“It’s an unacceptable spot in the long term,” said then-Mayor Amy Harrington last November, about the Haven homeless shelter at 151 First St. W. ”I don’t think anybody who was making a plan for where to provide those services would select that location.”
Harrington at the time said she based her remarks upon personal observations as a mom, and in speaking with other parents dubious to the 10-bed shelter sharing a parking lot and in general close quarters to a well-trodden bike path and kids sports fields.
Then 10 weeks later a girl reported she had been sexually assaulted by a homeless man on the bike path near the fields – and uneasy speculation turned to stomach-churning reality. That is, all the reality that comes with an arrest for sexual battery and indecent exposure.
On Tuesday, more than 200 community members attended a special meeting of the Sonoma City Council to discuss issues surrounding the rising homeless population in town, and to weigh the acceptability – or not, as Harrington suggested – of the shelter’s situation near sports and recreation grounds.
Operated by the nonprofit Sonoma Overnight Support, the four-bedroom, 10-bed Haven opened in 2008 with a general mission of serving locals in need, honing in on women in potential abuse situations. As community needs expanded, the Haven began providing food, showers and other services to the general homeless population. According to city officials, last year the Haven went to a 4-bed model and began operating as a “navigation center” in coordination with other nonprofit service providers – its winter shelter program shuttles clients for overnight services at the Sonoma Alliance Church, from December through March.
Last fall, SOS lobbied for, and was approved by the council to launch, a revised Safe Parking Program, as a rise in people living out of their cars begged the need to install some safety regulations at the shared First Street West lot, a public parking space that has had few if any official time-limit constraints.
Few community members convey anything but admiration for the efforts of SOS director Kathy King and her dedicated team of staff and volunteers who carve out so much of their time and energy helping local residents in need.
The fact that serious incidents involving Haven clientele are rare -- the arrest of the 29-year-old homeless man for assault was the first to reach our front page in long memory; he had formerly been an SOS client, though wasn’t at the time of incident earlier this month – shouldn’t be overlooked, as we naturally react with concern for the welfare of kids using bike paths and other recreation areas.
According to the Sonoma Police, officers have responded to “homeless-related incidents” an average of about 22 a year at the Haven since 2016, and about 21 per year in that time at the Field of Dreams. Those locations comprise about half of reported “homeless incidents” in the entire city over the past two years.
It begs an over-arching question: If SOS’s food and shelter services are needed – and we haven’t heard anyone say they aren’t – from where should the nonprofit offer them?
As we are quick to dismiss the Haven’s current location, we would be wise to heed Voltaire’s warning not to render “the best (as) the enemy of the good.”
Despite its imperfections, the end of First Street West has some advantages for homeless services: it’s within a stone’s throw of a police station, it’s apart from busy residential neighborhoods and it’s a pleasant parklike setting for the homeless themselves, whose contentment is often disregarded in such shelter-location discussions.
The primary drawback, of course, is clear: The adjacent ball fields are used by kids. And while we think it’s worth pointing out these are not “children’s playgrounds,” as some have erroneously described them - eliciting visions of toddlers and swings and sandboxes – parents can’t be faulted for casting a wary eye at the juxtaposition of girls softball meshing with homeless gatherings.
There could very well be a better location in the city for the Haven. And, like everyone else, we’re all ears.
The Sonoma City Council and other city officials were given plenty of feedback to digest from the Feb. 11 meeting – from legal restraints and security issues to establishing a long-term vision for homeless services in Sonoma. Nothing was formalized at the meeting this week, though city staff will return in a few weeks with possible remedies for the council to consider.
Until, then most of us can rest easy upon the words of William Shakespeare in “The Merchant of Venice”: “You take my life when you do take the means whereby I live.”
Rest easy, that is, in the knowledge that those words are not yet about us.
Email Jason at Jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.
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