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Davis

Davis, California

Monday, March 18, 2024

What’s next for Davis’s Unsheltered Community Plan?

Following the Unsheltered Community Plan created in response to the recent stabbings, Davis intends to provide more support for the unhoused community

 

By: Alma Culverwell — city@theaggie.org 

 

The city of Davis and Davis Community Meals and Housing created and implemented an unhoused community shelter plan in response to the recent stabbings. Dana Bailey, social services and housing director for the city of Davis, described the process that went into developing the plan.

The process came together very quickly,” Bailey said. “Once we realized, or once [the police department] informed us that the [third] attack that occurred was a member of our unhoused community, what the city did was to reach back out to the folks that helped us to manage our emergency winter shelter. We had a plan in place that we used for the emergency winter shelter that we operated between November and March of this year.”

Bailey talked about the process of working with Davis Community Meals and Housing throughout the process to address the issue as soon as possible.

“So we reached back out to Davis Community Meals and Housing and said, we’ve got this new emergency, […] can we reactivate?” Bailey said. “So we developed the work plan to address specific areas. We talked about where we would do this and then what the hours of operations would be, what kind of staffing we needed, what kind of supplies we needed. We had a strategy for meals and for safety and for a health mitigation plan because we still have to make sure that if we’re still on the downside of COVID.”

The city provided approximately two dozen emergency beds as well as meals for people in need in response to the stabbings. The emergency beds are typically a limited seasonal resource offered in winter but they reopened them due to the emergency. Davis Community Meals and Housing is offering shelter at Paul’s Place and the 5th Street Location. Bill Pride, the executive director of Davis Community Meals and Housing, described the support Davis Community and Meals provided during a time of need.

“Well, we opened up a small shelter for a couple of nights before […] the perpetrator of the stabbings was arrested on that Thursday,” Pride said. “So we opened up for three nights, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And during those three nights, between the Fifth Street location and another location we had at Paul’s Place, we were housing up to 24 people a night.” 

Several other local organizations are also assisting with the plan. Davis CAN will aid with donations, HEART of Davis plans to provide meals and the Daytime Respite Center is increasing staff size in hopes of giving more resources and assistance to unsheltered people.

Bailey shared the most important way that community members can help unsheltered people moving forward. 

“Right now, because we’ve got a really good system in place with our direct service providers, the best way that the community can help is to support those direct service providers. That’s Community Meals and Housing and our Daytime Respite Center that’s operated by community care,” Bailey said.“They are working directly with our unhoused community. They’ve already developed trusting relationships with folks. They know that those are the places that they can come to get services to get laundry done, to get materials like tents  and gloves and whatever they need. Those are the two places that they go where they feel safest.” 

 

Written By: Alma Culverwell — city@theaggie.org