Editorial: Thinking outside the cardboard box

After foregoing $300k in grant funds, city needs to clarify its plan for Sonoma homeless.|

What do a 6-bedroom home in Detroit, a Tesla Model X SUV, six Bitcoins and a rectangular scrap of used cardboard all have in common?

They’re all worth about $300,000 – almost exactly the amount in grant funds the City of Sonoma sent back to the county after running out of time to spend the money on upgrades to the local homeless shelter.

To borrow from Oscar Wilde, it does little good to know the cost of everything, and the value of nothing.

The scrap of used cardboard mentioned above was on sale on eBay in 2017 and people entered into a bidding war over the heavy duty piece of paper – described by the seller as “shaped a bit like an iPhone5.” More than 100 bids drove its price up to $300,000 before eBay took the auction down, according to a Huffington Post story from the time. Granted, the cardboard was being auctioned for a charity that works to bring sanitation and potable water to Kenyan communities, but that doesn’t change the fact that someone was willing to fork over three Woodrow Wilsons for a strip of corrugated fiberboard.

So if a strip of old shoebox was worth $300,000, what does one make of the city taking a pass on that same amount for the Haven shelter on First Street West? That’s the question the Haven operators at Sonoma Overnight Support (SOS) are asking, as such a windfall from HEAP – the state Homeless Emergency Aid Program - could have gone to a variety of needed upgrades, from new carpets and a washer-dryer to a kitchen remodel and adding a second bathroom.

Interim City Manager David Kiff tried to shoulder the responsibility for not utilizing the grant by its June 30 expiration date, but SOS executive director Kathy King told the Index-Tribune that she felt Kiff, who started in January, “really tried” to spend the funds, but his starting the interim position mid-year of the grant cycle was too “daunting.” King believes city officials as a whole never made the grant a priority and, basically, “never got around to it.”

Whatever the reason, nearly $300,000 – it was $295,000 to be exact – is a lot of homeless-support money to turn away.

Sonoma City Councilmembers have long questioned whether the Haven – which shares a parking lot at the end of First Street West with youth sports fields – is a suitable location for homeless services. And it’s a fair question. Parents have voiced discomfort at allowing their kids to ride to the fields unattended on their bikes; police have responded to encounters between youth and homeless residents – though not necessarily clients of the Haven.

In January of 2020, the city council directed staff to research viable alternative locations in the Valley for SOS to operate its homeless services. Yet, the Index-Tribune is unaware of any locations that are being closely considered. SOS currently serves meals out of the Springs Community Hall on Highway 12, but that facility is envisioned to serve the area more as a community center, not a dedicated location for homeless services.

That said, In March 2020, the first month of the pandemic, SOS served 2,530 meals; a year later, that number had more than doubled, to 5,306, King told the Index-Tribune in a recent story. Wherever the meals are coming from, they’re clearly needed.

Despite city officials’ clear reticence at continuing services at the Haven, SOS was hoping to utilize the nearly $300,000 in grant funds to refurbish the old house at 151 First St. W.

There seems to be a lack of clarity between the city and SOS as to the long-term future of the Haven as SOS’s homeless “navigation center” – if the message from the city is “no more Haven,” it hasn’t been communicated effectively.

The Sonoma City Council needs to clarify once and for all what the long term plan is for homeless services in Sonoma; if the Haven is not part of that plan, the public, SOS and the homeless need to know in no uncertain terms. Then city officials should establish a timeline for setting a alternative plan into action. As part of an agreement with SOS first established in 2005, and later updated in 2009, the city provides SOS with $30,000 per year to support specific programs and offers use of the Haven as part of that. There is no defined end date for the agreement, according to Kiff, but there is a 90-day cancelation clause.

Throughout the pandemic, the Haven has not served overnight clients as it had in the past. Perhaps those days are gone. Currently, the only temporary housing opportunities for the homeless in the Valley are 15 miles up the road at the Los Guilicos campus near Kenwood.

That, or beneath $300,000 of used eBay cardboard, might be the only viable options for shelter these days for Sonoma’s homeless.

The cost of everything – this much we know. But it’s what we value that counts.

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.

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