Page 42 - Sonoma County Gazette Janaury 2019

A HEAP of Emergency Funding to Help the Homeless
Happy New Year! If you read the Gazette front to back and don’t flip around like some kind of animal, this is the fourteenth time (maybe more) you have been wished felicitations for the Año Nuevo. Please let us have our fun—the New Year is a fresh blank page of the mind, a metaphor that fairly leaps to mind as I begin composing this missive.
The State of California recently passed SB 850, the Homeless Emergency Aid Program (HEAP), which is a block grant of $500m to provide direct assistance to cities and counties throughout California with the homeless crisis. Sonoma County is slated to receive about $12m of that funding in January 2019, based on the number of homeless individuals living within the Sonoma County. To put the amount of funding in perspective, the Sonoma County Community Development Commission (CDC) usually spends about $4m a year on homeless programs. $1.2m of the HEAP funding should be directed at the 5th District, based on the number of homeless individuals living within the 5th District.
A blank page offers every choice, and that’s why we make our resolutions, contemplate our hopes and dreams, structure our goals, plan our game plans for success. And I say this to you from the medium deep wisdom of middle age: it matters not that some of your great dreams will end in tears: you are still ahead in the game for having had them.
Corresponding with the timing of the funding, the County has reorganized what has been known as the “Continuum of Care” model of governance
for homeless services within the County. It was determined by an outside consultant to be inefficient, organized of various government agencies and non-profits, not working well together to coordinate County wide efforts. It has been replaced with the “Homeless System of Care”. The new Homeless System of Care is organized of a nine person Leadership Council, which includes Supervisor Lynda Hopkins from the 5th District, Supervisor Susan Gorin from the 1st District, representatives from various cities within Sonoma County, as well as two people who have experienced homelessness. There is also a Technical Advisory Committee, comprised of 28 people from various groups throughout the County, who will be supporting the Leadership Council.
The act of volition that is speaking your dreams aloud, even if only to
your private self, rearranges some molecules in the brain. The brain does not generally grow new cells, but that doesn’t mean there is no building going on. What the brain does is grow new nerve paths. Think of your brain as a really high-end whiteboard (or a computer, or a musical score): You only have the eraser and the markers, but with those you can write and rewrite your brain software until you run out of ink and erasers.
NEW Ideas... Santa Rosa City Councilwoman Julie Combs hosted a “New Ideas” public meeting on Saturday December 1st. Several dozen people spoke about how they would like to see the money spent. For example, Mark Krug from Burbank Housing, who is also on the HEAP Technical Advisory Committee, spoke about building new affordable housing apartment units, however the current cost to build said apartment units was estimated at $450k each. While these units are clearly desperately needed, the cost is a major obstacle. There were a couple of people who pitched the much more affordable tiny homes; however the obstacle with them is always finding a suitable location to place them. There was one promising specific suggestion of some lots that may be suitable that are currently for sale in Santa Rosa. Funding more “Safe Parking” was also suggested.
So how shall you rewrite your software for 2019? How will you program your brain to execute the change that you seek in the world? Me, I programmed it to spit out endless nested loops of metaphors until the readers fairly cry for mercy. Others put their talents to constructive use, like the hard- working team at Fire Safe Camp Meeker (FSCM). Richard Seaman, one of that group’s prime movers, reports that FSCM has completed its first grant application to Cal Fire, with the proceeds to be applied to hiring professional help in creating a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWFP).
An Ounce of Prevention...I spoke about the extremely low cost and success of our Workforce Fund homelessness prevention program, which pays emergency rent for local lower wage working people. In addition, I spoke about the possibility of directing some of the funding at the desperately needed residential substance abuse and mental health treatment facility beds we lack in Sonoma County. This emergency funding may present the exciting opportunity to fund something we otherwise have not had the to funds for, though we clearly need more treatment facility beds for people who do not have private insurance.
Richard Seaman, while wearing another of his hats, this one as board member of the CMVFD, proudly that four VFD trainees have graduated
from the Volunteer Fire Academy run by the Sonoma County Fire Services Training Program. This is an intensive 66 hours (with another 80 scheduled for 2019) of theoretical and practical learning, including live fire training while navigating multi-story smoke-filled buildings. Our new heroes are (go ahead and stand when I call your name, guys: take a bow) Tim Espinoza, Jonathan “JD” Driscoll, Jeremiah Johnson and Rafael Vera. Way to go, guys! Welcome to the front lines, and thank you for your service!
The Leadership Council will be hosting the next public meeting regarding the use of the HEAP funding on Friday January 4th @ 10 am. The meeting will be held at the PRMD hearing room, 2550 Ventura Ave., Santa Rosa. Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said she would like to “encourage creative solutions” and “empower outside ideas”. This huge one-time funding opportunity may be a critical part of the solution to our homeless problem. Please join us to represent the 5th district at the meeting if you can make the time.
CMVFD, who put in another hard year of training under outgoing Chief Tim Williams and new Fire Chief Henry Baker. Our volunteer firefighters do two or three training exercises a month, often working with emergency personnel from Cal Fire or the local ambulance service.
If you would like to learn more about the Lower River Area Community Alliances, become involved as a volunteer, or if you have some community concerns or solutions you would like to share, you can “like” our Guerneville Community Alliance and/or Russian River Alliance FB pages, or visit our website at russianriveralliance.org. You can also contact Jeniffer Wertz at 707-483-7038 (Guerneville), or Chuck Ramsey at 707-239-1639 (Monte Rio).
42 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 1/19
That’s what some of our friends and neighbors are doing to make sure that Camp Meeker continues to be a safe, pleasant and sometimes magical place to live. There are countless others, yet unnamed, who are doing their part, from each according to his or her abilities. People who are quietly working through the miscommunications and frustrations that inevitably come with doing good work.
What is a CWFP? You are undoubtedly asking, along with dozens of more detailed queries. I can’t help you with the details yet: I am learning right alongside of all y’all. I can trot out yet another of my tiresome metaphors by describing the CWFP as the architecture document. Or the recipe, or the sheet music, yada yada. It is the game plan. If done right, the big picture document that maps out where to fill in the details. If done right, it will keep to a minimum the miscommunications, wasted energy, and frustrations that are an integral part of any ambitious and important undertaking.
And while we’re handing out thanks, let’s not forget the rest of the
What kind of good work are you doing?
Feel free to share it! You’ve got my number (and email - see above).