Dear Friends,

I am grateful to my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors for supporting a homeless emergency declaration regarding the Joe Rodota Trail in December, and also for unanimously approving a $11.6M suite of solutions. This enabled us to finally treat the Joe Rodota Trail like the emergency that it is, and to have the financial capacity available to address that emergency effectively.

In fact, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors and Department of Emergency Management staff have taken the unprecedented step of utilizing the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and an incident command protocol in order to quickly, effectively analyze alternative outdoor shelter locations and plan logistics for the emergency shelter implementation and encampment closure.

What this means: The County of Sonoma’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is in full swing, and today we had staff liaisons present from the City of Santa Rosa as well. This is helping us to mobilize the massive effort needed to offer services and solutions to the 200+ camp residents and to move forward with clearing the camp and reopening the trail.

We will also be holding a TOWN HALL this Friday at 6pm at the Roseland Library to share the results of the EOC planning process, and offer a timeline for what residents can expect, and when they can expect it.

Brief notes regarding current operations:

Emergency Operations Center

· This EOC is developing proposals for the Board to consider, including a plan to move occupants from the Joe Rodota Trail (trail) and develop a temporary shelter by January 31, 2020.

· The intent of the EOC is to address the immediate health and safety concerns and return the trail to its intended use.

· If the Board moves forward with this approach, resources and services will be available at the temporary shelter that support the health and wellbeing of individuals.

· The work of the EOC is occurring parallel to the work staff is doing to address the long term solutions with regard to shared housing, master leasing, indoor-outdoor shelters and support services.

ACCESS Interdepartmental Multi-Disciplinary Team (IMDT)

· The IMDT intensive care coordination on the JRT is scheduled to begin on Wednesday January 8, 2020.

· The IMDT has a comprehensive plan for outreach and engagement and housing placement.

· The ACCESS IMDT addresses the behavioral health, medical, and social service needs of this population through coordinated care.

Master Leases

· RFQ released on January 7, 2020. RFP is now an RFQ for a quicker timeline and ability to partner with landlords with available units.

· We are moving quickly to get individuals placed into housing.

Indoor-Outdoor Shelters

· RFP released on January 7, 2020.

· A community stakeholder engagement meeting for specific design elements of the indoor-outdoor shelter sites occurred January 3, 2020 at the Veteran’s Hall in Santa Rosa from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

· A number of design needs and solutions were discussed and staff will incorporate this feedback in its request for proposals (RFQ).

· The meeting was well received by those who participated and included homeless services providers, advocates, occupants from the trail, and community members.

· The RFP process parallel processes to allow those who are ready to submit to do, while we evaluate other proposals.

Completed/Near Completion Projects:

Projects In Process:

As always, the local message boards near the sites themselves provide the most up-to-date information on road closures and work for each particular location.

It's exciting to see so many projects moving ahead. We had $85 million in damage with the 2017 and 2019 floods and are seeing real progress on getting through these substantial projects.

Have you signed up yet to get a charger at your business?

This grant is a great opportunity to

Sonoma Clean Power  is managing a project from the CALeVIP program. This project provides funding and support to build out the network of EV chargers throughout Sonoma County. Funding is available for a wide range of eligible applicants and the funding allocated $6 million over 3 years for level 2 and 3 chargers – many of which will be placed in District 5 areas that are currently underserved, rural and low income communities. 

Chargers can be placed in most locations that are accessible to the public 24/7, with priority given to spots that currently are lacking charging stations. 

This is an exciting opportunity to help grow the capacity for electric vehicles and reduce the significant impact of gas powered transport. 

Contact Nelson Lomeli at Sonoma Clean Power  at: [email protected]  

if you are interested in using this financing to add EV charging stations to your public location.