Mendocino County Grand Jury: ‘Homelessness in Mendocino County as a Community Concern’
This is a press release from the Mendocino County Grand Jury:
HOMELESSNESS IN MENDOCINO COUNTY IS A COMMUNITY CONCERN
August 16, 2021
SUMMARY
The City of Ukiah is the epicenter of County services for homelessness and transient populations in Mendocino County. Local businesses have served a growing community of people including displaced and homeless populations for the duration of social distance and masking protocols.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed disparities and service gaps in outcomes of the Mendocino County Homeless Services Continuum of Care (COC) services and local community policing strategies. Local governments and agencies should assess the outcomes of their strategies and look for ways to improve.
Many businesses operating around the intersection of Talmage Road and State Street have identified a rise in theft, loitering, vandalism and loss of revenue. Protecting the health and safety of frontline employees and customers is a major concern. Police dispatch calls pertaining to alleged crimes increased but options to respond in the field were severely limited.
Without viable tools for referral to COC funded services or actionable enforcement measures from police, the employees of local businesses are left unassisted to manage these problems.
BACKGROUND
Limited housing and rental inventory in the City of Ukiah and throughout the County has contributed to the establishment and growth of homeless encampments. Meeting the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter is essential. Vulnerable or addicted people have little choice in methods to make these acquisitions. Theft, loitering and pandering can be necessary for survival.
Law enforcement is tasked with the primary role of protecting the community. County and local governments, private providers and local non-profits are responsible for addressing the care of those in need through collaborative efforts and protecting the rights of the business community. During its investigation, the Grand Jury (GJ) noted that the perception of businesses and local service providers is the Ukiah Police Department (UPD) operates in a reactive role. The safety of the community is often addressed on a case-by-case basis depending on the severity of the reported occurrence.
Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) is the lead agency responsible for addressing the immediate needs of those who seek personal necessities and other assistance. The COC is a Federal, collaborative model tasked with coordinating grant funds and services to vulnerable people. The local COC includes appointed County Staff, a UPD representative, private care providers and the local business community who volunteer their time and effort.
On paper, the County, City, and the COC funded private sector work together in a collaborative effort to meet the needs of homeless families and individuals. The GJ received multiple citizen complaints pertaining to the collaboration of services and police.
METHODOLOGY
The GJ reviewed documents and interviewed key stakeholders with the County, City of Ukiah, the COC, local providers and the business community.
DISCUSSION
The GJ focused on two key areas in the investigation:
• growing impacts of the homeless community on the City of Ukiah and the response of law enforcement,
• identifying key stakeholders that are addressing current issues of homelessness County wide.
Enforcement
The UPD is the primary responder to any law enforcement call for assistance within the city limits. Both the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office (SO) are available to help with any emergency as needed.
All law enforcement is tasked with addressing each enforcement issue on a case-by-case basis while observing the law and protecting the rights of the parties involved.
In 2015, the City of Ukiah formed a Special Enforcement Team to address quality-of-life issues. The staffing level for this team consisted of one sergeant and two deputies. Due to budgetary and recruitment issues the team was unstaffed in August 2019 and presently remains unstaffed according to the UPD website.
In 2019, the UPD website identified the Top 10 Officer Calls city-wide. Of the approximately 25,000 reported calls 3,030 were transient-related. These calls were ranked first and accounted for 12% of the annual call volume. As reported in the Ukiah Daily Journal on October 14, 2020, transient-related calls near the intersection of State Street and Talmage Road had increased by 40% between February and August of 2020.
UPD operates with an engaging philosophy that focuses on Community Policing. As defined by the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) – a department of the United States Department of Justice – Community Policing is a way to promote organizational strategies that support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques to proactively address the conditions that give rise to public safety issues.
In 2020/21 the City of Ukiah budgeted $10,741,428 to law enforcement. In the 2021/22 proposed budget for law enforcement, the UPD is scheduled to receive $11,249,999. Police Services is the largest department in the City’s budget, even at a 62% staffing level with 26 officers. Recruiting and retaining officers is a recurring problem within the department and throughout the county.
In the budget narrative, the city deferred patrol car replacement which may result in a decreased pool of reliable patrol vehicles. This decrease in patrol vehicles may impact response time to non-life-threatening calls. The budget accounts associated with proactive or specialized enforcement have been reduced in anticipation of a limited workforce and increased service calls associated with an economic recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2020, a goal was identified by the UPD to study and evaluate co-responder models. To develop a program to serve vulnerable populations more effectively and safely in the field requires working closely with support services and community partners. As of the date of this investigation the GJ did not find a status update.
Housing
HHSA works to provide mental health and outreach services to those in need. Local non-profits work in a collaborative effort to provide for the three basic essential needs of food, shelter and clothing.
Coordinated outreach by public and private providers was sporadic. Without consistent service outreach, self-dependency and survival instinct can lead to increases in crimes of desperation.
Gaps in services often result in a greater concentration of transient people around local businesses which leads to lost clientele and revenue. The GJ investigated the factors that contribute to the increase in homelessness in the community and how those concerns can best be addressed.
In January 2017, directive CPD-17-01 Notice Establishing Additional Requirements for a COC Centralized or Coordinated Assessment System was issued from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The notice established new requirements for the COC and recipients of COC Program and Emergency Solutions Grants Program funding. They must now develop and use a centralized or coordinated assessment system. The Notice also provides guidance that applicants should incorporate written policies and procedures to achieve outcomes for the homeless.
In April 27, 2020, the COC adopted the Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness in Mendocino County (Plan). The Strategic Planning Committee and more than 31 public and private non-profit organizations throughout the county which serve the homeless collaborated to draft the Plan. The Plan identified a need to share with the community a common agenda and plan of action to make homelessness rare, brief and a one-time experience. It also identified a fragmentation of the existing system that reduces the effectiveness of the level of service delivered, homeless-related funding and system performance. Key goals identified in the Plan
were to strengthen the collaboration between the COC, its governing body and the community at-large.
According to the Plan, poverty, leading to the inability to pay for housing is the single greatest risk factor for homelessness. It identified the trend in homelessness and proposed a strategy to meet these needs. Some key information in the Plan identified a reduction in the Point in Time (PIT) Count of 1,242 homeless in the County in 2016 to 785 in 2019. This equates to a homeless count reduction of 457. The survey also identified the homeless count in the City of Ukiah in 2019 as between 198 to 225. In studying the PIT Count process, the GJ learned that the numbers are based on a limited timeframe and a geographically restrictive area for counting the vulnerable. Since many identifiable areas of unsheltered homeless live in remote and less traveled sections of the City of Ukiah and Mendocino County, the ability to get an accurate count is problematic under the current PIT procedure.
In a February 28, 2020, communication from the State of California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, Department of Housing and Community Development, Division of Financial Assistance notifying grant applicants that Federal HUD Grant funding in the amount of $5 million in new federal funds for the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) program was available. Funding would be available pursuant to Subtitle B of Title IV of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The ESG program provides funding for the following:
• Engaging individuals or families experiencing homelessness,
• improving the quality of Emergency Shelters (ES) for individuals and families experiencing homelessness by helping to operate these shelters, and by providing essential services to shelter residents,
• rapidly re-housing individuals and families experiencing homelessness,
• preventing families/individuals from becoming homeless. County of Mendocino System of Care receives HUD funding annually. Any service provider receiving funds are required to participate in a Coordinated Entry System (CES). The CES connects the most vulnerable persons in the community to available housing and supportive services.
To monitor and oversee the Homeless program the COC Board was established to fund administration and housing issues in the County. The COC has between 30 to 40 seated members of which 18 of those members are seated on the Board of Directors. In the organizational chart of the COC, there are two Co-Chairs that oversee the Executive Board of Directors. The COC oversees the PIT Count of individuals and families experiencing homelessness, Coordinated Entry, Permanent Housing and collaboration toward securing and maintaining HUD funded housing projects for addressing homelessness in Mendocino County.
The COC developed a rating tool for Renewal/Expansion and New Projects. The Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) application process on the COC website was last updated on May 4, 2020. The COC selects four committee members to serve as the primary review and grading of all competitive and non-competitive applications. The Renewal/Expansion and New Project Rating Tool rates key areas to assist committee members in Housing, percentage of beds, population needs and financial information. The measuring process does not identify whether renewal applicants achieved specific goals or objectives from the previous year.
Applicants must file grant applications annually to receive funding. Upfront funding requests are rarely approved. Grant funds are commonly disbursed as a reimbursement of costs to local service providers. Program funding is applied for based on available services which are collectively limited in scope. If a service does not exist, such as hygiene stations, grant monies cannot be applied for.
FINDINGS
F1. The Mendocino County COC website is outdated and there is no single point of contact, such as an 800 number, for those in need of homeless services.
F2. The COC is limited to coordinating funds to locally available services which can result in service gaps for the homeless.
F3. The breadth of locally available services does not have or require written policies and procedures to monitor the level of service being provided for the homeless which results in service outcomes for the homeless not being measured.
F4. Gaps in the Homeless Services System of Care, such as coordinated, collaborative response teams of service providers and law enforcement, are filled by law enforcement agencies that are resource-limited and have unfilled liaison positions for effective Community Policing.
F5. The COC has a quantitative rating system to grade service provider applicants. The rating tool does not evaluate prior objectives of an applicant to determine a history of successful outcomes. There is no rating system for similar services funded separately through County Health and Human Services.
F6. Law Enforcement agencies are represented on the COC by the UPD. With the absence of Federal guidance on how to coordinate police with program services, there is a collaboration gap between providers and government agencies that requires creative local solutions to establish protocols, and define clear roles for service providers and agencies, to foster working relationships.
F7. The majority of members on the COC are employees of other agencies and struggle to address the level of service needed locally without policy guidance from the Board of Supervisors, City elected officials, or other assigned staff.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The Grand Jury recommends that:
R1. the COC update its website, expand information dissemination, and develop a toll-free number to address homeless questions and issues by January 3, 2022. (F1)
R2. the COC develop clarity of responsibility for the issuance of funds and a process to evaluate the qualitative merits of a grant application by January 3, 2022. (F3)
R3. the COC develop clarity of responsibility for the grant applicants that require the agencies to identify specific goals and objectives for the grant funding period by November 30, 2021. These submittals will provide a baseline rating system for the COC to determine if the applicant can provide the identified goals and objectives prior to the issuance of funds in the next grant cycle. (F5)
R4. the COC, through local partnerships, place a high priority on addressing the hygiene needs of the homeless within 90 days of the release of this report. (F2)
R5. the COC work with local elected officials to identify and develop a Homeless Housing element by July 1, 2022. (F2, F7)
R6. City of Ukiah’s City Council and the COC evaluate standards for partnership with HHSA and Law Enforcement within 180 days of the release of this report. (F4, F6)
R7. County and local elected officials prioritize the development of specific objectives that meet the homeless issues identified in the Strategic Plan within 180 days of the release of this report. (F7)
REQUIRED RESPONSES
Pursuant to Penal Code § 933 and 933.05, the GJ requests responses as follows from the following elected county officials within 90 days:
● Mendocino County Board of Supervisors (F7, R7)
● City of Ukiah, City Council (F6, F7, R6, R7)
REQUESTED RESPONSES
Pursuant to Penal Code § 933 and 933.05, the GJ requests responses as follows from the following respondents:
● COC Governing Board (F1-F7, R1-R7)
● Mendocino County Chief Executive Officer (F1-F7, R1-R7)
● City of Ukiah, City Manager (F1-F7, R1-R7)
● City of Ukiah, Police Department (F3-F7, R6)
Reports issued by the Grand Jury do not identify individuals interviewed. Penal Code § 929 requires that reports of the Grand Jury not contain the name of any person or facts leading to the identity of any person who provides information to the Grand Jury.
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
Watch the youtube video titled “Seattle is dying”. It is not a housing issue. It is a substance abuse issue 99% of the time. Jobs are literally EVERYWERE!
Bang on point!
The press release says 12%of police calls are for the homeless. Sounds like 88% of the problems involved people with homes.
” identified goals and objectives prior to the issuance of funds in the next grant cycle. (F5) ”
“develop clarity of responsibility for the issuance of funds and a process to evaluate the qualitative merits ”
” Notice also provides guidance that applicants should incorporate written policies and procedures to achieve outcomes for the homeless.”
“Collaborate” “develop”….
Drive home in your BMW
Portugul solved that issue.
If every addict was cured tomorrow there is still no affordable housing.
Both your ignorance and your predjucice are showing.
came here to say this.
There are some very simple solutions that will resolve this problem. Let’s pass more regulation on new home building, relax laws for those that break them, Bring in millions of more people that are going to have a hard time finding a job and raise taxes on everybody that work for a living. It’s also Paramount to treat the people that enforce our laws like s*** and cut their budgets…
There is housing available, the rents are so astronomically high no one can afford them. Even in the new income based housing lowest the rent can go is $800 a month. If you’re working minimum wage you’re going to barely scrape by. Agreed it’s a substance abuse issue too and many other issues. Nothing new we had the Kemper report we had all those other “studies” going on for years this is not a secret it’s been going on for way too long. We need working solutions. And as far as a response from the county or Board of sups good effing luck. Get ready for the circle blame shift conversations loop away, loop away. Blame shifting shifts the heat of that hot potato no one wants the 3rd degree burns!!!
Whole in the drive thru at McDonald’s on north state street, a bum walks up to my window and asks me for $5. I told him “sorry man I payed with a card, I don’t have any cash”. He starts yelling at me and spitting on me while he is yelling. I considered getting out of the truck and breaking him in half, but my son was in the back seat. He eventually walked away and when I reached the drive thru window, the lady said “ I saw the whole thing and I already called the cops”.
She said” it’s getting so bad and the bums are getting aggressive. “
I say mandatory work for these losers if they receive benefits. Even community service like picking up trash if you want to get a check for your drugs. These guys have the easy life. No bills, no stress, and lots of free stuff. They need to give back to the community or get euthanized by the jab. Homeless, jobless, not your lucky day.
We can’t afford to house them, we can’t afford to give Mental Health Services, we hand out GA, SDI, Medicare/Medi-Cal, and free meals, the Gen Pop gives a buck or two as “guilt tax”, and we sweep the whole thing under the rug until one of the “homeless” starts setting fires…
We can’t afford a prison cell, and when the state sets up Motel rooms, nobody moves in…
They’re all on Meth and Cigarettes, Marijuana and cheap wine, and nobody cares!
The Police spend 70% of every shift doing what we need the Federal Government to do:
Homeless services…
My idea:
Bus all street-living persons out to the BLM Properties in Northern Nevada. Provide lumber, tools, nails and tar-paper/comp roofing, deliver truckloads of cheap beer, commodity foods, marijuana and meth, heroin and cigarettes, set up Mental Health Services, Outpatient Rehab, General Health Services, and a basic Police Force.
No weapons allowed. Points for working. Women get Depo-Provera, men must stay on their meds.
New bus arriving daily.
Wait 3 years. See what happens…
They will build a community, set up a government. Some will find jobs and leave.
WTF not, Biden? It will cost less than trying to manage them in our communities…
Ya forgot to have them burn a huge sculpture as a ritual but otherwise it’s not a very good idea. The US has a poor history of displacing people wouldn’t work. Hell we cannot even airlift people to safety that helped us. We even knew we were gonna pull out and did nothing till the very end. It’s like we screwed Afghanistan without a condom but didn’t pull out when we should of and now she won’t take the morning after pill.
OR:
Try these…
https://intershelter.com/
That’s a good idea. Combine that with disincentives for housing and medical and other necessary services to be business investments for international mega corporations on the stock market and we might get somewhere.
Those might work for about five to ten percent of the homeless in this county. Have any of you bleeding hearts bend to any of our bum encampments? If not I implore you to do a walk through. These are not down on their luck families who lost their life savings to bad investments or hospital bills or bad luck. The vast majority of these people have taken drugs for decades and fried their brains and or are 2o somthings who just do not want to work a steady job and enjoy the freedom of the bum life. Mandatory drug testing for any federal and state benefits, make them choose between their addiction and their life. Work programs for people who want it. Relax building regulations, people are better off in a plywood box built to sub standards than living in cardboard boxes underneath bridges any day of the week.
Cute idea VMG. Honestly it could work really well if people truly saw the value of creating something like that. Agreed a lot of these homeless challenged populations have a great skills and abilities contained within the sorrow and struggles. Have you ever been to any third world countries any of y’all? Reality is people live in cardboard boxes or whatever they can put together kind of like what Yeehaw is. Anybody read Cannery Row??? Meanwhile, we will continue to spend $700,000 for reports on homeless.
$2, 000, 000 on a shelter that’s empty and that’s good enough.
I don’t know Ukiah but I know our local county elected officials always do everything when it is at emergency status, except spending money. Maybe they will make believe this is the first time they are aware our county has a homeless problem higher in proportion to our population than most places….. most.
We have a water problem now (for 10 years) but now they will take action because it’s an emergency.
We have a marijuana problem now but now they will take action because it’s an emergency.
Our bos and county CEO needs to be replaced.
Remember this at voting time folks and really if they wear a tie and suit and seem like they belong in San Francisco, they do.
Looks like a self feeding bureaucracy. I don’t see anything in there about *building* more housing or setting up safe parking lots.
Its so complex.. The rent goes up or owner wants to sell now cuz the prices are way up and they want to cash in. Like on the Mendo coast so much of the housing is vacation rentals not available to working people or students and unaffordable as well. They get caught up in this cycle and then have no where to go. Its a national disgrace. I do think for the drug and alcohol users or others who have been out on the streets too long we need a works programs and conservation corps camps like we had during the 1930’s depression. These folks need structure and support and a sense of belonging to a community in their lives and some reason to get up in the morning but are unable to on their own. Like children who need limits and support. That would probably be less expensive than what is going on now! Also worth it as I don’t want to live in a place where I and my kids have to see this tragedy everyday or feel unsafe. If there are those who refuse to go to join the structured camps then they risk being handled in the law enforcement system and going to jails instead.
I was forced to move here with no other alternative due to a single home fire my family decided while waiting on an apartment we would visit my boyfriends mom and she can meet our then 2 year old for the first time. We drove down for what was going to be a week away from all the stress and heartache of what we had just gone through and then Southern Oregon had a bigger fire that took the only housing in the area with available units that would take new renters since covid19 had also just started at the time. We had no help in that area due to all agencies holding onto funding because of possible flooding of people in need due to not paying rent. So I am now here in his moms garage needing housing because she does not like kids and her Dementia does not help no matter how I try to make things less of a change here the house is a shrine. Besides not having a key and being locked out because in her mind we do not live here so we are not allowed a key to get in the house and trust me this women will not answer the door no matter how loud we get.
I just can not live like this with a toddler who feels she runs us all plus with violent outbursts this women has and trust me she does use her hands and feet as well as chases my toddler all over the house getting even more mad I have become the punching bag more then I would like. I know she doesn’t realize what she is doing and I have told her case workers and I have asked the state office about housing and since I am currently being put on disability.
No matter how many calls I am making to the same agencies not one person calls and half of them have emails that have automatic generated replies of oh we will get back to you or such and such person is on vacation please email or call this person. It is a loop of never ending nothingness. I have never in my life not gotten one call back or not ever been ignored to the point I feel no one is working at the place I contact but makes you feel they do. Now here is the kicker I talked to a few people at the state office and I have been told the same thing. “sorry there is a 2 year wait list for HUD” “Sorry I have been getting told some agencies are not taking applications” “Sorry someone should have called you let me put the referral through again” “we cant help unless you come to the door fully packed up in your car moved out to prove you are in dire need but its a one time help we can give and after so many days (I forgot how many) your on your own”. Now how and the hell is this helping those in need. How is this going to find out why not one agency has not contacted someone in some major need dealing with a toddler having to see grandma beat on mom and calls her mean grandma. I never wanted my daughter to view her grandmother as mean plus to have her see me get hit unable to defend myself due to factors not just her but no one can control or know when they come on. Still the way this area is to people in need is like they are holding off on helping others waiting for the flood of people being evicted in the near future. Then I also get the tone of your not in need enough from the simple cold sorry we cant help you I have gotten 2 times so far.
Not being from here viewing this little town well what looks nice is not at all what it really is and that ugly is starting to show for the lack of any sort of compassion or collaboration for those in need. Not one of these places knows what it feels like to have your life the way you wanted it to the next day almost dead from a home fire watching the last of anything from your late mother gone, running out of our home with no shoes grateful a neighbor took hers off and said here you need these and another got me decent clothes of hers because I was wearing well not much. I mentally snapped and since then I have barely recovered mentally. My mind gave up but I am trying to push through stuck in a life I wish on no one and not one place here wants to even try to find something to help me even if the help was not in Ukiah but surrounding areas. I miss having a couch, my own kitchen, a key to the doors, and to be treated more human rather then like guest who has overly extended her stay. Wait another thing I miss privecy I dont have that at all and I mean none his mom walks into our room and wakes us all up allowing a few hours sleep for days at a time. This is not healthy and we have no one. I hope all this lack of helping those who need help ends soon.
Drug addicts and criminals. Thanks to prop 47 passed in 2013. Quit providing services,food,shelter.health care and they will scatter. These bottom feeders dont want jobs…they want FREE!.
of all people we all know that none of us have got none of us have the right to judge none of us have the right to say what people want in their lives you don’t know if they want free or if they want a life people need help that’s what God Said to do if you have any moral compass or any sense at all you’ll get on your knees and you were pray to that God and you would ask him to forgive you for your judgment to Ways. Cuz you’re not God and you don’t have that right to judge do the jobs give us our money and stop playing before we go to the media and tell him you guys are stealing our money because you want free to