Donations key to shelter reopening

For the last three years, Mike Johnson has had to refer homeless families in Petaluma to emergency shelters in Santa Rosa. The advocate for the homeless didn’t do it by choice. Since 2012, Petaluma lost its only emergency family shelter because the city’s funding dried up during the economic recession.

“It was bad, making families move out of the city when they had nowhere else to go,” said Johnson, president of the Committee on the Shelterless or COTS.

But hope for treating the increasingly desperate situation of family homelessness in the city was revived when Johnson collaborated with other nonprofit organizations, charity foundations, the Petaluma Chamber of Commerce and dozens of contractors to revive their original shelter on 1500 Petaluma Blvd. South, providing asylum for over 125 children and their families starting July 1.

The Ernest W. and Ruth L. Finley Foundation and the leadership class of the Petaluma Chamber of Commerce raised $150,000, enough to sustain the shelter for its first year.

“Friedman’s Home Improvement, which has always been a partner with COTS, established a direct credit line with us to buy materials at cost,” Johnson said. “We’ve managed to get about $200,000-worth of materials with our budget and we’re grateful for everyone’s participation.”

Laurie Cameron, a self-employed leadership development consultant who moved to Petaluma from Colorado three years ago, said she joined the leadership class to get a behind-the-scenes look at the people and their goodwill towards helping the less fortunate.

“We came to a consensus very quickly that the leadership class wanted to do something with COTS,” she said. “We made a goal to raise $500 per person, and when we were done, we donated $11,000 to the cause. On May 30, we came to the center and built the beds and cleaned, polished and repaired the playground outside the building. It was the least we could do for the children.”

The shelter consists of 11 rooms with 35 beds. In all but one room, there is a bunk bed with a double-sized mattress on the bottom and a single mattress on top.

In addition to shelter, COTS will provide classes in job readiness, financial literacy and positive parenting. Children will have programs that focus on assessments and referrals to available services and school readiness.

Families who secure a room will be able to stay between three and six months.

Half of the rooms in the shelter are dedicated to families who are at-risk for an active Child Protective Services case.

“When you don’t know where your next bed is going to be, or where to find food, there is a constant pressure on parents who only want to provide for their children,” Johnson said. “These families aren’t in danger with CPS because of child abuse. They’re on the radar because they’re simply struggling to provide a safe and healthy environment for their children. We want to do everything we can to help them.”

CEO of Friedman’s Home Improvement, Barry Friedman, said in a statement: “All children should feel supported and safe. The reopening of the family center will allow families to stay together while they are finding permanent housing.”

Onita Pellegrini, director of the Petaluma Chamber of Commerce, said the leadership class’ involvement with restoring the family center is only the most recent act in a long history of public service to the community.

“This is the 21st year the leadership class did a community project,” she said. “For families, it must be devastating to not know where they would go to find a place to sleep. These men and women do all they can to help those who need it most. It is a model program and other cities in the United States are following our footsteps.”

For Johnson, the revival of his shelter is a sign that the city both recognizes and actively helps to address homelessness in its streets.

“This is an important step in the right direction, but we’ve got a ways to go yet,” he said. “We need to continue fundraising to keep this shelter going. I would be honored to live in the generation that eliminates homelessness from Petaluma. I would be proud to hear that kids aren’t sleeping in cars in this city anymore.”

(Contact William Rohrs at william.rohrs@arguscouri er.com.)