Early storms strain network of Sonoma County homeless shelters

Homeless residents are seeking shelter in greater numbers as the weather turns wet, but additional winter beds won’t be made available until Nov. 1.|

Amid the sleeping and otherwise quiet figures huddled along the Sixth Street sidewalk under Highway 101 in Santa Rosa, Jasmine Freeman dug into her duffel bag, retrieving a thick tome on the history of the U.S. Army and a banded leather journal jammed with papers and notations.

Around her, more than a dozen people, including a woman she said was her wife, had staked out territory with improvised beds, tents and shopping carts loaded high with belongings, some of them wrapped in plastic against the damp air.

As a round of storms carrying a heavy band of rain approached Santa Rosa and the North Bay on Thursday, the huddled people were among scores of homeless residents in the neighborhood confronting the seasonal challenge of getting under cover and trying to stay dry.

“When it’s raining, people need shelter, something over their head, whether it’s a tarp, a garbage can, a cart with a tarp over it,” said Freeman, 29, who sometimes sleeps on the street but recently has stayed with family.

Over the next several days, homeless service providers will do what they can to help, setting up canopies and collecting donations of blankets, tarps, ponchos, warm clothes and the like for distribution to those in need.

The Homeless Services Center run by Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa at 600 Morgan St. was to be open overnight Thursday and today, and likely through the weekend if the forecast holds for additional rainfall late Saturday and Sunday.

“For people who are experiencing homelessness, the rain is often worse than the cold,” said Jennielynn Holmes, the agency’s director of shelter and housing. “In these situations, there can often be a life-or-death situation, so it’s really important that we use every single resource we have to get people out of the cold and out of the rain.”

In Petaluma, the Committee on the Shelterless, or COTS, has vowed to ensure anyone who wants shelter has it, Executive Director Mike Johnson said.

“Our commitment is people will not be turned away,” he said. “I’ll bed down people in my cubical, if I have to.”

But it will be Nov. 1 before Catholic Charities’ permit allows it to expand into winter operations at the Samuel L. Jones Hall in west Santa Rosa, when 50 seasonal beds are added to the shelter’s year-round inventory of 138, Holmes said.

Sonoma County’s cold weather response protocol also doesn’t kick in until Tuesday, a county spokeswoman said. After that, extreme weather conditions like heavy rain or especially cold temperatures trigger expanded services and bed space at shelters throughout the county to try to reduce instances of death or illness due to hypothermia.

Santa Rosa had more than half of the nearly 3,000 unsheltered people enumerated in Sonoma County’s most recent census of homeless people, conducted in January. It also has the majority of the county’s 583 year-round emergency shelter beds. But hundreds more remain without on the streets, in encampments, cars and abandoned buildings.

Benjamin Smoody, 39, said at the Homeless Services Center on Thursday that he usually seeks out a building with an awning or covered entryway at night, and said he can stay surprisingly dry, even in the rain.

But plenty of people arrive soaked when it is rainy, said Ricky Collins, who has a place to live right now but likes to help out friends and provide rides to people who need one.

“They come drenched...and from here they’re basically going to the creeks, so they’re never dry,” said Collins, 66.

Thus, even having the Morgan Street center to go on rare nights is welcome, several clients said Thursday amid the bustle of daily activities. The center offers restrooms, showers, mail pick-up, socialization and a place to rest, among other services, and at night offers warmth, hot drinks and even a television to watch.

Just being near a place with hot water is a boon, Freeman said.

The drop-in center was to be open from 6:30 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. today and will be deciding day-by-day if additional overnight services were needed, Holmes and other staff members said. Regular hours are 6 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249. or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.

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