Homeless protest shelter closure by camping at Civic Center

Richard Halstead

Marin County…

An unofficial count of Marin County’s homeless population conducted on Jan. 29 found 635 homeless individuals in shelters, 1,147 unsheltered and 3,058 people precariously housed in danger of losing their shelter soon.

The nonprofit Homeward Bound operates two permanent homeless shelters in Marin: the 80-bed New Beginnings Center in Novato and the 40-bed Mill Street Center in San Rafael. Mill Street often can’t accommodate all its requests for housing.

"They’re pretty much full and booked,"

     About a dozen homeless men and women said Wednesday that they would attempt to spend the night camped next to the Marin County Civic Center to call attention to the termination of an emergency shelter program that had been housing 60 people nightly.

Albert Ellis, one of the organizers of the camp out, said, however, that the group would leave if ordered to by police. Ellis said he has been homeless since arriving in Marin in December. The leaders of several Marin churches also dropped by Wednesday afternoon to voice their support.

"They are going to be subject to the county’s ordinances," said Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle. "They are going to be asked to leave the park at dusk."

But as of 9 p.m., a small group of campers quietly lay in sleeping bags in the grass near the Civic Center lagoon, allowed to remain barring any disturbance.

An unofficial count of Marin County’s homeless population conducted on Jan. 29 found 635 homeless individuals in shelters, 1,147 unsheltered and 3,058 people precariously housed in danger of losing their shelter soon.

The nonprofit Homeward Bound operates two permanent homeless shelters in Marin: the 80-bed New Beginnings Center in Novato and the 40-bed Mill Street Center in San Rafael. Mill Street often can’t accommodate all its requests for housing.

"They’re pretty much full and booked," Ellis said.

Michael Tupper, another organizer of Wednesday’s action, said the homeless fear fines or arrest anywhere they sleep outdoors.

in the doorways, in the underpasses, in the hills – we have no place to go."

"Wherever we sleep we’re going to be criminalized because it is against the law to put your sleeping bag down outdoors anywhere in Marin," said Tupper, who was homeless until several weeks ago.

Ellis said, "When the police tell you to move on, they can tell you to do that all night, and then what do you do in the day time when you can’t sleep?"

Juan Flores, another member of the homeless group, said a San Rafael policeman threatened him with a ticket earlier in the day when he unrolled his sleeping bag in Albert Park.

This is not the first time that the Civic Center has become ground zero in the debate over housing for the homeless. For nearly eight months in 1992, about 100 homeless people inhabited a ragtag tent city pitched on a hill between the Civic Center and Highway 101.

Robert Roumiguiere, a Marin County supervisor at the time, moved the encampment there from outside the National Guard Armory in Santa Venetia, where the homeless had taken up residence after a winter shelter in the armory had been closed. Roumiguiere was reacting to growing complaints from Santa Venetia residents.

Roumiguiere ensured that the homeless did not return to the armory for a sixth consecutive winter stay. Instead, in fall 1992, those camped outside the Civic Center were moved to the former World College West campus, located in a remote area on the Marin-Sonoma county line.

In December, when temperatures turned frigid, county supervisors allocated more than $52,500 to house homeless individuals temporarily at the Marin Center. In February, the supervisors declined to allocate more money for the effort. About a dozen Marin churches and synagogues picked up the slack and began housing about 40 men and 20 women nightly in their facilities.

The congregations raised about $40,000 to extend the emergency shelter program through March 31. On Tuesday, the program officially ended, even though the religious community plans to continue housing about 20 women a night for another month.

Representatives of the Christian Church of San Rafael, the Lucas Valley Community Church and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Belvedere all attended Wednesday’s campout and called for more housing for the homeless.

"I’m here to say these people ought to have a place to sleep," said Steve Henderson, pastor of Lucas Valley Community Church. "With the economic challenges we’re all facing, a lot of people are not far away from being in this place themselves."

Jim Ward, rector at St. Stephen’s, said his church’s decision to house homeless men at St. Stephen’s six times since February drew mixed reviews from neighbors.

"We determined this was a religious activity," Ward said. "As Christians, we believe that welcoming the stranger is welcoming Christ. These men were Christ for us."

Contact Richard via e-mail at rhalstead@marinij.com