Page 8 - Sonoma County Gazatte May 2017

The second annual art exhibit that focuses on homelessness,
It Takes a Collaborative Community to End a Homeless Crisis
Who is Ending Homelessness
in Sonoma County?
when we see so many more people living on the streets than ever before
but when you take a closer look you’ll nd there’s a lot being done by our
local communities’ system of care but they’re doing it with a lot less federal funding from years of cutbacks. So, they must work harder with less money while ghting a growing tide of homelessness caused by a lack of educational funding to train our lower economic labor force for twenty- rst century technology jobs, and cutbacks to social and health care program leaving people without care on the streets, and an extremely high rate of incarceration that limits future job opportunities for many people, and a military war complex that doesn’t think about former damaged vets once they get home, and add to all this a growing population of elderly baby boomers without support to keep them housed and it all adds up to more people living on the streets than ever before. Now with more of our federal dollars going to wars overseas instead
of infrastructure jobs here at home, we’ll never end homelessness but we can do more at the local level to slow it down and limit the time someone must
live without safe and healthy shelter. It starts by combining local resources and getting creative.
The Sonoma County Continuum of Care is a department in the Sonoma County Community Development Commission. They are the local funding stream for federal money to end homelessness and they work with the County and Cities’ Housing Authorities to meet the needs of people in our communities to nd and maintain housing and the social services needed
By Angela Conte
It’s easy to think that no one is doing anything about ending homelessness
Part 2
“A Place To Call Home”
Opening Reception,
Saturday, May 13, 4:00PM
Exhibit on display through May 22
to keep them housed. And the Sonoma County Mental Health Services Department is working very hard to end the cycle of homelessness and
its connection to mental health and substance abuse. The Mental Health Department’s 2017 annual plan includes a “Sonoma’s county-wide e ort to create a local behavioral health wellness campus where the system of care
will be located in one location shared with our Division’s new Urgent Care Center.” Also, the North Bay Veterans Resources Center has a well-managed successful program to help homeless vets. Each region of the county also has their own support systems in place to help people like the City of SR’s Catholic Charities of the Diocese of SR, , and COTS of Petaluma, and there are at least
at the Paul Mahder Gallery, 222 Healdsburg Ave, Healdsburg
“A Place To Call Home” continues to tell
the stories of the homeless and those at risk of
becoming homeless. It celebrates through art
the successes of North Sonoma County Services
while shining a light on the challenges that still exist and uses the transformative power of art to bring awareness and understanding to this vital issue. It also presents an innovative solution to transitional housing.
Sebastopol artist and architect Ken Berman and a Healdsburg High School art class project led by teacher/artist Linus Lancaster have designed mobile shelters that can be attached to bicycles and that provide a sleeping area as well as secure storage. Ken’s design, called a Turtle, not only brings greater awareness of the challenges
of housing but “demonstrates how a new design paradigm can remove the stigma associated with homelessness when it is also a functional piece of art”. The clean aerodynamic shape of the Turtle will be covered by artwork that has been reproduced from original paintings.
a dozen other e ective large and small organizations in the county working
to end homelessness. What the Continuum of Care is currently working on is a one-stop-shop for resource access called a Coordinated Intake System that brings all these community groups together and makes it easier for people to get the help they need. This kind of high-tech e ciency will also save valuable time and money in getting help to people at risk before becoming homeless whether it’s health care or job insecurities that are impacting their lives. Even though it seems like nothing is being done because of all the homeless people on the streets there is a lot happening in our community. It’s just happening with less money and more ingenuity while the number of homeless is growing exponentially.
Being displayed in the show is the first prototype along with 6 quarter scale models. The first Turtle will have one of Ken’s original paintings on it, reproduced on vinyl which also acts
as a moisture barrier. Ken envisions the turtles in
use as transitional housing as well as disaster relief. Ken has a patent pending on this design. For more information you can go to kenbermanart.com.
More than Funding to Solve the Homeless Problem
When it comes to slowing down homelessness it is statistically proven that best practices must include four important elements: 1) Enough housing for all so costs are kept down allowing for those who can’t a ord to pay for housing to also have access to it, 2) An e cient collaborative system of care to nd
and maintain housing for low and no income people, 3) A long-term social supportive care system to help the chronically homeless get the health care they need to stay in their homes, and 4) It requires money to go to real homes and not just temporary solutions like emergency shelters, tiny shack gimmicks or temporary institutional housing that are not private, clean, and safe. Americans have learned a lot through experience, research, and data about what it takes
to house people properly and it’s not complicated, it requires enough housing, an e cient system of supportive care, and a commitment to ending it with directed funding through a belief that every human being on earth deserves
a healthy, clean and safe place to call home. Sonoma County’s Homeless Programs are on the right track they just need the community’s support to keep them moving in the right direction.
The Healdsburg High School art class has taken a more traditional approach in their design, with more of a tiny cabin look, replete with shingled roof. Their effort is also a learning process, initiating them into the subject of homelessness and responding with a design that can help alleviate some of the housing crises that exist.
The show also features art work from other Sonoma County students in response
to the issue of homelessness: freshman class of Healdsburg High School, Healdsburg Junior High, The Healdsburg School, Healdsburg Charter School, Pathways Charter School, Healdsburg Elementary School, and St. John The Baptist School. Included in the show is an inspiring exhibition of photos taken by some of the homeless community in which each of them shares a day in their life through their photographs.
On May 18, 7PM at the Paul Mahder Gallery, Marcus Cano shows the documentary he made last year while a senior at Healdsburg High School. The showing is free. If you would like to donate to help - contact Colleen Carmichael, NSCS 707 433-6161.
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