Steamer Landing residents call on Petaluma to recognize ‘sanctioned encampment’

Residents of a Petaluma homeless encampment at the center of months of legal wrangling are calling on city officials to grant “sanctioned encampment” status to permanently allow residents to camp on public property without being removed.

In a letter to city officials posted in a joint status report March 24, attorney Colleen O’Neal, who represents the nearly two dozen residents camping at Steamer Landing Park, said such recognition would accommodate a wide range of needs among residents.

“Allowing persons to remain in place instead of constantly being evicted from place to place provides stability and is, overall, good for their mental wellbeing,” O’Neal said in the letter, which also cited a recent effort in Rohnert Park to open a sanctioned encampment to provide portable toilets, washing stations and trash services.

O’Neal called for Petaluma to make a similar move, either at Steamer Landing or at a smaller, city-owned lot.

But attorney Kevin Gilbert, who represents the city, argued that making a sanctioned encampment would have burdensome costs to the city.

“If the city was required to create a sanctioned encampment, it would necessarily result in us having to redirect resources, and the city does not have unlimited resources,” Gilbert said.

The March 31 court hearing came after a group of nearly two dozen encampment residents filed an injunction request Oct. 5 to keep police from removing people from the Steamer Landing site near the SMART tracks off D Street. U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen granted the injunction, and has extended it twice in a series of hearings thereafter.

As the dispute has played out in court, city officials have continued efforts to stem homelessness in Petaluma.

City Council members in July agreed to spend $1.7 million in federal coronavirus relief money on housing solutions, and in November committed another $1 million to go toward the installation of 25 interim housing units called “People’s Village.” Adjacent to the 80-bed Mary Isaak Center, the village includes utilities and services for mental health and employment, as well as overnight security and case managers.

Six people have already moved into the 72-square-foot units, which are being managed by the Committee on the Shelterless, Petaluma’s primary homelessness services provider.

Many of the units remain under construction by Rohnert Park-based Quickhaven after pandemic-related supply chain issues prompted months-long delays.

COTS leaders previously said in an interview that residents at the Steamer Landing encampment would hold top priority for move-in, but O’Neal said in the hearing that, while more than a dozen of the encampment residents are requesting placement at the interim housing community, none of them have moved in so far. Instead, they remain on a 30-person waitlist.

A request for comment sent to COTS officials Friday was not immediately returned.

Gilbert called for Judge Chen to lift the injunction Thursday, citing how residents in the original plaintiff group, including Matthew Erickson and Janine “Ma” Naretto, were now placed in alternative housing. But Chen expressed concerns over the status of the remaining encampment residents, and called to reconvene at a May 12 hearing to give time for other residents to find alternative living arrangements.

Amelia Parreira is a staff writer for the Argus-Courier. She can be reached at amelia.parreira@arguscourier.com or 707-521-5208.