Impacts to homeless services total $1.4 million, with the bulk of the reductions impacting Catholic Charities contracts.
Reductions include $400,000 for the street outreach program, HOST, and $250,000 for Sam Jones Hall, which Catholic Charities operates under contract.
The city will eliminate financial support for the family hub at Catholic Charities’ downtown Caritas Center and funding to staff up a warming center during inclement weather. Those cuts are expected to save $150,000.
The city also intends to shutter its safe parking program when funding from a state grant that currently pays for the program ends.
The program, which opened in March 2022, provides about 50 spots in a city-owned lot on Stony Point Road for people living in their vehicles to securely park overnight while they work with case managers to find more stable housing.
City officials had applied for money from Measure O, a countywide sales tax approved in 2020 to help fund mental health, substance use and homeless services, to keep the program open through June 2026 but was not successful. The closure will save $500,000.
Holmes, with Catholic Charities, said her team is looking at ways to reduce program costs, which could help stretch existing funding through March. That will give the organization time to seek other grants to keep it open.
The council, too, is looking for ways to maintain services with fewer resources.
Council members and City Manager Maraskeshia Smith have discussed partnering with other municipalities on a regional approach to homelessness, sharing costs and ensuring efforts aren’t duplicated.
They’ve also called on Sonoma County to provide greater financial support.
The county collects an estimated $30 million annually from Measure O, the quarter-cent tax, and also receives other state and federal funds, a portion of which are passed on to local jurisdictions and providers.
Santa Rosa officials have said they want to see more of that funding flow to the local level to alleviate some financial pressure.
“At some point in this region, we have to get to a regional approach on how we deal with homeless services,” Smith said. “These are not parochial issues. They do not stop or start at our front door.”
Worries cuts could spike homelessness
Council members, in signing off on the proposed cuts, noted they were wary of the impacts but said it was a necessary.
“We know we’re going to have great impacts across the city but I don’t see how we keep any of these services available,” Council member Victoria Fleming said during the May discussion, calling it a difficult choice.
The city has seen an overall decrease in the number of homeless individuals, to 1,365 now, down from a five-year peak of 1,658 in 2022, despite a nearly 18% increase year-over-year last year, according to data from an annual one-day census of the region’s homeless population.
Basinger said she expects this year’s count to show a decline, but she noted cuts could compromise the city’s work going forward.
Holmes has issued similar warnings.
While the city is looking for savings, she said the financial toll doesn’t disappear, it shifts. And that could mean a less compassionate and less appropriate response to dealing with the problem.
“What generally happens, and there’s data that shows this, is that the cost to provide services will actually increase and it will shift to public safety, to schools, emergency services, to the criminal justice system,” she said.
Holmes said reductions to street outreach in particular will impact the organization’s ability to contact and build relationships with homeless individuals which is critical to connecting people with necessary services.
She said those cuts, coupled with proposed reductions to the police department’s Downtown Enforcement Team, are likely to lead to more visible homelessness, especially in the city center if there are fewer outreach workers and officers on the street.
Council member Caroline Bañuelos, who represents downtown in District 5, said that’s worrisome for her constituents, describing the cuts as “alarming.”
The city has made strides to expand the outreach team and add more officers downtown to address safety concerns and clean up the area in response to concerns from residents and businesses, but reduced services could have ripple effects on the city’s efforts to revitalize downtown, she said.
Increased uncertainty for providers
Holmes said her team is looking at ways to take on the additional financial burden without having to reduce services. That will mean operating more efficiently and seeking new revenue streams.
“We certainly understand the challenging position the city is in and we want to be a good partner,” she said. “We’re going to keep pushing for ways to keep these programs open.”
Cuts at the city level come at an increased time of uncertainty for Catholic Charities and other providers.
Holmes said Sonoma County reduced funding for homeless services providers by about 17.5% across-the-board as a result in reductions in the state budget for housing assistance and prevention programs.
There’s also concerns that federal funding for their work could be slashed, though she said the organization received notice last week that its grant for homeless services was moving forward.
The upheaval has forced Holmes and her staffers to rethink how Catholic Charities provides services.
“We’ll keep being creative and pushing for other funding sources to maintain the service at the best levels we can for the clients,” she said.
The organization will likely have to look at a change in business model in the future or look at ways to tap into new revenue streams, she said.
There’s also a broader discussion taking place about ways providers can come together to provide more streamline services across the region, which could help reduce overhead costs and redundancies, she said.
“It’s tough right now but out of crisis comes genuine opportunity and I do think that some of these things we’re going to be looking at will set up our community in an even better way and will allow us to weather this storm over the next few years,” she said.
You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @paulinapineda22.
