Volunteers Count Homeless In Healdsburg, Sonoma County

Healdsburg CA

19 November, 2020

8:42 PM

Description

HEALDSBURG, CA — A survey released Wednesday by Sonoma County government officials revealed that while the number of homeless people in Healdsburg was slightly up, the number of homeless across the county dropped 7 percent in early 2020 compared with early 2019. Sonoma County's 2020 Point-in-Time Homeless Count, taken Feb. 28, reported 2,745 people experiencing homelessness. The 2019 count, taken on Jan. 25, 2019, recorded 2,951 people. The county postponed to this year's count to the end of February because of the locally declared emergency regarding health and safety concerns around a large encampment of persons experiencing homelessness at the Joe Rodota Trail in Santa Rosa that required a coordinated county response. Three-hundred trained volunteers and homeless guides took part in this year's general street count which began during the early morning hours Feb. 28. Consistent with previous years, volunteers did a visual and peer-informed count of unsheltered homeless people and families living on the streets and in vehicles, makeshift shelters, encampments, and other places not meant for human habitation. Shelters and transitional housing facilities in Home Sonoma County's annual Housing Inventory Chart also reported the number of homeless individuals and families who occupied their facilities on the night prior to the day of the count. In the North County, this year's point-in-time count revealed 205 unsheltered homeless people across the cities of Cloverdale and Healdsburg, the Town of Windsor and unincorporated areas. Volunteers counted 69 unsheltered homeless in Healdsburg, 29 in Cloverdale, 38 in Windsor and 69 in the unincorporated areas. Volunteers counted four sheltered homeless people in the North County, all four of whom were in Cloverdale. During the 2019 count, there were 64 unsheltered homeless counted in Healdsburg and nine sheltered. This table provided in an 83-page report on Sonoma County's 2020 Point-in-Time Homeless Count compares the number of unsheltered and sheltered homeless people by city and region in 2018, 2019 and 2020. (County of Sonoma) This year's count was taken before the local economy was hit by COVID-19, Susan Gorin, chair of the Board of Supervisors, noted in a statement. It's unclear how the pandemic may have contributed to the numbers of homeless people in the county since then. Regardless, "This year's point-in-time count demonstrates that Sonoma County's efforts to provide shelter for some of our most vulnerable residents are moving us in the right direction," Gorin said. According to an announcement from the county, the overall reduction in the number of homeless people was due to several factors. These include an injection of more than $11 million from the Board of Supervisors to fund the Los Guilicos Village campus, shared housing and master leasing options, as well as increased funding from the State of California and intensive outreach and care coordination of critical services by the County's Accessing Coordinated Care & Empowering Self-Sufficiency initiative, the county said. Bay City News Service contributed to this report.