Sonoma County creates solutions to homeless crisis

Key Takeaways

Wildfire devastation and the COVID-19 pandemic con­tributed to a homelessness crisis in Sonoma County, Ca­lif., prompting the county to create more comprehensive housing offerings to better meet the needs of its most vul­nerable populations. 

Members of NACo’s Large Urban County and Rural Ac­tion caucuses who met Dec. 4 at the NACo County Cross­roads Symposium heard from county representatives and Catholic Charities, one of the largest social services provid­ers in the country, about the importance of public-private partnerships and soliciting feedback from the population they’re serving in developing Eliza’s Village, Caritas Village and the Valley of the Moon’s Children’s Center. 

Eliza’s Village 

Following the 2019 Kincade Fire, more than 200 unhoused people formed an encamp­ment stretching over a mile long on the Joe Rodota Trail, making it the largest home­less encampment in Sonoma County history. 

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors declared a homeless emergency and de­voted more than $12 million to provide permanent sup­portive housing and critical support services for those in the encampments, creating a 60-unit tiny home village that was managed by the county Department of Health Ser­vices. 

The temporary project was replaced this fall with the per­manent interim shelter, Eliza’s Village, which is run through the county Homeless Services Division in what was formerly Sonoma County Juvenile Hall. 

If the state approves a re­quest submitted through the county health services de­partment, Eliza’s Village will increase the number of people it serves, said Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin, in a statement read at the sympo­sium by her chief of staff, Ari­elle Kubu-Jones. 

Expanding the number of people served should also ex­pand services that are offered, according to Gorin, who said she is hoping to see increased counseling, substance use ser­vices and a robust evacuation analysis for the campus, which is located in one of the most fire-prone areas in the county. 

“It is essential that if we are to house more people here, we provide supportive services to them,” Gorin said in her state­ment. 

“And not just warehouse people far away from their support networks and ameni­ties like transit, groceries and medical offices.” 

Caritas Village 

Another campus created to more comprehensively ad­dress the complexity of home­lessness in Sonoma County is Caritas Village, which provides housing, social services and medical care all in one center that spans an entire city block. The village features a 92-bed family shelter that includes case management; a drop-in center that provides people with “basic dignity services,” such as a place to shower, do laundry and get a meal; a full-scale medical clinic and an emergency shelter that offers recuperative care for individ­uals discharged from hospitals who have nowhere to go. 

“The biggest part is it’s an entry point into its shelter sys­tem,” said Catholic Charities CEO Jennielynn Holmes. 

“So, it’s a way for our street outreach team to bring people into services and start build­ing some trust.” 

An issue Sonoma County faced in addressing homeless­ness was people living on the street who refused support, and when Catholic Charities’ street outreach team asked people at the encampments why they didn’t want to go to a shelter, similar rationales kept popping up — they couldn’t bring their pets, they didn’t want to be involved in conflict over limited facilities and hav­ing housing on a first floor with no building security created a safety issue for individuals es­caping domestic violence. 

That feedback informed the building design, and now, 30% to 40% of the Caritas Vil­lage family center population is made up of domestic vio­lence survivors and the shelter accepts pets, helping house families in half the time it pre­viously did. 

“That’s helped us increase our attendance rate, people coming into services,” Holmes said. “Because we actually de­signed it with their needs [in mind], versus making do with what we have.” 

Catholic Charities is also partnering with Burbank Housing to build 128 on-site affordable housing units, 64 of which are already in use. Caritas Village was made pos­sible through both public and private funding, including $34 million in donations. 

“When we talked to our do­nors about why they were giv­ing, honestly, it was because they’re desperate for a solu­tion around homelessness,” Holmes said. 

“Homelessness feels like an intractable problem, but when you lay out a good vision for how you can actually re­duce homelessness, I believe philanthropy buys into it.” 

Valley of the Moon Children’s Center 

Sonoma was the first county in California to create a tem­porary shelter care facility for foster youth, and other coun­ties across the state are follow­ing suit, according to Donna Broadbent, Sonoma County director for family, youth and children’s services. 

Prior to the creation of Val­ley of the Moon Children’s Center, only 10% of foster youth were being served within Sonoma County, often resulting in them having to uproot their lives and change schools, which can lead to in­stability, she said. 

Counties without an emer­gency shelter place children directly into foster homes, when possible, but if there ar­en’t enough of them, children end up being placed in hotel rooms or Airbnbs or even of­fices, Broadbent said. 

The Valley of the Moon Chil­dren’s Center provides not only emergency housing, but also intensive therapeutic ser­vices for the youth it serves. 

“We have been very grate­ful to have a top-notch facility and to be able to say that chil­dren in Sonoma County will always have a place to go if they need a place that we feel good about them going to,” Broadbent said. 

“… Our mission is to serve as a safe haven for children to feel protected, cared for, nur­tured, respected and loved, so they can begin their healing journey and transition into stable, loving homes.”