Editorial: Changes for San Rafael, Novato encampments put spotlight on next steps

San Rafael and Novato have come to crossroads when it comes to the difficult challenge of how to handle homeless encampments.

In San Rafael, the city is getting ready to spend $2.2 million to create a city-sanctioned temporary homeless camp near a stretch of Mahon Creek Path, between Lincoln Avenue and Francisco Boulevard West.

The camp – intended to be in place for 12 to 18 months – will be fenced and provide room for 47 tents. Campers would have to agree with a code of ethics and visitors would not be allowed.

In addition, the camp will have onsite security, services of the Downtown Streets Team, case management and other community services.

The city’s goal is to transition the campers into permanent housing along with the county’s “Housing First” strategy. It is a cooperative initiative with the city and the county joining forces to get a three-year $6 million state grant.

That should quell recurring complaints that the county, which traditionally took the local role – and state and federal funding – to provide social services, isn’t doing enough to help get campers off the streets.

According to the city’s Jan. 1 count, more than 90% of 65 people in the current encampment had been there for more than a year.

However, since that count the encampment has grown to 67 tents.

We like what we heard from the county’s new county executive, Derek Johnson, who told the council that the strategy for addressing homelessness requires a combination of compassion and order.

It also takes patience.

Understandably, that’s wearing thin among many neighbors – residents and businesses – and those who use the path.

Novato has shown a great deal of patience with the encampment at Lee Gerner Park in downtown.

In July, a fire swept through the city-sanctioned and supported camp. Thankfully, no one was injured, but the campers lost their tents and some of their belongings.

The fire demonstrated the fragile safety conditions of people resorting to living in tents.

Understandably, they fear they face an uncertain future. Their tents were a last resort, with other housing, with a real roof over their heads and security, being beyond their incomes. A tent is the safety and security they could afford.

Novato’s camp, set up as a temporary accommodation for 17 occupants, was scheduled to close in October. Federal, state and county funding have helped pay for building the encampment and providing services, including accepting help steering them into permanent housing.

The reversal of the federal ruling that had tied the hands of local officials in enforcing prohibitions against camping and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order that encampments should be removed from state lands has changed the legal landscape on which the local encampments took form and stayed put.

The clock is ticking on the parameters of “temporary.”

In Novato, some of the displaced campers have been temporarily put up in local motels. Homeward Bound, Marin’s largest homeless services provider, is offering displaced residents temporary shelter.

There are no easy solutions.

Housing first has proven effective, but right now there aren’t enough units to accommodate all of those who need housing.

Packing up the camps simply moves the problem.

Social workers have said there are advantages in having their clients collected in single locations.

Moving the problem means people will scatter, likely going back to sleeping under bushes or setting up camps in open spaces.

Those are not safe, secure or sanitary options, for the homeless and others.

Given the alternative, compassion and order are good guides for San Rafael and Novato officials to keep in mind as they decide a new course toward addressing homelessness in their communities.