The crisis at Elderberry Commons comes before the Sebastopol City Council, Part 2
Residents ask city officials to pressure Burbank Housing to enforce basic rules and end the chaos
This is Part 2 of a two-part article. Read Part 1 here.
After Police Chief McDonagh gave his presentation and the city council asked questions about the situation at Elderberry Commons—see Part 1—it was time for public comment.
As always, comments came from both people in the council chamber and on Zoom, alternating between the two. Almost all the in-chamber comments were from Elderberry tenants, while the Zoom comments—many from longtime opponents of Elderberry Commons—formed a kind of Greek chorus of concerned Sebastopol citizens.
Several commenters noted that this was a particularly interesting discussion, and though the Sebastopol Times rarely publishes public comments in their entirety, we have decided to do so in this case. Comments have been lightly edited for clarity.
A father’s anguish and ire
First up for public comment was Elderberry tenant Michael Zeigler, a wiry young man with a shaved head and owlish glasses. The first and last thing he did during his two-minute comment was thank Police Chief McDonagh and his officers.
Following up on McDonagh’s comments, Zeigler said, “I think everything he said was completely spot on, and I want to thank him and the Sebastopol Police Department for going above and beyond during this challenging time.”
The second thing he did was apologize. “I also want to apologize for my reaction to a lot of things going on,” he said. “It made me quite angry to be honest, and I have escalated some things and been quite hostile—the reason being, I was told this was a family-friendly property. My daughter is repeatedly exposed to prostitution, crystal meth, fentanyl, domestic violence, robbery, and in general, just the overall homeless stuff that comes with that—shopping carts, their friends in the parking lot, and going in and out at all hours of the night.”
He said he and his daughter regularly hear loud sexual acts emanating from the next apartment—the site of alleged prostitution. (In a separate interview, his neighbor two doors down confirmed that she and her 10-year-old son hear the same.)
He said the first security guard on the property smoked meth with some of the tenants. “I reported it. They gave the report to the woman with my and my daughter's name on it, and she continued her work there. There was no property management until two weeks ago.”
Zeigler said the property manager and case workers “sit in the office with the windows closed, blinds closed, turning a blind eye to domestic violence, crystal meth, fentanyl, drug dealing. All these things are against the lease. If you read our lease—I’ll provide a copy of it to anybody curious—every one of these things is a lease violation they are not reporting. They’re just turning a blind eye to it. Period. If they just follow the lease—and someone was enforcing the lease—everything would take care of itself.”
Make this a regular agenda item
Robert, a frequent Zoom commenter at city council meetings, had this to say:
This is a good discussion. You should probably make it a sustaining agenda item at every meeting until the situation stabilizes, in part because it sounds like every one of the council members and city staff involved in this have different bits of information that you’re not sharing with each other, largely because the Brown Act. So, yes, we have to do the public meeting, but that helps all of us understand too.
Blaming the Coordinated Entry System (a point system based on “vulnerability” that the county uses to determine who gets housed), Robert said, “Sonoma County Coordinated Entry System is sending us felons, drug users, prostitutes, as well as in the same batch of new people, a father and a daughter. That makes no sense. It’s nonsensical. Sending drug users and felons and prostitutes to a little town like us isn’t going to work. It’s not going to fit.
The Coordinated Entry System is being credited with this. The Homeless Coalition board appears to be the governing organization for the Coordinated Entry System, and at least Stephen and Neysa are our representatives to that board. So it seems like that’s one place that we can provide some pressure.
Broken promises complicate what seemed like a blessing
Crystal Kramer, a petite young woman with short sand-colored hair, sat through much of the council meeting with her baby daughter. When it came her time to speak, she read from a statement she’d written.
Hi, I’m Crystal. I’m a resident at Elderberry Commons with my 11-month-old daughter. Elderberry Commons has been a blessing in a lot of ways, but the only way that it can continue to be a blessing for my family and for those who call it home is if Burbank and WCCS or whoever are to be held accountable and to enforce the rules that were agreed upon at the lease signing. Also, we were told things that are not true—like we were told that there was going to be a permanent supportive staff member on site 24/7, and there isn’t one.
Look, we all lost our humanity because of being out there on the streets. A lot of us are rugged and all that stuff, and we all need time to come back together. That’s why that supportive staff member should have been there for us to make everybody’s lives easier.
I understand that Sebastopol basically hates us, since there was no danger in Sebastopol until we all showed up. And there are five families, including myself, that just want to be able to raise our families in this wonderful town of Sebastopol, with all its resources, with all this community—there’s so many great things here.
When I was at the Fire Earthquake Expo, I did ask the Santa Rosa Police Department why they don't send people out here to help the Sebastopol police, since they have 133 people in their department, and Sebastopol only has eight people. They said that it would be up to the sheriff's office to come out here. So my idea to make our community safer is to have an officer—like a sheriff—posted at Elderberry Commons to ease the burdens on the Sebastopol Police force and to make everyone's lives easier.
I wish that everybody kicks the drugs and stuff. It’s all, like, nobody wants to be held accountable, nobody wants to enforce the rules, and they all want to make the cops do it. And it’s not the cops’ fault. It’s up to Burbank, it’s up to WCCS to just do their jobs.
Kramer also said that she’d posted signs at Elderberry encouraging residents to come to the council meeting that night but that Burbank Property Manager Talia Beaumont had taken them down for “legal reasons.”
A frightening choice
Mary Cone, a frequent Zoom commenter at city council meetings, said “This is frightening to me as someone who had to call 911, when someone was trying to get into my house in the middle of the night. Two officers showed up within probably one to two minutes. And now that our officers are at Elderberry Commons almost constantly, I’m wondering—and other taxpayers are wondering—what can we expect when we call 911? I guess private security firms are going to descend on Sebastopol. As a matter of fact, one of my neighbors just signed up with one about three days ago. But I agree with the woman who just spoke and the man before her: if Burbank and WCCS would just do their jobs, a lot of this would be taken care of.”
Pointing a finger at the county
Oliver Dick, a frequent council watcher and commenter, who ran for council in 2022, said, “Sonoma County, Sonoma County Housing Authority (SCHA), and Burbank Housing are responsible for determining who resides at Elderberry Commons, and then WCCS is supposed to be providing wrap-around services. Is there anybody here from any of those organizations?” He looked around the room and up at the Zoom screen.
Elderberry resident Michael Zeigler spoke up and noted that Danielle Danforth, director of housing and homeless services for WCCS, was on the call.
Dick reiterated an initial public comment he’d made at the beginning of the meeting. “The county is not providing anything for us except problems. We’ve just heard from our police chief. It’s costing an absolute fortune for the city. If he does arrest somebody and takes them to the county, who are running this place [Elderberry Commons], we get charged four times [editor’s note: a reference to the 400% increase in county booking fees] and then they kick him out of prison.”
“These people are having to survive with random people, apparently, being brought in through Coordinated Entry. So the top of the food chain, that’s Coordinated Entry. That’s the problem. What is the county doing? They’re just shipping random people into Sebastopol…Now we’re hearing all sorts of bizarre stories about random people inviting their friends in and giving them entry keys. These aren’t the most deserving people in the county. And this is ridiculous.”
“Meanwhile, you’ve got a bunch of pleasant-looking people here,” he said, nodding at the group from Elderberry Commons, “who clearly just need to have a quiet life in this space, and that’s great—that’s what it’s for.”
“This is so expensive and it’s so incompetent. Somebody needs to get into the county and start banging some heads together, specifically around Coordinated Entry.”
An unsustainable, unconscionable situation
Frequent Zoom council commenter Kate Haug began her remarks by thanking the police. “I just want to thank the chief for all the work he’s done on behalf of Sebastopol. I know it’s the first few months on the job, and you got dumped into this pretty intense situation with Elderberry Commons. So thank you for taking this on.”
She continued:
I agree with the previous callers that the situation is not sustainable for our city, nor for our police department. I want to thank the residents that spoke tonight for speaking about their experience.
It’s criminal that children are cohabitating with the drug addicts and prostitutes. That’s totally unconscionable, and that is completely unacceptable. I would suggest that in your discussions with the county that you make Elderberry Commons family housing for people who are sober. I mean, I cannot as a parent—the idea that my child would be exposed to something along the lines of what both speakers presented is absolutely terrifying.
This goes on to my next part of my comment, which is that, as a parent in our community, I’m very concerned that drugs are flowing in and out of this facility—drugs like crystal meth and fentanyl, which are both lethal and can have permanent effects on people’s brains, especially young people. We have a huge high school in Sebastopol. What is being done to make sure that our young people are not being exposed to drug dealers who are hanging out at Elderberry Commons?
And I have to say that this project was unanimously approved by the Sebastopol City Council, even though people like myself said that Housing First was not a fit for our community because we don’t have the resources to mitigate these problems.
[Editor’s note: The previous council had no say in the placement of Elderberry Commons in Sebastopol. The county purchased the building. What the council approved was a package of perks that was supposed to compensate the city for the loss of the hotel that was turned into Elderberry Commons.]
How to stay clean in this environment?
A young man walked up to the podium. He did not identify himself by name, but his comment is worth quoting: “Two years ago today, on this exact day, I was admitted to a psych ward. I went through the process of healing myself and recovering myself in order to be only placed into Sam Jones homeless shelter. I waited in Sam Jones around tons of meth smoke, tons of drug smoke, so many illicit activities, and I went to go sleep in my car for about a year. After that year, I was promised a place at Elderberry Commons just to be back in the same exact position that I was in before. This is unacceptable, and there’s got to be some kind of solution to this, because there’s people suffering, trying to start a new life, like me. I’m 20 years old. I don’t have any kids, but I am trying to start a new life, and I don’t want to be around meth, and when I inhale that, walking up into my room, that’s a danger to me. So if it’s not illegal, it should be because it’s a danger to my life. That’s all I have to say, except that I’m appalled.”
What about Gravenstein Commons?
On Zoom, a commenter named Georges reminded people that Sebastopol is due to get a second Project Homekey site in the next few years. “I just wanted to point out, after appreciating this discussion and the efforts of the police department, that if the police department is already heavily burdened by the presence of Elderberry Commons, in the next couple of years, we’re probably going to double down on that. We’re going to open a new facility that's similar to it: Gravenstein Commons on highway 116. And I think at that point, it may eat up whatever headroom we have as far as making police available to provide general services to the community. And I wonder what the council might be anticipating in that regard, and what plans they have in place to deal with that when that kind of situation develops?”
Living in my car was less stressful
Elderberry Commons resident Deirdre Dooling also began by thanking the police department for their help. She struggled not to cry as she read a statement she’d written:
My name is Deirdre, and I’ve worked and paid taxes since I was a teenager. As a young adult, I became addicted to drugs. Thanks to a 12-step program, I’ve been cleaned for 27 years, complete abstinence from all mind-altering substances. I work a rigorous program of recovery. I’m now 64—not that old—and I’m dealing with a couple of disabilities.
When I was offered place at Elderberry, I thought I was going to get a reprieve from living in my vehicle, that I’d have a stable place to live, a stable place to heal and start over. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. I am more stressed, exhausted and on high alert than I was when I was living in my vehicle. At least in my vehicle, I could generally stay away from criminal activity and the chaos of people and places where drugs were used and sold. This has been impossible at Elderberry Commons. Although I appreciate the Housing First philosophy, it just doesn’t work if people are allowed to live their lives with a complete disregard to the other residents and the rules.
Security is provided by Burbank Housing, and most of the security guards I’ve spoken to want to do their job well but feel like they’re unable to do so. Burbank Housing is not enforcing the rental agreements. The regulated entry in and out of Elderberry Commons is anything but regulated and secure. People are using and selling drugs. There have been stabbings, physical abuse. There’s prostitution and people living here without a lease. Current tenants regularly give others the code to get in and out. I've been threatened several times at the complex because there have been no repercussions for people engaging in criminal activities and they get cocky.
The reaction of the city council
After public comment, Mayor Stephen Zollman brought the conversation back to the dais, but not before he thanked the commenters, hand on heart, “Thank you all for your public comments. I definitely felt it. I heard it.”
He said that he had put an item on the agenda of the Homeless Coalition Board to “replace the county as the agency for Coordinated Entry because of all of the issues that we’ve been hearing about.” The Homeless Coalition Board (formerly Continuum of Care) is a local, federal committee that is supposed to oversee the county’s spending on homelessness.
Councilmember Phill Carter spoke from the heart: “I want to support you guys like crazy. You know, I love you guys for taking control, and I feel sad that it’s like this for you guys.”
He also suggested a biometric entry system. Dooling, who was sitting next me, leaned over and said, “That won’t work, because people just open the gate and let their friends in.”
Councilmember Hinton wanted to clear up a couple of misconceptions:
First of all, somebody said, ‘You must hate us.’ And I’m here to tell you, we don’t hate you. We embrace or try to embrace this community, even though, as was pointed out earlier, the county created this with the Homekey project, and we have no jurisdiction.
I also, when I went to the open house, did not realize they did not have a property manager. It wasn’t presented to us that day I was there. In fact, I thought I met somebody that said they were in charge of the project. So I just want to say that without you coming here, we would kind of be in the dark.
I did read the newspaper article that was published about Housing First, and I think that people need to understand that if that’s the model that we’re going to go by, then they need to really ramp up extra money in the beginning, because there obviously is an adjustment and a monitoring process that has to be taken into consideration.
Because it’s a brand-new project, it’s going to cost more and it’s going to need more hands to decide things—if people are breaking leases and then need to be kicked out and other people need to be allowed in that won’t break the rules.
Councilmember Sandra Maurer, obviously touched by the plight of people with children stuck in this situation, said, “I want to echo something one of the speakers said earlier—that they were told that this was going to be a family-oriented place, a family-centered place. I'd like to stress the importance of that—and ask for our liaisons to stress the importance of that—that this is a family-friendly, family-centric, family-oriented property, period.”
Councilmember McLewis, who opposed this development from its inception, went last.
“I’ve had a lot to say about this over time,” she said with a laugh and then she got serious.
I just want to say I truly appreciate all of you communicating with me and coming here tonight. I’ve received emails from all of you. I’ve received photos and videos. I’ve witnessed it myself being close. We don’t hate you. We hate the situation that you’re put in right now, which is not who we are as a community.
I know that you know our police officers are trying to do everything they can. Every time I hear from one of you, it immediately goes to our city manager and our police chief fairly instantly.
It’s such a conundrum. I don’t know the answer to this because it feels like such a big problem, and we’re trying to sort it out, figure out how we can make that difference here. Clearly, there’s a much bigger issue. We need the county to come in, at least with the funds to support us, and we have to figure all these things out.
But I just want to commit to you all that we hear you, and I truly feel for all of you. I've worked in healthcare for a long time. Deirdre and I, we’ve had a lot of conversations, just running into each other. And we are going to do what we can. Sometimes it feels a bit daunting, but we are going to keep pressuring and pressuring and trying to figure this out, and we are having meetings—it feels like a lot of meetings—but there’s a lot of different players in all of this, so just trying to bring all of that together so that we as a city can figure out what we can do to help you all.
And honestly, shame on Burbank for not having a property manager [from the beginning]. I’m just going to say it. Who opens a place like this without someone in charge? It’s just unconscionable. I’m just saying publicly, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.
I also want to just say very firmly and publicly that the folks here who are speaking out, I would not want to hear that any of them would be called out or punished or evicted and seen as “causing problems” quote, unquote, because they’re actually speaking out about what’s happening there. So I’m saying publicly right now, if that happens, it’s unconscionable.”
[Michael Zeigler said aloud: ‘I’ve just been moved to a hotel.”]
These are things that we all need to consider when we have these conversations, because it's not right, in my opinion. So anyways, I just feel for you. Thank you for speaking. I know it was hard, but we need to continue to have these conversations, because that’s the only way we can figure this out.”
Mayor Zollman, taking a cue from one of the commenters, said that Elderberry Commons should be a standing item on the city council’s agenda until things get resolved. The rest of the council agreed.
This is pretty messed up, but I am sure our Supervisor and County staff swept into the facility yesterday to find out what is going on and fix it?
Going back to December 2020 public meeting on the takeover of the hotel, many promises were made:
Supervisor Hopkins at a city council meeting in December of 2020 discussing community concerns about the takeover of Sebastopol Inn said: "I want to be sure the County has your back. Everyone on council has my cell phone number".
Director Robinson stated, "really important, going into the next few years that we hit the reset button on the relationship between the county and city around addressing homelessness."
Michelle from DEMA commented that her team is firm on the rules, no drugs, or alcohol allowed on site period, confiscated at the gate.
Hopkins told us that the County had already approved $370,000 for Sebastopol. $250,000 was to make up the TOT tax for 1 year and the county appropriated $120,000 for a homeless outreach coordinator to reduce the homeless population in Sebastopol.
There were vague promises that Elderberry would reduce the number of Sebastopol homeless, by moving some of them into the facility. I don't think there has ever been a Sebastopol resident there.
The story has obviously changed. A hotel purchased just 4 years ago with tax$6.5 millions of taxpayer money, is quickly and quietly "donated" to Burbank Housing. Burbank is not hurting, in 2023 (last 990 report), they had $182,000,000 and the CEO earned $500,000. Seems like they have the money to make this work.
Toward the end of the meeting, Michael Zeigler called out that they had just moved him to a hotel. We lost a potentially good citizen, and the addicts and prostitutes remain. Solves the PR problem by quieting his voice.
Sebastopol taxpayers will continue to pay the price of this experiment to house and attempt to rehabilitate drug addicts that refuse treatment. What message does it send to tourists, hotel developers and homeowners that start to see property values drop, that the city has a series of spectacular disasters like the Morris Street encampment, Horizon Shine and now Elderberry Commons.
My time is up in the hotel next Thursday. I am being kept in fear of what’s next for me and my daughter. The retaliation has begun. They are preparing to demand I take down my ring camera which I signed Burbank housing papers and got approval for. It’s only set for motion sensor and only shows what I could see if my front door is open. I have received absolutely ZERO response regarding what’s next for me and my daughter next Thursday. They won’t commit to making improvements for safety concerns at the property what so ever. They claim 24/7 security for a 30 unit complex is $700k a year. Sorry I’m not financial expert so I may be wrong I have a GED and a phlebotomy certificate that number seems fishy to me. 6 days left and what’s next for me and my daughter? We are supposed to sit on the edge of our seat scared? While Burbank scrambles to defend what they have done instead of take accountability. I am scared for me and my daughters future well being and retaliation from Burbank housing and WCSS.