Sebastopol's homeless outreach provider offers to bow out and make homeless services the province of the police

West County Community Services reeling after county cuts funding

Officer Paige Thomas checking out a homeless encampment off the Joe Rodota Trail in 2024. (Photo by Ezra Wallach)

The most emotional moment of the last Sebastopol City Council meeting came late at night at the end of the meeting, when West County Community Services’ (WCCS) executive director Christy Davila suggested that the city take the $40,000 it usually gives her agency for a part-time homeless outreach worker and use it instead to better train the Sebastopol Police in how to deal with the homeless.

Davila, who seemed on the verge of tears, explained that due to funding cuts at the county level and elsewhere, WCCS could no longer afford to fund the full-time West County outreach worker, who had worked roughly half-time in Sebastopol.

“Our outreach services have not received funding from the county,” she explained. “We’ve had reductions from one of our funding sources, and looking at the $40,000 and the proposed recommendations for the scope of work—this is going to be an 18-hour a week position—this is really hard reviewing this—but with the available funding (or the lack thereof) this year, we’ve come to the conclusion that the money, the $40,000 is really not feasible to provide the scope of work with 18 hours a week. I read in the report that there’s a recommendation to keep the $40,000 within the police department for mental health training, which I love and advocate for. We’re recommending that you don’t consider the $40,000 for West County. I think the money would be best served and stretched staying in the [police] department for that type of training.”

This recommendation echoed that of Police Chief Sean McDonagh, who wrote the following in the staff report:

It should be noted that officers attached to the Sebastopol Police Department have intimate knowledge of the unhoused people within the city, connecting with them daily on routine patrols and calls for service and in doing so, have established direct relationships with them. In some cases, these fostered relationships have provided critical partnerships in identifying the supply of drugs within the city, or identifying other criminal matters, promoting local and joint investigations with allied law enforcement agencies to successfully identify the respective involved parties.

In a recent night shift patrol of the city by Chief McDonagh, several unhoused residents who have been residing in Sebastopol for a number of years were contacted, and they advised that they have not been approached or contacted by any outreach service provider associated with WCCS, with one of those individuals stating that he had reached out to WCCS on several occasions, never receiving any return contact.

As such, Chief McDonagh made inquiries into the option of the $40,000 funding remaining within the Sebastopol Police Department and being redirected to homeless outreach training for City of Sebastopol police officers, where the funding could be more accountable in respect to funding outreach to persons specifically within the city limits. City of Sebastopol police officers could then extend their existing relationships and connections with the unhoused community within Sebastopol, directing them to appropriate services and assistance.

In his presentation to the council, he also gave the following statistics from WCCS about their work with the homeless in Sebastopol

• Number of individuals engaged: 407

• Referrals to Coordinated Entry: 100 (since 3/23 – no data logged prior)

• Clients assisted with housing applications: 133

• Individuals connected to permanent or temporary housing: 1,384

• Number increased access to health services 377

Councilmember Jill McLewis asked Davila to clarify that 1,384 number, asking if it represented multiple attempts to connect the same people. Davila said that it did, noting that in order for homeless individuals to retain their place in the Coordinated Entry system, outreach workers had to regularly update that homeless person’s files or else they lose their place on the list.

“In order for them to stay active in Coordinated Entry, our staff who are trained and authorized to keep them updated in this HMIS Coordinated Entry System, they have to provide notes, documentation, go to coordination meetings within 90 days, and if that doesn’t happen, they [the homeless client] become inactive and ineligible for housing. So really, the critical work is keeping those connections and helping them gain the documentation they need to be housed and keeping them active in Coordinated Entry.”

Councilmember Sandra Maurer asked, “How much would it take to have WCCS continue with this agreement with the city?”

“For the full-time position? Maybe $88,000,” Davila said.

Maurer asked if funding a just-below half-time (18 hours a week) position was possible. Davila said that it was, but not with the proposed scope of work. Maurer asked if Davila would be open to renegotiating the scope of work and Davila said yes, she’d like to do that.

Councilmember McLewis pressed Davila on why, if WCCS’s services are working, the number of homeless people in Sebastopol just seems to be going up.

“Our numbers just keep going up,” McLewis said. “I don't understand it. A lot of people don’t understand it. I’m asked the question, ‘Well, if we have folks here, are they just making it too easy for everyone here?’ So do you have any thoughts on that? Or can you help us to understand why the numbers keep going up, even though we're doing all of this?”

Davila said the recent point-in-time count for 2025 shows that there fewer homeless people in Sonoma County, though she didn’t know the numbers for Sebastopol. (The city-by-city numbers haven’t been released yet by the county.)

McLewis and many of those who spoke during public comment seemed on board with terminating the WCCS contract and keeping the $40,000 in the police department budget for homelessness and mental health training for officers.

The majority of the council, however, wasn’t ready to jump on that bandwagon.

Councilmember Neysa Hinton said, “It makes me sad that we’re here, because I’ve been here with you guys for a long time. I will say I was very disappointed in the reports we received recently from April and May of the work that you did as part of our contract. I thought that they were sparse. They didn’t look like they had effort and thought put into them. And there weren’t a lot of numbers there, even for a part-time position, which leads me to believe that you are maxed on bandwidth right now,” Hinton said. “But I’m not convinced tonight we should make a decision at 10:15 at night without our full council here to reallocate funding to the police department…I think it’s too soon, but I have been disappointed with your fulfillment of our contract, with what I've received as a councilmember. It’s not the level that we’ve received from your organization in the past, and that makes me question whether we should continue.”

Noting that the council had already agreed to extend WCCS’s contract for 30 days, Hinton suggested that the council take those 30 days to gather more information.

Mayor Stephen Zollman, who is the council’s liaison on the unhoused, concurred.

“I'm asking my fellow council members to put this over for 30 days, have our general manager work with our police chief, work with Christy, to see whether it really is viable,” he said, noting that he expected the number of homeless to increase if WCCS’s work is discontinued.

McLewis reiterated her belief that homelessness is a county problem.

“I am a firm believer that the more we do here to solve the county’s problem, they will continue to have us solve their problem, because it makes it easier for them,” she said. “They are the people who receive the funds…They receive more monies than any of us. They should be prioritizing this.”

The county actually cut more than $2 million for homeless services in its recently passed 2025-26 budget—though it increased its services for mental health by $29 million—and there’s significant crossover between homelessness and mental health.

In the end, the council voted to direct city staff to work with WCCS on a contract for next year for Homeless Outreach Services and bring the issue back to the council next month. The vote was 3 to 1 in favor, with Councilmember McLewis dissenting.