On Tuesday, the Oakley City Council unanimously approved a resolution declaring a Shelter Crisis which now allows residents of Oakley to be eligible for HEAP funds. The vote was taken as part of the Consent Calendar.
According to the County 2018 Point in Time Count, nearly 2,300 residents spend any given night in shelters or living in the street. In the City of Oakley, the 2018 number was 49, which was up from 16 in 2017. The increase in homelessness grew by 39% while the number of persons accessing homelessness services last year grew by 13%.
In East Contra Costa, the number of homeless in each city:
- Antioch – 350
- Bay Point – 61
- Brentwood – 35
- Discovery Bay – 1
- Oakley – 49
- Pittsburg – 110
According to the staff report: The county, as represented by Contra Costa County Health, Housing, and Homeless Services, is responsible for applying for funding and determining how funding will be allocated across the County. Public meetings have been held to discuss how these funds could be spent and it appears approximately $3M could be utilized in East Contra Costa County – primarily in Antioch.
Contra Costa County will submit its application by mid-November to ensure consideration in Round 1 of the funding and Supervisor Diane Burgis has requested that the Council consider this resolution to support the County’s application.
To date, the cities and towns joining the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors in passing shelter crisis declarations include Antioch, Concord, Martinez, San Pablo, Richmond, Pittsburg, Walnut Creek, and Pleasant Hill.
At the October 23 meeting, the Brentwood City Council declined to declare a shelter crisis, and instead offered a letter of support which the county said was meaningless in the application process and no one has asked for a letter of support.
Lavonna Martin, MPH, MPA Director, Health, Housing and Homeless Services, spoke during public comments asked the council to consider approving a resolution and going beyond the Letter of Support.
“The Letter of Support is great, and I am sure Antioch and other communities would appreciate the Letter of Support, but the fact of the matter is that Letter of Support is inadmissible with the application that we need to submit to the state,” stated Martin. “The requirement to receive the $7.19 million from the state is to have cities collaborate and declare shelter crisis along with the county to acknowledge that together we are in this, that the 696 beds that we have in our community are absolutely full.”
Staff Report:
https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/263994/Staff_ReportShelterCrisisREVISEDNov13.pdf
7 comments
(Nose in the air) … “Oh yes, we do not have a homeless problem in Brentwood — that only happens in cities like Antioch and Oakley with the “big bad boogeyman” there too. Our gated communities protect us. Oooh yes.” $$$$
There goes Brentwood with its NIMBY attitude. Put the issue off on someone else all for money because of the appearance bad for business. Karen Rarey should be ashamed of herself for lying to the public.
It’s all fun and games for politicians until they realize…. there’s homeless children. The “protect the children” politics make for good propaganda, but until real change is seen, that’s all it’ll be seen as. There’s plenty of $$$ to go around and it’s not communistic is socialist to help those in need.
I stay in brentwood and i myself along with many others are homeless here in brentwood… We get treated very bad by the police and even some residents because we are homeless in brentwood… Something needs to happen… Brentwood is no better then anywhere else and needs to realize there is a crisis…
At least you got your phone to complain with. Besides we have 5000 illegals we need to care for first. Try going down south and come back up for better service.
There are more and more homeless in Brentwood which can be seen along the marsh creek trail near sand creek! I think having even 1 homeless person would be reason for Brentwood to take part! Step up Brentwood….
So? What is causing this “homelessness?” Could the real estate sales people be part of the problem? They try to market to investors who buy houses at inflated prices and then rent them out and even higher prices which many people here cannot afford. I’ve watched this for a few years and it’s a vicious circle.
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