Below is a letter to an allied supervisor in Sonoma County, and an administrator in charge of much of the count’s real estate. It was sent almost two weeks ago, when there was still over three weeks before the still-planned eviction of about 120 tent villagers in Roseland. Two dozen or so have been spoken for as having a shelter or other bed. I have not received a response in this request to address that 75% or so not getting a shelter bed or other bed. To my knowledge, none of us have received any insight into the government’s perspective on these remaining of their subjects since then.
Dear Supervisor Hopkins and Ms. Van Vliet,
We’ve provided you a list of problems that camp residents told us they have with using shelter services, edited only for clarity; some of their related complaints are at the bottom. The list gives a sense of the breadth of their perceived obstacles and problems, but also hints at places we might improve the process for some of the residents, and conversations we need to have.
Good Progress
At our meeting with the City’s nonprofit working to transition villagers, we all agreed to attempt to work together well, to see this effort through as best we can for the villagers. Jennielynn Holmes has agreed in principle that the HOST team will work more actively with Homeless Action! and the other support crew and activists, to ensure the best chance of cooperation with residents, and so we can get shelter capacity used as much as practicable. Seven of us who are experienced with village residents have volunteered to provide go-between or any other support we can; we’ve proposed pairing up with HOST team members to work together effectively, particularly within the village itself. Other volunteers have committed to helping with transportation, packing, and any other needs as residents are placed. CC and HA! will discuss and arrange our partnership in our weekly meeting.
An Illegal Presence
Surely all of us– government, activists, volunteers, residents and their families– are frustrated and sad that shelter and very temporary housing are all that are realistically available for 80-90% of village residents. It’s no doubt crazy-making for all of us that, even if we could convince many residents to go to the shelter, we only have beds for a minority. As usual, there isn’t enough money to go around for high-cost, permanent housing; our at-risk must again be passed over for more persuasive claims.
This was a bitter enough elixir for the villagers. It was especially hard for them when, at our status meeting on Monday, March 12, CDC and CC were once again anxious to gloss and spin those facts. The official response to the deep frustrations of the villagers was not believable plans in face of the hard realities. Right after articulating a hope of placing 10 or so of about 130 in permanent housing, we heard a familiar reiteration of how hard all work on their behalf; that a great deal of money is being spent; how the navigation center is pulling precious resources from elsewhere; how no stone is left unturned; and how every opportunity will be exploited.
I hope staff will soon realize how dissonant and surreal and maddening it feels, for villagers who have nothing to hear that roughly $2,000 per head will have been spent between late Feb and late April on their behalf. It was left to residents, after the familiar declamations, to highlight the truth: when temporary housing is gone in late April or May, it will again be illegal for our friends to stay anywhere more than an hour or two. It will be again be illegal to lay their head down to sleep. They will again need to find places during the day that they can hide every night. They will again carry all their belongings everywhere they go, or suffer them stolen or seized.
An Unprepared County
This sad chain of circumstance is why it was so upsetting when Ms. Van Vliet stated flatly that “the county” was “not prepared” to sanction villages. Supervisor Hopkins, we will all, activists and villagers, work unceasingly to “prepare” your Board to sanction our friends’ presence as lawful. This spring, we will demand, as creatively and loudly and uncomfortably as we can, that the Board gain the courage and sense to stop its cat-and-mouse machinations you described and decried in your recent open letter to Homeless Action! We demand that the Board face the county’s prima facie massive potential liability for personal losses and health costs incurred by our friends as a direct result of the Board’s careless, unconstitutional cruelty.
Well-run villages do not need to be perfect; they only need to be much better than other options, as they’ve proven to be in Portland and many other locales in the West. Sanctioned, modestly-funded villages will offer many significant improvements over the unplanned village in Roseland, and will dramatically reduce the county’s overall costs of homelessness:
lower public safety expenditures
fewer emergency service calls
far lower county liability/tort risk
consistent, high quality mental health services
highly efficient initiation, assessment and tracking by all service providers
far fewer assaults, thefts, and trespassing
far better insulation from gang activity and influence
far better job and volunteer pipeline management
far lower sanitation health risks
far lower environmental risks and costs
Most important, the synergistic benefits of living within supportive, organized communities like Last Chance Remembrance far outweigh the negatives of communal risks like STDs, skipped chores, and shouting matches. Sonoma county sanctioned villages will save lives, promote health, and allow a stable base for progress toward permanent homes and other needed, positive outcomes.
Supervisor Hopkins, Homeless Action! urges you, as the county’s champion of these destitute, to immediately publicly support the county’s first planned and funded set of small villages, where our friends can be free at last from a furtive, scattered, criminal existence. We stand ready to volunteer in hordes during workups, as organizers have done in Washington, Oregon, and in the bay area, and we will whole-heartedly support staff’s evaluation of prospective funding sources and uses, management protocols, and partners.
Kind regards,
J. Scott Wagner
Volunteer, Homeless Action!