No room at the Inn!

Come on local churches...... This is appalling! Churches open your doors! The Lord tells us too! Did you all enjoy singing I surrender all as they were freezing outside your doors? That is not worship! Opening your doors and smashing your golden calf is what the Lord is wanting as worship.

SR seeks more beds for homeless

Council to vote on expanding shelters when rain, freezing temperatures expected

By MIKE MCCOY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

When Sutter Medical Center officials called Nick Baker to ask if he had a bed for a homeless man they had treated for frostbite on both his feet, Baker was forced to say "no."

> OAS_AD('Middle'); Santa Rosa's two city-financed homeless shelters - an 80-bed facility off Finley Avenue and a 40-bed shelter off Brookwood Avenue - were at capacity.

The call to Baker, who oversees the Homeless Services Center in downtown Santa Rosa, came near the beginning of a 10-day string of freezing to subfreezing temperatures that ended last week.

The increased demand for beds brought by the extended chill is likely to accelerate efforts to temporarily expand Santa Rosa's two shelters, and possibly Sonoma County's as well, when freezing and torrential rains are forecast.

The City Council on Dec. 19 is scheduled to consider changes that would allow a 15 percent increase in the number of beds allowed at the city shelters, a total of 18 extra beds, based on anticipated adverse weather conditions.

"I know it will be controversial, but it really is a life-and-death situation out there," Baker said.

A meeting for neighbors to discuss the proposed changes will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in Conference Room 1 of the City Hall Annex at 90 Santa Rosa Ave.

Bill Fraser, whose Finley Avenue home sits just across the street from the southwest area shelter that opened last year, said, "I had been worried the place could become a magnet to those who have not cleaned up their act, but that has not developed."

While Fraser is concerned about the extra dozen or so beds that could be added on cold nights, he said, "I don't have a problem with it as long as the operators can manage their clients."

"Sleeping under a bridge is not a good thing," Fraser said.

Baker said since January 2005 at least 14 homeless people have been treated for hypothermia at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Others have received treatment at other area hospitals, he said.

He said the problem really hit home last week when, as temperatures dipped to 29 degrees, he got a call from Sutter asking if he had room at the Homeless Service Center's five-bed respite facility.

The facility acts as a transition for ailing homeless who are released from hospitals after initial treatment.

"They said they had a man with frostbite on both his feet, and they wanted to see if we had room for him. We didn't," Baker said.

The county also funds a 30-bed shelter near the Sonoma County Jail. Baker oversees the center and all three homeless shelters on behalf of Catholic Charities, which has contracts to run the city and county shelters.

Mayor Jane Bender said she supports the temporary expansion proposal.

"Can you imagine turning people away when it's 32 degrees out?" she said.

Bender said the need to protect the homeless from the cold and torrential rains will be balanced with the promises the city made to the neighborhoods in which the two shelters are located, promises to stick by a limited number of beds.

Bender and Baker said the expansion, if approved by the council, would be on a day-to-day basis only.

City program specialist Megan Basinger said the policy being proposed would empower City Manager Jeff Kolin, based on weather forecasts, to approve the use of the extra beds on nights when temperatures are expected to hit 32 degrees or when a storm is expected to cause flooding problems.

The policy would be in effect from October to April.

Baker said those allowed to fill the extra beds would be pre-screened each day to ensure no one with a problematic history is allowed in.

"This is strictly for emergency situations," he said.

Baker is hoping the county adopts a similar policy, a move Bender hopes local religious organizations embrace.

"I would like to see some of the faith-based groups open up their churches on these cold nights as well," she said.