Homekey program gets pushback from residents
Speed of state’s push to convert hotels to housing draws dissent
Richard Hoyt inched his wheeled walker past Novato’s Inn Marin Hotel, one painful step at a time. The walker’s seat was filled with a plastic bag of clothes. He stared at the wellkept hotel’s sparkling white pillars and redtiled roof, and winced.
“Oh, man, I would love to live in something that nice,” Hoyt, 56, said. “But I’ve applied for housing for nine years here in Marin — a rich county, I tell you — and I’m still homeless. Feels hopeless.”
If Marin County leaders get their way, homeless people like Hoyt will be able to call that 70room hotel home by the end of the year. But they face tense negotiations before that can happen — and similar wranglings are unfolding in two other Bay Area cities as the statewide Homekey program of turning hotels into permanent supportive housing for the homeless reaches its final stretch.
In Novato, worried neighbors and City Council members say the conversion of the stylish Inn Marin Hotel is happening too quickly, and they haven’t been able to fully discuss its effect on the neighborhood. The same argument has been made about Homekey
hotel proposals in Corte Madera and Milpitas.
Most Novato officials and residents say they aren’t pulling a NIMBY move — they mainly want to be able to weigh in, as the disputed hotels were picked by county officials. The Marin County Board of Supervisors is set to discuss the issue at its meeting Tuesday morning.
The federal Homekey funds have to be spent by the end of the year. The program only began this summer, so choosing and rehabbing the hotels has to happen in a rushed matter of a couple of months — not the usual slow grind.
“I do understand there are a lot of concerns, and it’s a pretty tight timeline,” said Ashley Hart McIntyre, Marin County’s homelessness policy analyst. “But this is a great opportunity to make a real dent in our homelessness. So we’re doing more outreach to the neighborhoods.”
Homekey uses federal coronavirus aid money to buy hotels all over California for conversion into permanent supportive housing, and by the beginning of November the state had awarded $ 835.6 million for 93 projects totaling 6,055 units. That’s about $ 200 million more than originally targeted.
About $ 300 million of that total came to the Bay Area to secure 1,810 rooms, which include two large hotels in San Francisco.
In Novato, several residents queried about the Inn Marin Hotel proposal said they appreciate the bigpicture goals, but local considerations are knotty.
Some in the neighborhood of apartment complexes and upscale homes say the project would bring down property values and attract more homeless people. And they noted that the county would also lose $ 300,000 a year in hotel occupancy taxes if Inn Marin converts. A few blocks away from the hotel, 73yearold Joe Davidor said he and wife, Pat Davidor, 72, have a homeless son and volunteer with the homelessaid Warm Wishes charity, but he’s wary of the plan.
“Of course, I’m all for helping the homeless, but it’s not a good fit for this neighborhood,” he said. “I guess the rush for the funding is the problem. There are better locations, though. And we all just learned about this — not enough time to really discuss it. That’s not right.”
Supporters counter that the hotel is well located for homeless housing, being near jobs and medical services, shopping and freeway ramps. There’s also public transportation nearby.
“Everyone deserves a home to live in, and where do you send them to instead?” said Nasheka Dossman, 38, who lives in a nearby apartment with her two children. “It is a concern, yes. A lot of us do have kids, and we want it to be safe. But these are human beings. There’s a real need there.”
City officials say they feel caught in the middle.
“This is an issue near and dear to me,” said Novato Councilwoman Susan Wernick, who sits on a countywide committee studying solutions for homelessness. “I am all for supportive housing, but the issue for me here is they circumvented our land use process. There was no vetting.
“My experience is when when residents get a seat at the table you end up with a better solution.” she said. “That needs to happen here before it goes forward.”
That desire for discussion compelled the City Council on Friday to opt not to sue the county, as it had been considering, but rather to urge the county Board of Supervisors to hold community meetings on the project.
Similar complaints from residents of Corte Madera led to the city and county issuing a statement Friday that they would hold community meetings to discuss the 18room hotel conversion being proposed there. And on Wednesday, the Milpitas City Council voted, like Novato, to hold community meetings instead of filing a proposed lawsuit to block a 146room hotel conversion.
“The issue for me here is they circumvented our land use process.” Novato Councilwoman Susan Wernick