Councilmember McLewis asked the crucial question. Why has the number of unhoused homeless increased from 40 in 2022 to 108 in 2024? Other smaller cities saw dramatic decreases in unhoused homeless during that period. Cloverdale had 6 unhoused homeless, Cotati 21 and Sonoma 13.
WCCS was doing outreach on behalf of the city for all those years. One would hope they could provide insights into why our numbers are increasing and suggestions on how to accelerate more of these people into housing options that are superior to the park bench outside the library.
It is well established in Social Science literature that unhoused homeless are a costly problem to cities. Sebastopol is no exception. Police and Public Works are our two biggest budgets. The police reported up to 50% of their time managing homeless issues. This was before the issues Elderberry Commons has created. Public Works reported having to patrol public spaces each morning to clean up human waste and needles. There is a public comment posted for the July 15 city council meeting that estimates the city is spending as much as $20,000 per homeless person in the city. (Based on 118 homeless in Jan 2024 Point in time count). That is approximately 20 times what the city spends on services to the 7,400 residents.
Giving money to WCCS over the past 3 years has not improved the homeless situation in Sebastopol. Continuing to throw money at a solution that is not working makes little sense. Sebastopol needs a different approach. Councilmember McLewis has a good point. The County has the money and professional resources to address this problem. Sebastopol does not.
This is exhausting work and $40K simply does not cut it, nor qualifies as much of a "throw" if folks want to start going down the "can't just throw money at it" pathway. Mental health and drug abuse destroy lives, families, and the ultimately weaken the wider society, and yes, this pandemic (fueled in large part by ready access to fentanyl) is going to take more money and resources not less. Sideline pundits should take a week working Christy Davila's job before they weigh in too strongly. Much respect too to Sebastapol police -- certainly a job you go into expecting one thing and then have days where 50-75% of the work is basically tracking/ corralling the same addicted individuals from one spot to another
Councilmember McLewis asked the crucial question. Why has the number of unhoused homeless increased from 40 in 2022 to 108 in 2024? Other smaller cities saw dramatic decreases in unhoused homeless during that period. Cloverdale had 6 unhoused homeless, Cotati 21 and Sonoma 13.
WCCS was doing outreach on behalf of the city for all those years. One would hope they could provide insights into why our numbers are increasing and suggestions on how to accelerate more of these people into housing options that are superior to the park bench outside the library.
It is well established in Social Science literature that unhoused homeless are a costly problem to cities. Sebastopol is no exception. Police and Public Works are our two biggest budgets. The police reported up to 50% of their time managing homeless issues. This was before the issues Elderberry Commons has created. Public Works reported having to patrol public spaces each morning to clean up human waste and needles. There is a public comment posted for the July 15 city council meeting that estimates the city is spending as much as $20,000 per homeless person in the city. (Based on 118 homeless in Jan 2024 Point in time count). That is approximately 20 times what the city spends on services to the 7,400 residents.
Giving money to WCCS over the past 3 years has not improved the homeless situation in Sebastopol. Continuing to throw money at a solution that is not working makes little sense. Sebastopol needs a different approach. Councilmember McLewis has a good point. The County has the money and professional resources to address this problem. Sebastopol does not.
This is exhausting work and $40K simply does not cut it, nor qualifies as much of a "throw" if folks want to start going down the "can't just throw money at it" pathway. Mental health and drug abuse destroy lives, families, and the ultimately weaken the wider society, and yes, this pandemic (fueled in large part by ready access to fentanyl) is going to take more money and resources not less. Sideline pundits should take a week working Christy Davila's job before they weigh in too strongly. Much respect too to Sebastapol police -- certainly a job you go into expecting one thing and then have days where 50-75% of the work is basically tracking/ corralling the same addicted individuals from one spot to another