Filling a gap in our community

As our cold, wet winter continues, we feel blessed to be out of the six year drought, but also bruised by the damage and harm caused by our recent flood waters. As those Russian River waters climbed, we as a community responded to those in need; once again showing that Northern Sonoma County is a community of compassion, care and action.
One of the biggest concerns came from our homeless neighbors. As many of us know, there continues to be a large homeless population whose encampments along the banks of the river and tributaries are their only form of home. This is the case from Cloverdale all the way to the mouth of the river in Jenner, with the highest concentrations from Healdsburg to Guerneville.
While some disagree on the right way to address our homeless community in the long term, we can all agree that when our neighbors are in peril – homeless or not – it’s our unified job to help. This was the case on Sunday Jan. 8 when Rick Cafferata, North Sonoma County Service’s (NSCS) Homeless Outreach Coordinator got word from a group on the river that they were in danger. Rick and Colleen Carmichael, NSCS Executive Director, did what they do every day … they took action. They drove down to the banks of the river, assessed the situation and got to work. NSCS was able to coordinate with their historic partner in homeless outreach, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and offer emergency shelter to the people whose belongings had been washed down the river.
St. Paul’s opened the doors of their church as an emergency shelter. A group of St. Paul’s parishioners joined the fray, immediately cancelling their plans for the day and started soliciting donations, preparing food and setting up the church’s hall while the storm raged outside. Colleen, along with Karen Massey the Community Housing and Development Director for the City of Healdsburg, were able to get their hands on cots and other supplies from the Red Cross. Notes about needed donations went out on the social network newswire and our neighbors showed up in droves. They brought clothes, food, grocery cards, blankets and much more. The volunteers cooked and cleaned and once everyone was ready to go down for the night, Rick slept in the hall with them to ensure safety and security.
This went on for three nights. It was inspiring. We are so blessed to have individuals and organizations that stand up and take responsibility for the care and feeding of our community.
All this good work showcased the awesome response-ability of our community, and we’re proud of that. At the same time, it showed us that we have a huge gap in our social safety net. We need a shelter. We need to not depend upon one or another civic organization to boot strap an emergency operation together. While we are great at response, we need to have a plan and a resource to fall back on when disasters like this strike the most vulnerable people in our community.
We write this commentary as four different individuals who understand that the solution is not yet before us, and to acknowledge that we have to work together to fill this gap in our community. The City of Healdsburg and County of Sonoma have stepped up by funding NSCS and are in the process of enhancing their current agreements with NSCS to include homeless services. At the same time, we are working together to assess opportunities for establishing winter weather response programs in North Sonoma County. We are committed to working together, as leaders representing a cross section of our community, to find a solution. We don’t write this message to build expectations, rather, we do it to reinforce our collective commitment to do the right thing. Stay tuned for more updates.
James Gore – Sonoma County Supervisor
Shaun McCaffery – Mayor, Healdsburg
Colleen Carmichael – Executive Director, North Sonoma County Services
Sally Hubbell – Pastor, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church