Page 32 - Sonoma County Gazette - May, 2018

Roseland Recyclers Rebooted
¡Si Se Puede!
Alicia Sanchez, president of KBBF’s board of directors, reports that, due to the hard work of KBBF’s board, the volunteers, and the community of listeners and supporters, there is a new agreement with the City of Santa Rosa that will keep the station’s property out of foreclosure. The deadline of June 30th to resolve issues with the tax lien was fast approaching. It has been a time of engaging in creative thinking and showing grace under pressure. Sanchez shared, “We thank all the people who supported us on this effort.”
“What a beautiful day for a walk in the Neighbor Wood” said a nice Roseland lady helping to do a “Spring clean” of Roseland Neighbor Wood on Saturday April 21st. The effort was organized by Friends of Roseland Creek in honor of Earth Day which was Sunday April 22. She and over a dozen Roseland residents including Javier, and his teenage son Javier, were joined by students from Elsie Allen High School and Piner High School to pull out debris left
by illegal campers in the area. The successful effort was done by noon in time for folks to go to the Santa Rosa City Earth Day event at Concrete Square in downtown Santa Rosa.
Homeless Evicted From Encampment
The day was a pleasant contrast to the events two days before on Thursday and Friday April 19 and 20th when Santa Rosa Police Officers and California Highway Patrol Officers converged on the Roseland Village Shopping Center. They were there to make sure close to 80 campers who had been living behind the Dollar Tree Store moved off the site. There were also numerous Sonoma County government employees there to oversee the removal of the campers. Advocates for the homeless campers had done effective publicizing of the eviction so 4 separate television stations were on site to listen to speeches.
Revered Chris Bell, of Santa Rosa’s Unitarian Universalist Congregation spoke to the assembled crowd, emphasizing that all people deserve a safe, legal place to sleep.
But the talking did not stop the authorities for moving campers off site, disposing of leftover belongings, and having a chain-link fence erected. Now the site where the old Rose Bowl bowling alley was, and all the way to where the old Albertsons store stood, has been fenced off from public access. This includes the small exercise park built on site a couple of years ago just before the homeless arrived in Nov. 2015. There were three large 20 yard dumpsters used to haul of materials left behind after folks were helped to leave with U-Haul moving vans. A guard on site said he believed the entire operation “was costing taxpayers over a hundred thousand dollars.”
KBBF celebrated families and children on April 21st, Día del Niño, (Day of the Child). The afternoon was filled with entertainment, including storytelling, folkloric dance, music, and song. Keep reading RadioLand to stay current with upcoming summer events!
People have been supporting KBBF through the website by becoming sustaining donors. The cost is just $4.99 per month. There is also the option to make a one-time donation. Visit us online, at KBBF.org, for more information.
Last month, KBBF proposed using its station property to aid in the homelessness crisis in Sonoma County and provide some form of shelter or support. The City Council was split on this decision, so this plan did not move forward.
Since then, the homeless encampment at Roseland Village saw all its residents—numbering over 120—evicted, with no stable place to go. On April 19th, the community rallied to show support for the people affected.
Community organizer Concepcion Dominguez Galvan shared, “I think they should help the homeless and relocate them, support them, and give them rehabilitation. They should not be in the streets, wandering without a home. They need help! They are not animals—even an animal is treated better than the indigent.”
Her sentiments were echoed by homeless advocates bearing placards that read, “Place to Go. Right to Stay.”
In the meantime, police cars parked at the site, alongside tractors and dumpsters. People were placing what possessions they could bring with them in wheelbarrows, buckets, and bicycle baskets.
Late Saturday night it was obvious there were various folks still going into the site because the fence was not securely locked. Also there was no night time security visible to this reporter. The dumpsters were still on site and now belongings and garbage were stacked against the fence where the people were going back into the site. As one Roseland local said, “Now the homeless are here they are never going away.”
where she is a renter and the owners have said the city will not buy the land with a tenant living on site. Roseland Review will research this topic deeper because the city has bought land in the past and allowed people to live in the housing located on sites owned by the city. This has happened numerous times and the city now owns many houses. Some of the houses are in Roseland and perhaps there could be a way in which these houses can be used to lessen the effects of the housing crisis.
Dia del Niño
Support KBBF
Unfortunately there is not enough housing to go around in Roseland even though new homes are in the process of being built. Down the street on Sebastopol Rd. and Boyd Street construction moves ahead on Village Station with 110 attached single-family units to be built. Crossroads affordable housing complex of 79 units is being built on Burbank Ave. to be opened this summer. Paseo Vista is also under way on Dutton Ave., but none of these homes are actually available to the most disadvantaged people in Santa Rosa. For those folks the offerings are the Sam Jones homeless shelter on Fresno Ave. to the west of Roseland. There is room for 138 folks there according to city staff.
Veterans in need of housing have contacted Roseland Review and asked how to use their Section 8 Housing Vouchers issued by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. There are specific vouchers for homeless veterans known as HUD VASH which could be used to have rent paying tenants in vacant taxpayer owned housing units. Also possible is the use of the vouchers in shared housing. The city of Santa Rosa has recently approved an ordinance to allow previously illegal non-conforming housing in garages and out buildings to be granted legal use. This is a type of amnesty for previously “unpermitted” uses to now be allowed as Accessory Dwelling Units anywhere in the city limits. This could be very helpful to many Roseland residents currently living in unpermitted living spaces. Ask the Planning and Economic Development Dept. at srcity.org.
A senior citizen living in Roseland contacted Roseland Review to say the city of Santa Rosa plans to evict them from their home of 6 years. When asked why, and how, the resident stated the city was buying the land on Burbank Ave.
32 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 5/18