Renewed efforts to address homelessness in Marin in recent years have not reached the coast: although the number of homeless people has steadily dropped countywide since 2015, the number in West Marin has more than doubled.
Representatives from Marin Health and Human Services and a partner charitable organization joined a panel last Thursday at the Bolinas Community Center to talk with residents about the particulars of homelessness in town, following a similar forum held in Point Reyes Station in July.
Ashley Hart McIntyre, the homelessness policy analyst for Health and Human Services, asked the audience at the end of the two-hour, at times emotional meeting if there was interest in the county purchasing property to provide local housing for the population currently living on the street. The resounding “Yes!” from the 40 or so people in the room came as a surprise.
“Wow, did you see our faces just now?” Ms. McIntyre said of the panelists. “This is a very special community [in] that you are all so open to that possibility: no one says yes to that.”
Yet the several homeless people who spoke up at the meeting described feeling alienated. “They all say these nice, flowery words, but that’s not their intent,” said one woman who described living in Bolinas, mostly out of her car, for over 40 years, pointing to the panelists. “You have no right to sit there and say all that stuff when you don’t help me. I’m 65 years old and living in a tent: that isn’t right. I have big health risks, I’m hurt—and no one helps me.”
The speaker was one of an estimated 140 homeless people living in West Marin, according to this year’s point-in-time count. That number represents a 41 percent increase from the last count, in 2017, when surveyors tallied 99 homeless people in West Marin.
The last count with the same methodology took place in 2015, when the county recorded 61 people on the coast. (In 2015, the county made the shift from a count based on the number of people utilizing services to a visual count of those living on the street—or in cars, or on the beach—conducted in the early morning by a team of volunteers.)
The 2019 count showed that 49 percent of homeless people countywide are on the streets due to economic issues—the leading cause of homelessness in Marin. The other top causes stem from relationships, mental health, substance use and physical health.
Ms. McIntyre kicked off the discussion on Thursday describing how in recent years the county has launched several new initiatives, tightened collaborations between existing support programs, and received increased funding to address homelessness. Yet she was the first to admit that services are in need of further development, especially in West Marin. “In many ways it’s like we are flying a plane that’s only half-built,” she said.
The county is shifting to a “housing first” theory of addressing its homeless population; in the past, programs might have addressed sobriety or job status prior to connecting someone with a living space.
The county has also zeroed in on the most vulnerable populations, including the chronically homeless: those who have experienced homelessness for at least a year or who had at least four episodes of homelessness totaling a year over the past three years—and who have a disabling condition that prevents them from maintaining housing.
There is a financial incentive to this strategy, Ms. McIntyre explained. The cost of leaving a chronically homeless person on the street is estimated to be $60,000, given expenditures in public systems like law enforcement and hospitals. By contrast, the cost of providing permanent supportive housing for a chronically homeless person is just $25,000 a year.
Several new programs and initiatives have helped bring down the numbers of those experiencing homelessness, she said. In 2017, the county launched the Whole Person Care program, a three-year pilot that facilitates collaboration between various county departments and philanthropic organizations designed for Medi-Cal beneficiaries.
The county now administers two surveys to homeless people, which are offered by all the county agencies they may come into contact with as well as through on-the-street outreach. Based on a scoring system that assesses vulnerability, people are then placed on a coordinated entry list for housing. They may also qualify for the Whole Person Care Program, where they receive a case manager and can enroll in one of three case-management programs that focus on housing, medical needs and mental illness.
As far as expanding housing, the county has partnered with the Marin Housing Authority to incentivize landlords to take section 8 vouchers. There are also seven permanent supportive housing projects, all in eastern Marin, and state funding streamed in this spring to expand them.
Marin has seen a reduction of 28 percent in the number of chronically homelessness countywide since 2017. Collectively, the county’s programs have housed 172 people since the beginning of October 2017, and 95 percent of them are still housed.
But Ms. McIntyre could not say what percentage of the people housed were from West Marin, and acknowledged last Thursday that “the research shows that people do better in their own community, in places where they have connections.”
Supervisor Dennis Rodoni, who attended the meeting last week, told the Light afterwards, “The real challenge is that we don’t have any designated housing in West Marin.” He continued, “People who score high on the survey will be offered a house or a home, but it will be in Novato or San Rafael, and no one I know wants to do that: this is their community.”
Last Thursday, Arianne Dar, the executive director for the Bolinas Community Land Trust, told panelists that she thought there were landlords in Bolinas interested in providing housing through section 8 vouchers. She pushed for a local informational workshop with the Marin Housing Authority; Ms. McIntyre agreed to arrange it.
Supervisor Rodoni encouraged collaboration with the land trusts in Point Reyes Station and Bolinas, as well as earmarking several housing units at the Coast Guard property. He also believes the county should expand the days the West Marin Services Center is open.
But for Peter Planteen, who has led a care team for Community Action Marin for the past 14 years focused on West Marin, the solutions are more complicated, especially for Bolinas.
“The town in Marin County that trusts us the least is Bolinas. They are hiding out,” he said to the Light after the meeting, which he could not attend.
Mr. Planteen spends one day a week in Bolinas and one in Point Reyes Station, checking on homeless people—some of whom he considers close friends at this point. His primary goal is to connect them with county services, but he says they are often reluctant.
“People who live in Bolinas are not hot to be in those programs, and many of them have left them over the hill on purpose,” he said.
Often, the best he can do is lend an ear. He often brings bagged lunches and, in the winter, provides blankets and socks.
“It’s a very serious thing out there: being left alone and also wanting to be left alone because of the stigma [of mental illness],” he said. “Talking to them, being friendly to them, is a big deal, especially those who are sicker and may not talk to anyone. They like us to check in and not put pressure on them.”
What remedies does he see? Mr. Planteen told the Light that residents in Bolinas could be part of the solution, and they could start by reaching out to his team.
“We would appreciate more referrals from residents in Bolinas. They need to say where and when they see something, and maybe even go out with us,” he said. “Residents want to help people, and they don’t want to help people. They need to participate more than they do.”
To reach Peter Planteen, call (415) 847.1266.