Rain and cold have returned to Marin County, but so far the weather hasn’t been inclement enough to trigger the opening of the county’s severe weather emergency shelter.
Steven Torrence, director of the Marin County Office of Emergency Management, said this week that based on the National Weather Service forecast for the next six days, weather conditions would not warrant opening the center.
Torrence said San Rafael received less than an inch of rain on Wednesday and just 0.7 of an inch of rain is expected on Saturday. He said temperatures through the weekend are expected to be in the 40s and 50s.
When forecasts do meet the standards set in the county’s protocol, Torrence notifies the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services executive team, which makes the final decision on opening the shelter.
In November, county supervisors approved a new one-year contract with Episcopal Community Services of San Francisco to operate the shelter for a minimum of 15 days. The county agreed to pay up to $161,534.
Last year, the county allocated $200,000 to cover the 12-month cost of operating the shelter. Gary Naja-Riese, director of Marin County’s homelessness division, said this year’s contract reflects the county’s best estimate of the need for the service. He said if it is necessary to open the shelter for more days, the county will consider revising the contract.
More than 7 inches of rain have fallen at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael since Sept. 1, and temperatures have dipped to lows of 38 degrees over that period, said Sean Miller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The county, however, adheres to a strict protocol when determining whether to open its shelter.
“This is not a winter shelter. It’s important to use the right term,” said Naja-Riese. “It activates if there is a severe weather emergency event that meets any of the emergency criteria.”
He said the center could open during the summer if the air quality becomes hazardous. An air quality index value over 300 is the precise protocol trigger.
The county’s rules governing cold and rain are similarly precise. The shelter will be opened if a National Weather Service forecast calls for a minimum of three days of night temperatures of 36 degrees or lower lasting for three hours or more.
That criterion was revised from last year’s standard that temperatures be projected to drop below an average night low of 38 degrees for three days.
“This helps folks better understand when we are open and reflects temperatures,” Naja-Riese wrote in an email.
The emergency shelter also will be opened if a National Weather Service forecast calls for two consecutive days with 1 inch of rain or more each day between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. accompanied by temperatures at or below 45 degrees.
The shelter will be opened if the National Weather Service warns of a high wind threat or hazardous conditions countywide or for a specified geographic area within the county.
The shelter provides homeless residents with a dry place to sleep and a warm evening meal. It opens at 5 p.m. and closes before sunrise at 6:30 a.m. People who stay at the shelter are tested for COVID-19 on a voluntary basis and isolated in a separate room if they test positive, as has sometimes occurred in the past.
People are only removed or barred from entry if their behavior threatens the health or safety of other guests.
The next morning, shelter users are offered transportation paid by the county to the St. Vincent de Paul dining room in San Rafael, where they can get a free breakfast. Alternatively, a bagged takeout breakfast is available.
In the 2022-23 fiscal year, the shelter was open 23 nights beginning on Dec. 2, 2022, and running through March 28. A total of 357 people used the service, an average of 16 per night.
Fewer unhoused people used the shelter in 2022-23 compared to past years. When Marin’s “rotating emergency shelter team” program, known as REST, was operating from 2007 until 2018, it wasn’t unusual to have as many as 40 men and 20 women use it.
REST, which operated from Nov. 1 to April 20, was managed by the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin with the assistance of some 40 churches, synagogues and other civic organizations.
REST ended in 2018 as the county focused its efforts on a “housing first” model of finding permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless people. As of Sept. 30, the county had housed more than 653 people using federal housing vouchers and state and local funds.
“What we’re seeing in general since the pandemic,” Naja-Riese said, “is a trend that overall clients prefer more individualized, more private shelter rather than congregate shelter, even in these emergency situations.”
Last year, the county returned to operating the emergency shelter in a communal setting at its Health and Wellness Campus at 3240 Kerner Blvd. in San Rafael. During the preceding two years, when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging, emergency shelter was provided by renting local hotel rooms.
Paul Fordham of Homeward Bound of Marin, which provides all of the county’s 161 temporary shelter beds, said the organization’s main facility in Novato and its smaller Mill Street Center in San Rafael are both full.
“This year we’ve been getting far more referrals that we have beds available,” Fordham said. “For every two or three openings we have in a week, we probably get 20 to 40 referrals.”
The county contracted with Homeward Bound to operate its severe weather emergency shelter in fiscal years 2021-22 and 2020-21. Fordham said Homeward Bound didn’t compete for the contract the last two years because of a staffing shortage.
Three sizable camps of homeless people are in Novato and at least one is in San Rafael. The county’s 2022 “point in time” count found 1,121 homeless people in Marin, 830 of whom were unsheltered. The federal government requires the count to be conducted every two years. The next one in Marin is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 23.
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Marin’s severe weather shelter inactive for now - Marin Independent Journal
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