The meeting discussed housing programs, encampment cleanups and crisis resources
By YUENJO FAN — city@theaggie.org
On May 14, the city of Davis and Yolo County hosted a joint 2×2 meeting to discuss the county’s Pacifico project, F Street encampment cleanups and the county’s Crisis Now model.
The meeting began with discussions on the Pacifico Housing Support Program, Yolo County’s plan to rehabilitate Davis’ vacant Pacifico housing into an affordable housing unit for vulnerable and low-income families.
Ryan Pistochini, the director of Yolo County General Services, provided positive news about the project’s progress.
“We have moved forward with the remaining design, [now] at 100% for the project,” Pistochini said. “As we go through the design, what will happen next is that we will continue to work with the city collaboratively on what our design intents will be for the building.”
The design for Pacifico, a California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program, will be checked for approval by the county and Davis Building Division in September of this year. Following this, the project will be put out to bid for viable contractors in November, where the county will need to approve the contractor.
Next on the agenda were updates on the cleanup of unhoused encampments on Davis’ F Street. Both the Davis and Yolo County Social Services Departments worked together to handle the encampment cleanups.
Dana Bailey, the director of city of Davis Social Services and Housing, provided more details on how the situation was approached.
“We did a lot of work, so we had an understanding of who was there [and] what the conditions were, and we worked together to determine what the response would be,” Bailey said. “We were all in agreement that, working together, the first response would be engagement.”
Individuals in the encampments were encouraged to contact Davis Community Meals and Housing for supportive outreach. Meanwhile, the Davis Police Department, Davis Code Enforcement Department and the city’s homeless outreach team also worked to notify and provide support for the unhoused individuals, some of whom have lived in the encampment for multiple years.
Interim Director Yolo County of Social Services Marisa Green elaborated on this issue, detailing one of the main reasons for the F Street cleanups.
“There was a concern about fires,” Green said. “So much debris had started to gather there, and it was so dry, […] it really started to be a safety hazard for fire season. Additionally, there was a lot of debris that was related to drug use and also lighters and flammable liquids. There really were concerns that it could just ignite, especially with the railroad tracks [as] sparks fly and things of that nature.”
Lastly, the meeting touched upon the county’s crisis response initiative. Tony Kildare, the interim behavioral health director of Yolo County, explained how the crisis response model includes three steps: a number to call, someone to respond and a place to go. While the county operates a call center and a 24/7 crisis response team, a health facility has not been developed yet.
“Our budget wasn’t penciling out in terms of what we needed to do in order to establish a standalone receiving center that was county-operated through a contractor,” Kildare said. “So [now], we’re pivoting to a different approach. We are exploring a couple of different options with existing providers who are providing the same type of services or similar services.”
Currently, the county is looking at two potential facilities in Sacramento and one in Woodland. A sole-source contract has been planned with a provider in Sacramento named Wellspace, while the county is still targeting contracts with the two other locations.
The Davis/Yolo County 2×2 meeting occurs every other month at City Hall between two members of the Davis City Council and two members of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. More information can be found on their website.
Written By: Yuenjo Fan — city@theaggie.org
