people. By sundown on Sunday, nine of them had upgraded to their own, private tiny house in a camp some 9 miles east.

Continues here


Sonoma County set to start clearing Joe Rodota Trail camp as judge considers compliance
Sonoma County plans to start clearing homeless people camped along the Joe Rodota Trail in west Santa Rosa on Wednesday morning, after a federal judge said Tuesday he will not stop the sweep.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria, who last summer issued an injunction requiring authorities to provide written notice and offer shelter before sweeping encampments, wrote in a preliminary decision Tuesday that he was “tentatively of the view that it would be not appropriate for the Court to adjudicate the question of compliance (with that injunction) before the encampment is cleared.”

Continues here

[cyberanvil]

Yea! Success is within sight. Now when those other 211 people buy in, we can all pat ourselves on the back and get to work on the other 2800 homeless in Sonoma County.

[Mayacaman]

Yea! Success is within sight. Now when those other 211 people buy in, we can all pat ourselves on the back and get to work on the other 2800 homeless in Sonoma County.

I spoke with a homeless soul yesterday after the meeting who showed up at the weekly Homeless Action ! meeting @ the Methodist Church on Montgomery Avenue in Santa Rosa. He had a bicycle, and stated "This is all I have in the world."

When I asked him if he also had a sleeping bag or a tent somewhere, he said, "No." He informed me that there are probably ten thousand homeless people in Sonoma County. Many of them don't have tents, and many wander around at night, until they can find a place to lie down... He said sometimes he travels on his bike all night long. The physical exertion keeps him warm.

Do I believe him? Are there really ten thousand homeless people in Sonoma County? I don't know; he is a wild man who rants about "Capitalism!" being the root of the problem. But I tell you what: because he "walks the walk" he is in a better position to have an accurate grasp of the real numbers of Homeless in Sonoma County than either the City Council or the Board of Supes.

This problem is so enormous. We really need to step back and consider the parameters of it. The social fabric in the Western Hemisphere is hemorrhaging; the System is breaking down - before our very eyes. On Sunday, I was informed firsthand by someone from Vancouver, B.C., that - in the present - there are big tent cities in Vancouver. - And all across Canada also, on account of the astronomical rise in the cost of Rent.

Perhaps the madman on the bicycle is right; the problem is Capitalism

[occihoff]

I'm inclined to agree with the madman on the bicycle. Does Europe, which if I'm not mistaken is much more socialistic, have such homelessness? How about Canada? I'm truly asking; I don't really know.

I spoke with a homeless soul yesterday after the meeting who showed up at the weekly Homeless Action ! meeting @ the Methodist Church on Montgomery Avenue in Santa Rosa. He had a bicycle, and stated "This is all I have in the world." ...

[podfish]

This problem is so enormous. We really need to step back and consider the parameters of it. The social fabric in the Western Hemisphere is hemorrhaging; the System is breaking down - before our very eyes. On Sunday, I was informed firsthand by someone from Vancouver, B.C., that - in the present - there are big tent cities in Vancouver. - And all across Canada also, on account of the astronomical rise in the cost of Rent.

Perhaps the madman on the bicycle is right; the problem is Capitalism

for any social issue, I like to look back and see first, if it's really new; and second, what is different than what came before.

This one baffles me. We do have precedents; the Hoovervilles, for one. Hobos were a 'thing', as were Gypsies, etc. So pretty clearly we haven't historically done a great job of housing everyone. Half-seriously, maybe it's because KMart tents are only a few bucks, so now people can have shelter out where we can all see them. Maybe the cops used to run people off more effectively. Or maybe there really were fewer homeless people because rents were cheaper. But it's not like there's tons of unused housing that the poor can't afford. Or, maybe I'm wrong, is there? I know a lot of high-end properties sit empty, plus there are "investment properties" sitting open like the one in Oakland that's attracted such attention. I wouldn't expect that to be enough to account for the current situation.

[Mayacaman]

I'm inclined to agree with the madman on the bicycle. Does Europe, which if I'm not mistaken is much more socialistic, have such homelessness? How about Canada? I'm truly asking; I don't really know.

Richard, aka occihoff, Here is the results of a web search I just did spinning the words "homelessness, canada, 2019" in the search box @ DuckDuckGo [Don't Google] These are the videos. To read about it, just go up to the top of the page, and under the search box, select "Web"

And here is the data for the corollary search: "homelessness, europe, 2019" :

Frankly, I think the madman on the bicycle is a Seer

[rossmen]

Looks like Stuart has been xed out. To bad, he was the most consistent and local wacco to the jrt. What he didn't get was that there are homeless campers in sebtown and graton. What he did get is that the encampment near stonypoint and 12th is Lynda Hopkins 4th baby, she has the most ineffectual power of any local pol to deal with it, and while she has tried hard, so far she has failed. So to complain about her, to start a recall, is about the best any one citizen can do. The only thing else we can do is go there and give stuff. Yesterday I walked the trail, mostly to see how big it has grown, and assess county shutdown effort. I handed some cash to a young man beyond the last visible tent west because he asked as I was petting his very sweet pit. We talked about tenting there as I wondered why say couldn't help him.

[DavidMySky]

As I was reading this line, I thought, sure, I'll watch it. But as soon as I scrolled down and saw the name Dinesh D'Souza, I said, oh, hell no! Fox Entertainment AND D'Souza?! Nope, no, just no, no way. TLDR, or should I say TLDW (didn't watch.)

I get that many people suffer from homelessness, and I finally had to weigh in on this long discussion.

Please try to overcome any inherent prejudice towards Fox News and watch this analysis with an open mind. It details the problem at a meta level.

[ray50sfo]

So sad to see a mind closed by a name, unable to consider an idea because of prejudice. Oh well, such is life. And we wonder why nothing changes...

As I was reading this line, I thought, sure, I'll watch it. But as soon as I scrolled down and saw the name Dinesh D'Souza, I said, oh, hell no! Fox Entertainment AND D'Souza?! Nope, no, just no, no way. TLDR, or should I say TLDW (didn't watch.)

[DavidMySky]

Sorry, no not really, but the reputations of Fox Entertainment, (the brain rotting network with the most godawful truthfulness rating compared to real news sources,) and a trump bootlicking sycophantic RWNJ precedes themselves by miles.

Prejudiced? Against blind trump supporters who refuse to see the years of work the next POTUS will have to do to un#u@/< what this treasonous  has done to this country and our standing in the world? In this case, you're damn straight I'm prejudiced.

https://www.salon.com/2016/10/21/din...hit-a-new-low/

[podfish]

So sad to see a mind closed by a name, unable to consider an idea because of prejudice. Oh well, such is life. And we wonder why nothing changes...

there is a reason that in a society, people do concern themselves with their reputations and strive to maintain a good one. Fox doesn't have a good one, for excellent reasons. Note the previous poster's not unwilling to consider the idea, but he is unwilling to sit through a video based on one endorsement when his previous experience with the source was so poor.

I know it's an easy way to argue on the interwebs and all, but posting links to sources that have a reputation of being strongly ideological, that don't have any counterbalancing virtues (like, say, intellectual rigor) isn't a great way to actually change anyone's mind.

[Mayacaman]

Because I am subscribed to the Homeless Action Google Group, {you can, too} I received the following missive in the newsfeed: A Letter to the Supes from the Oracle on the Bicycle:


My letter to the Santa Rosa Board of Supervisors..
Board of Supervisors,

A homeless emergency exists, a comprehensive Homeless solution must be implemented. To this point all efforts, ideas and programs, have been band aids, on an infected wound, where antibiotics are required, leaving the wound to fester. The Supervisors should prioritize working on a comprehensive Homeless solution.

Ideally, the solution should have the Un Sheltered independently, as a cooperative entity, owning and providing shelter with and for other Homeless people. Often times, when funds are allocated, the groups who are given the responsibility of facilitating shelter, have their own agenda and although they claim, it's not enough, somehow they acquire properties and other resources that the Homeless never see.

These are people, people do not get swept, we sweep garbage. We should NOT forcibly remove people living on county property till housing is secured for each and every person. Immediately commence creating adequate shelters for all of Sonoma County's 10,000 un sheltered residents. Stop playing politics with people's lives by rejecting potential shelter sites based on Supervisors' fears of not being electable if a shelter is built in their district; make decisions about shelter locations based on access to services and safety and dignity for the shelter residents.

Include un housed people in the planning process for each shelter so that their needs, priorities, and perspectives are at the forefront in decision making to ensure success Take drastic steps to address the systemic causes that lead to homelessness like affordable housing, inequality, fair wages

Regards,
Eddie Campagnola

Homeless Author of, "Directions to the Dumpster"

[bakerchic]

I don't think Fox is being pre-judged. It's not prejudice if an opinion or actions are based on another person's decade-long history of a certain position which they have never disavowed. Fox "News" has a position that doesn't and has never aligned with mine. I feel no obligation to listen to anymore of their opinions. If you know someone who has punched you in the gut for the past 10 years, and they invite you over for a visit, are you going? I wouldn't. I can rightly say, without being accused of being "prejudiced," that their past behavior has influenced my opinion of them and I want to have nothing to do with them. That is not prejudice, it is opinion and action based on my knowledge of them. Someone should be able to act on the knowledge they have received about something without being called prejudiced.

So sad to see a mind closed by a name, unable to consider an idea because of prejudice. Oh well, such is life. And we wonder why nothing changes...