Recently, I talked with Amber Robitaille, Gaylene Robitaille and Maria Quezada about the Tiny Shelter Pilot Project, set to temporarily shelter 10 homeless clients near the William J. Carroll Center in Vacaville.
The project, spearheaded by Solano County Supervisor Skip Thomson, was approved in August of last year by the Solano County Board of Supervisors. Participants will live in Tuff Sheds on county-owned property. They will receive services at the Carroll Center and have direct access to other amenities such as transportation and food.
I applaud the Board of Supervisors for their efforts in attempting a possible solution to one of the most challenging problems to deal with in Solano County. However, a successful collaboration that ensures a project’s success is dependent on trust, shared vision, and responsibilities, accountability, and teamwork. The people who worked on the project, I believe, had these elements among themselves. However, the key players missing from the equation were the neighbors who will be impacted by the project.
Around a dining room table, the ladies I met with, who have been the backbone of rallying the community to fight against the project, reiterated the neighbors’ concerns. They emphasized that they are not anti-homeless people. They help the homeless. It is the location — a residential area with kids, and the type of program — for substance abuse clients.
The Tuff Sheds will be placed less than a mile from Markham Elementary, close to a 7-Eleven and the Mexican Meat Market — all locations frequented by children. Students coming from Vacaville High will also be in the area.
The ladies expressed concerns that the Tuff Shed clients will be out during the times that these students will be going to and coming from school. They mentioned their disappointment that the Vacaville Unified School District Board didn’t take a stand — for the kids. Many of these children come from families that do not own transportation and work during the day.
In addition to these concerns, the ladies explained that we should want to help these homeless clients maintain some sense of dignity. They believe that placing them in Tuff Sheds without heat and water, restricting them to two showers a week, and being in a neighborhood where there is fear and opposition is not the way to go. Also, do we want to place these clients in a residential area where many triggers exist, such as nearby places that sell alcohol?
During recovery, the behavior of those battling substance abuse addiction is unpredictable, the ladies added. They asked: “Do we want to risk the safety of these children?”
The ladies talked with people in Marysville (Yuba County) about their 14Forward Tiny Shelters Project that is the model. In a taped conversation they shared with me, one resident said that since the project, many of the residents’ problems with the homeless population have tripled, along with increasing traffic. Some of the clients have come into their yards and used their water hose to shower with while nude, stolen from them and performed sexual acts openly that children have witnessed. Conflicts have existed between the participants.
Like many of us, these Vacaville residents want facilities brought into their neighborhood that will elevate its value. They already carry the stigma of their community labeled Vacaville’s “ghetto.” Yet they work hard daily so that they, too, can achieve the American dream.
Let’s stand with these neighbors on this issue because of the many risk variables involved — not in opposition to people who need our help — and not in opposition to the Board of Supervisors and others who are proponents of the project. To come up with another solution that will work best for our Brown Street neighbors and those who are homeless.
— The author is a social issues advocate, writer and a Vacaville resident. E-mail: damitchell@earthlink.net
