The plans will be implemented by the police department, the city and local faith-based organizations
By RORY CONLON — city@theaggie.org
On March 18, the city of Davis released a staff report with five proposed plans to address homelessness. If the proposals move forward, two of the plans will be implemented by the Davis Police Department, and the city of Davis will implement three in collaboration with local non-profits.
During the city council meeting, Davis Police Chief Todd Henry and Social Services and Housing Director Dana Bailey presented these plans. Henry believes the first step is to hire a beat officer specifically assigned to Downtown Davis.
“They would be a direct point of contact for businesses and community members,” Henry said. “They would also not be committed to normal calls for service, which would give them uncommitted time to focus on issues more than a patrol officer is able to. Right now, we’re exploring whether we can outfit a foyer to have a location where business owners could respond during designated business hours and report issues.”
The second part of the plan is to recruit an outside contractor to collect, inventory, store and return items from disassembled unhoused encampments. Henry said the cost of hiring two employees for eight hours a day, two days a week, would range between $80,000 and $175,000.
“This lessens the workload of the two code enforcement officers that we currently have,” Henry said. “50% of their current workload is committed to clean up, property collection and property return. They obviously have a lot of other responsibilities they have to cover.”
Bailey outlined a proposal being made by the city to launch a volunteer-based community navigator system. In this system, volunteers would be selected based on their lived experiences and trained to connect unhoused individuals with resources.
Bailey also proposed a sanctioned camping program for individuals who live out of their vehicles. She said the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rehousing Team (HEART) of Davis, in partnership with Davis United Methodist Church, would offer this program.
“They have located a few parking spaces that they would designate for sanctioned camping as a pilot,” Bailey said. “They’ve provided an operations outline and a job description for staff. Staff and the police department have reached out to the Davis United Methodist Church to learn more about this program.”
The city’s final proposal involved extending the hours at the Daytime Homeless Respite Center, a facility run by the Downtown Streets Team that provides basic services to the unhoused.
“They operate from Monday to Friday from 4 to 8 p.m.,” Bailey said. “Speaking with the Downtown Streets Team, they did mention that they provided a budget to expand the hours from five to seven days. […] The added cost to move to a seven-day model is $197,981.”
On the same day as the city council meeting, the city of Davis published a press release that included feedback from community members on the Respite Center. The press release noted how community members felt “very impacted” by the Davis Respite Center and suggested several ways to address their concerns.
“Attendees at the meeting offered a number of specific ways to address the impacts, including the importance of police enforcement and patrols to help keep businesses and the public safe; the need for funding for a variety of improvements and resources, such as overnight services, trash removal, security or cleanliness; and the necessity for more information and transparency from the city,” the press release reads. “We were also urged to look at alternative locations for a Daytime Respite Center.”
Vice Mayor Donna Neville acknowledged this feedback at the city council meeting.
“Whatever decision we do or don’t make tonight about extending or not extending the Respite hours, I want everyone to know we heard you loud and clear,” Neville said. “We are continuing to look at the results from that meeting, and we’ll be coming back to council with a short and long-term plan specifically related to concerns around the Respite Center.”
John O’Neill, a community member who lives a block from the Respite Center, spoke at the meeting. O’Neill said he appreciated Neville’s comment but expressed skepticism that the city would follow through on feedback.
“When the center was first proposed, I was a proponent of it as a one-year program that moved around the city,” O’Neill said. “Clearly, there’s a need, and I was very fine with my community taking the lead and being the first part of Davis to help address [homelessness]. That was five and a half years ago, and it’s time for the rest of Davis to help share that responsibility.”
O’Neill called on the city to follow through with its commitment to relocate the shelter.
“What’s going on is empathy is being turned into anger and frustration, and at a time when it’s increasingly difficult to believe in our government, I really, really want to believe in the city of Davis government, my local people,” O’Neill said. “Before you invest, I urge you to make that investment in a different part of the Davis community.”
After listening to public comments, the city council members discussed which plans they wanted to move forward and which plans they wanted to receive more information about.
The city council advanced plans to hire a downtown beat officer, contract a company for encampment cleanup and coordinate a sanctioned camping program. They asked to receive more information about the Respite Center and community navigator programs before making further decisions.
Written By: Rory Conlon — city@theaggie.org
