County Pushes Pitch for Trailers to House Homeless

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Oakland has already received 15. Los Angeles has 30. And now Sonoma County, a recent epicenter of the state’s homeless crisis, has asked for some as well.

At issue are state-provided travel trailers, 100 of which Governor Gavin Newsom announced in mid-January were available to house the homeless throughout California. At the time of the announcement the county was grappling with a complex plan to address the homeless crisis locally with a suite of short and long-term solutions. That plan is still being worked out.

But last week Sonoma County put in a formal request for 10 of the trailers, and Supervisor James Gore this week made a special appeal to Governor Newsom.

The trailers would be rolled into the county’s nearly $12 million plan approved on December 23rd to address homelessness, and could help provide transitional housing for individuals and small groups at 2 indoor-outdoor shelters the county has promised to establish in the next few months.

Sonoma County recently opened a 60 unit temporary shelter site at the Los Guilicos Juvenile Justice Center, which is scheduled to be closed on April 30th. Those 60 pallet shelter units will likely be reused in one of the more permanent indoor-outdoor shelters the county is expected to set up this spring.