Gravenstein Commons may house Sebastopol's homeless
PART 2: The council explores who gets in, how troublemakers will be dealt with and how homeless housing can change lives
This is Part 2 of a two-part article on Gravenstein Commons. You can find Part 1 here.
The Sebastopol City Council heard a presentation on Gravenstein Commons from Saint Vincent de Paul Sonoma County (SVdP) director Jack Tibbetts at last week’s council meeting. Their discussions were deep and substantive, and Mayor Stephen Zollman and Vice Mayor Jill McLewis drove the questioning.
Who will live at Gravenstein Commons?
As the evening wore on, the discussion came back to who would be accepted as residents of Gravenstein Commons. Mayor Stephen Zollman, who is a member of the Sonoma County Homeless Coalition, which oversees how federal homelessness funds are spent, challenged Tibbetts on the question of who will be admitted to Gravenstein Commons and how much control SVdP has over that.
Zollman read from SVdP’s report to the city council: “Residents are selected and referred through the Continuum of Care, based on the selection criteria, which SVdP and the City can determine together. This gives the City and SVDP some control of who will enter and what their level of need is.”
Zollman didn’t think this was true. “Again, serving on that coalition board, it is all through Coordinated Entry,” Zollman said. Coordinated Entry is a system, run by HomeFirst, that the county uses to place the homeless in housing.
“I had a pretty long conversation with Mr. [Hunter] Scott [of HomeFirst], and he said one of the criteria you can use is what’s called the Subregional by Names List. And what that means is that you can take individuals who are from your region—and in the case of Sebastopol, that includes Sebastopol, Guerneville and West County,” Tibbetts said. “That was one of the criteria that were established because a lot of communities had concerns about a lot of people from Santa Rosa just being taken from Santa Rosa and put in permanent supportive housing in their communities. We all know town councils are focused on taking care of the needs of the people in their communities, so that’s what I believe the Subregional by Names List criteria helps you accomplish.”
Both Zollman and Vice Mayor McLewis expressed their frustration with being told different things about this by different people. “We've been told numerous times that you cannot actually do what you just described,” McLewis said. “So is this something completely new?…It’s just disturbing to have all these different people telling us conflicting information.”
During public comment, HomeFirst’s Hunter Scott, who runs Sonoma County’s Coordinated Entry system, rose to confirm Tibbetts claim about the Subregional by Names List. “Projects referred through Coordinated Entry can indeed set their own eligibility so long as the funding sources allow them to, so that's really where the nuance can happen. As Jack mentioned, many of these projects have a huge milieu of different funding sources, and certain projects can look different depending on how that works together. So we look forward to those conversations with Saint Vincent de Paul and Jack around how that will look at Gravenstein Commons.”
Tibbetts offered to work with the council to develop the criteria for who will be chosen to live at Gravenstein Commons.
Zollman then asked about SVdP’s policy about families: “I understand you can’t steer people away, but are you planning on educating those parents who plan on bringing small children in with people who are fresh into the system with perhaps undiagnosed mental health and substance use issues?”
“When it comes to kids at these facilities—and I don't want to paint a picture that these are dirty, dangerous places; they’re really not, but you can’t entirely control behavior at all times. Would I want to be moving my sons into the Saint Vincent de Paul Commons? And the answer is, ‘No, I would not.’”
Tibbetts said SVdP allows children into their HomeKey facilities—as opposed to leaving families on the street—but he said they then work to move them out into a different kind of home as fast as possible.
“Any roof in any place is better than life on the street,” Tibbetts said. “The amount of trauma, danger, domestic and sexual abuse that occurs on the street is hard to describe. So we absolutely would take children, but we also say in the same breath that we would try to mitigate children from going there.”
He also said they explain very clearly to parents who enquire about a HomeKey property what living there is really like.
Mitigating the impact of troublemakers
The final three questions from the council dealt with mitigating the impact that problematic residents have on the facility itself and on the broader community.
Mayor Zollman asked who residents (and the city) should call if there’s a problem?
Tibbetts said residents are welcome to call him on his personal cellphone anytime, but he’d prefer they take their problems to the resident manager first “because this is going to be the person with boots on the ground who will probably already have an understanding of a situation.” He noted that his contact information was listed at the end of his presentation.
Zollman next noted that “Things didn’t go to plan for Elderberry Commons, and our police spent an inordinate amount of time at the facility, answering calls all the time. What would be your answer if the same thing happened at Gravenstein Commons?”
Tibbets gave three answers: more security staff; quality onsite staff that knows how to work with people’s needs; and attrition—namely, getting rid of troublemakers via evictions.
Vice Mayor McLewis asked, “Where do the people go when they get evicted? Are they going to our streets? Because at Horizon Shine, when they were evicted, they would just be out on the sidewalk, living literally like a few feet away. So what is your process and where do these people go? Because if they land back on our streets that just creates even more burden for our citizens.”
Tibbetts said they work to place people in local shelters and sometimes they’ve paid for people to rejoin their families in other states.
What’s the timeline?
Councilmember Phill Carter asked about the timeline for the project. Given the vagaries of construction, Tibbitts said he doesn’t like to give a hard date, but he predicted it would be finished by the spring of 2026, saying he’d like to have the property occupied by the end of May.
Public comment
In public comment, two speakers who live at SVdP Commons in Santa Rosa spoke about how it has allowed them to transform their lives for the better. Their statements were deeply moving.
“The truth is, when you’re not living on the streets, your health, both physical and mental, improves in ways you couldn't even imagine,” said Daniel Walker, who said being at SVdP Commons allowed him to turn his life around and even start a business doing mobile bike repair. “But more than the health care, more than the work, even more than the business, what matters most is what having a home has done for me, for my spirit. I feel happy, I feel whole, and I feel like I am contributing to my society. A place to call home is not just four walls and a roof. It’s not just a bed to sleep in, a place to eat or somewhere to shower, a home is the foundation of everything. It is a first step towards healing, towards happiness…thank you for supporting this kind of work that gives people like me a chance.”
Paula, who is on the resident council at SVdP Commons, said, “I want to share with you what it truly means to have a place to call home. To me, Saint Vincent de Paul is not just an apartment building; it is a community, a supportive system and a second chance in my life. Before moving to the Commons, I was homeless for 10 years, living without safety, stability and hope for the future. But when I came here, everything began to change. At the Commons, I found more than a roof over my head. I found a caseworker who cared about my journey; a food pantry to make sure nobody was hungry; and a staff that truly understands the struggles of coming off the street. Most importantly, I found the opportunity to work at the culinary kitchen program offered at Saint Vincent de Paul. Today, I earn $23 an hour preparing meals for unhoused members of the community. I’m not only working, but I’m giving back to people who walk the same walk as I once did.”
Paula also said that the help she received at SVdP Commons allowed her to reconnect with her family—three children and 11 grandchildren—and to get medical care.
She finished by saying, “Saint Vincent de Paul gave me dignity, purpose, family and health. It gave me my life back, and I believe that every person in our community deserves the same chance.”
Frequent commenters Kate Haug, Oliver Dick and Robert questioned the reliability of SVdP’s financial figures. “Where are the budgets with cost breakdowns that are line-by-line breakdowns for both the construction project and the ongoing operations costs?” asked Haug, who questioned how the project would fare amidst federal budget cuts. She also noted that the city’s previous city manager said Sebastopol lacked the capacity and expertise to provide oversight for the project.
Kyle Falbo began his comment by saying, “I just want to first commend the mayor for the way that he very tactfully makes reference to the unhoused. I think it really sets an example that I would hope that other councilmembers would follow. Taking stances or using terms such as ‘our streets’ is really, really concerning,” he said, referring to McLewis’s comments. “Many of these residents are our residents. These are also their streets, and to somehow make an us-versus-them type of claim by using terms like ‘our streets’ is really concerning to me.”
Referring to the debacle at Woodmark, Falbo also asked how SVdP would ensure that any money raised for special populations (like transition-aged youth, for example) is actually used to house those populations. He urged the city, which is a partner in this venture, to “have some sense of responsibility” to make sure that happened.
Finally, Kathleen Roppiano, a nurse who is a member of the Saint Vincent de Paul chapter at St. Sebastian’s Catholic Church in Sebastopol and who has worked with residents at both Elderberry and Gravenstein, suggested finding “a mental health provider that could cover both Elderberry Commons and Gravenstein Commons. I think that would be an asset for the community.”
Council comment
Perhaps because their earlier questions were so pointed, there was relatively little council comment.
Councilmember Maurer, who had, uncharacteristically, asked few questions earlier in the evening, said, “One of the questions I was going to ask of Jack Tibbetts is, ‘What have you learned from the previous unhoused situations that you’ve run?’ but you answered my question in your presentation. Over and over, you shared the experiences of the things you learned. I feel like Sebastopol, with Gravenstein Commons, is getting the benefit of all your experience and what you’ve already learned, whether it be the committee that you put together [meaning the resident and neighborhood councils], the fencing and some of the other things you mentioned. So I’m really grateful for your presentation tonight. I’m grateful to hear the two people who spoke to us today—that was very moving. I feel confident with your experience and the depth of Saint Vincent de Paul and their financial resources as well. Thank you so much for what you’re doing for the community.”
Councilmember Carter followed up on some of the public comments asking for full financials for the project. Interim City Manager Mary Gourley said they’d reach out to SVdP for that information and then post it to the city website. (We searched the city website for this item today before posting this story but couldn’t find it.)
Councilmember Neysa Hinton noted that, in 2024, the council had been split on the question of whether to go forward with Gravenstein Commons. Zollman and McLewis had voted against it, with Hinton, Maurer and then-Mayor Diana Rich voting in favor.
“I’m glad to hear that it’s moving forward,” Hinton said. “I appreciate your presentation. I’m sure it won’t be the last one between now and May 2026…Sounds like you guys have put a lot of thought into the project, and your financing is a lot further along than we worried about back in the day. So thanks again, and I’m sure we'll be seeing you in a few months.”