Officials in Santa Rosa are set to unveil emergency proposals to shelter people in fairgrounds as the city – and the state – struggles with a homeless emergency where more than 130,000 people are living on the streets across California.
In Santa Rosa, around 185 people have set up a mile-long camp along the Joe Rodota Trail, next to Highway 12.
The proposed plan, set to be unveiled on Tuesday, will allow those living in the makeshift shelters and the rest of the 3,000 homeless people in Sonoma County to move into the fairgrounds, The Press Democrat reports.
Leaders in the city, struggling with the biggest homeless camp in its history, are said to have been inspired by how the fairgrounds were used during wildfires and flooding.
Emergency measures will also propose safe camping spots, reaching out to families of those living on the streets and using multiple bedroom homes to keep communities formed on the streets together.
They will go before the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
A plan to allow some of the 3,000 people living on the streets in Sonoma County to move into the makeshift shelters will be unveiled Tuesday, reports say. Picture courtesy of KPIX 5
Leaders in the city, struggling with the biggest homeless camp in its history, are said to have been inspired by how the fairgrounds were used during wildfires and flooding. ABC7 image
The fairground shelter will have full time security, as well as medical help and mental health support. Those with access would receive water, sanitation and heat
Homeless advocate Scott Wagner told The Press Democrat: ‘The rains beginning every year is the most significant time for homeless people. New homeless people are lost and they’re going to screw up badly. Old homeless people are gonna get sick. They’re all shoved into these weird places like this.’
There are thought to be around 185 people living along the Joe Rodota Trail, between Stony Point and Wright roads. It includes more than 100 tents and temporary shelters.
Santa Rosa Mayor Tom Schwedhelm said: ‘From my perspective, any additional resources to help us address this current situation is a good thing.
‘We’re getting an earful from a lot of community residents, “Why aren’t you guys doing something?” And, well, we are but it just takes time, and I don’t control the priorities of all the people involved.’
Supervisor Lynda Hopkins looks after the Joe Rodota Trail between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. She said: ‘During the Kincade fire we were able to mobilize a massive response — we need that level of response to the homeless crisis.
‘We need to wake up and treat it like the crisis is it.
‘We declared an emergency a year and a half ago, but we didn’t treat it like an emergency.’
The fairground shelter will have full time security, as well as medical help and mental health support. Those with access would receive water, sanitation and heat.
And there will be a zero tolerance for on-site drug use but those battling addictions will not be refused entry, according to the executive directer of the county Community Development Commission, Geoffrey Ross.
Ross insisted the plans were part of a number of proposals, adding: ‘What we’re trying to do is engage in a conversation with the board about options that are all centered on how do we address the homeless crises that are present on the trail at this moment.’
The Joe Rodota Trail has seen a growing number of people set up camp there
The fairgrounds will be fenced off if the proposal goes ahead with 24/7 security.
Supervisor Shirlee Zane added: ‘By treating it as a crisis, we respond to it as a crisis. When we had fires and floods who stepped in – how is 200 people living on a park trail not an emergency in this horrible weather? It’s an emergency.’
In downtown Los Angeles Skid Row has become a symbol of the national crisis. In San Francisco nearly one person in every hundred lives on the streets.
In Sacramento, the state capital, homelessness has shot up by a shocking 19 per cent in the past two years.
And in June images from downtown LA showed trash piling up as workers struggle to keep the area sanitized. They were pictured wearing face masks among the dirt and grime.
Sacramento, which has an estimated population of 1.5million, has a significantly smaller homeless population than Los Angeles, but the problem is growing
Sacramento’s homeless population has risen 19 per cent in two years, with 5,570 people living on the streets. Pictured above is a man sleeping on the sidewalk in broad daylight
Brian Workman, originally from San Jose, lives beneath Interstate 80 in Sacramento
A decision to not cap the total amount of property that homeless people can keep on Skid Row was announced earlier this year and it sparked fury among some officials who say it will ‘only perpetuate the public health crisis that already exists’ there.
Last week one city said it may place a ban on feeding the homeless in public places as homelessness continues to surge in the Golden State.
The controversial measure was proposed during a city council meeting as Lancaster Mayor Rex Parris defended the proposed legislation.
And in September San Francisco’s homeless crisis prompted a group of residents to place nearly two dozen boulders along a sidewalk to keep people from camping outside their homes.
The boulder barrier sat along a half-block stretch of sidewalk on Clinton Park in the Mission Dolores neighborhood.
A week later, the city removed the boulder barrier over safety concerns.
Business owners also placed large logs along a commercial street in Oakland to stop homeless encampments being set up outside their stores.
The logs – some of which measure 10- feet in length – appeared December 2 on West Oakland’s Poplar Street – a popular place for the homeless to park their RVs and dilapidated vehicles.
California’s growing homeless emergency. Figures as of August 2019