Roomkey will house through August
The 125 homeless people housed at two Vallejo hotels because of the pandemic are good through July.
Then what?
Mayor Bob Sampayan asked his colleagues during Tuesday night’s Vallejo City Council meeting about the inevitable evaporation of funding.
“I’m very pleased with the program. I’m glad we’re able to take 125 people and give them shelter during COVID,” said Sampayan of Project Roomkey.
“But what’s going to happen to these individuals when they’re going to have to leave these motel rooms?” the mayor asked. “What if we get an extension that allows us to go into fall and winter and we run out of funding? Are we going to take these individuals and move them out? Do we have an exit plan or exit strategy?”
The council accepted roughly $676,000 in grant funding June 23 from Solano County and the Community Action Partnership Solano, Joint Powers Authority to fund Project Roomkey. The grants are used specifically for reimbursement of expenses related to sheltering homeless individuals and families.
Assistant City Manager Ann Caldwell said the homeless will be “transitioning out” of the Hampton Inn and the Rodeway Inn and that the Joint Powers Authority (JPA) is “working diligently to allocate funding to the end of August,” hoping to secure lodging at nursing homes, board and care homes, and “other sheltering options.”
Returning the homeless to the streets “again, is my biggest concern,” Sampayan said. “We’re taking steps to help people that are susceptible to COVID-19 and I don’t want to see them out in the toolies at Sacramento Street. Let’s continue to find services for these folks and not just cast them out.”
Councilmember Rozzana Verder-Aliga said she hoped “we’ll be able to find permanent housing for them. I know there’s a shortage of facilities.” Verder-Aliga said the city should “push the county to priortize” mental health assessment “in a timely manner” of the lodged homeless.
Councilmember Robert McConnell said the city should consider buy- ing Vallejo motels “that have seen better days” to relocate the homeless on a more permanent basis, possibly “entering agreements with other agencies to operate those hotels to provide services.”
Acknowledging that would be “a long-range plan,” McConnell encouraged the staff to investigate “the feasibility of such undertaking.”
“I do not expect another dry or warm season (in the fall and winter) as we did last year, so if I can get a staff report back in October,” McConnell said.
Councilmember Hakeem Brown said he was “concerned about putting more poverty in these areas where the rich areas stay rich and the poor areas stay poor” if the homeless were relocated to the run-down motels. Brown suggested the city work with local nonprofits and churches to provide “tiny homes” that are becoming popular.