Homelessness News

Major Homelessness Updates (Summer 2021)

Posted on June 14, 2021

On Monday June 7th, the San Rafael City Council approved a set of new actions for how our community can continue to proactively address homelessness over the coming days, weeks, and months. From the Supreme Court upholding Martin v. Boise to the COVID-19 pandemic to the emergence of significant encampments in our community, the past 18 months have created many challenges that these...

101 Viaduct Encampment

Posted on March 11, 2021

Throughout California, there is only shelter capacity for approximately 30% of people experiencing homelessness. This same ratio holds in Marin. One of the most visible manifestations of unsheltered homelessness is encampments. According to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, encampments: May be a core group of people who are known to one another...

Encampments

Posted on January 22, 2021

Nearly five years ago, the City of San Rafael, the County of Marin, and local homeless service providers joined forces to launch a pilot program called the Homeless Outreach Team (HOT), which has since been named a statewide best practice by the League of California Cities. HOT emerged out of a need to address unsheltered homelessness in Downtown...

Project Homekey

Posted on November 5, 2020

At the end of June the Governor announced "Project Homekey", which set aside approximately $600 million for the acquisition of hotels, motels, and other existing buildings for both interim and permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness and who are vulnerable to COVID-19. Marin's Project Homekey Sites The County of Marin has applied for Project Homekey...

3301 Kerner

Posted on October 15, 2020

From March of 2016 through September of 2017, a pilot program in San Rafael called the Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) created a new collaborative service model that housed 23 of the hardest-to-serve, chronically homeless people in San Rafael. On October 1, 2017, this strategy of prioritizing housing and services for the most vulnerable, high-needs members...

Recent Encampment Activity

Posted on October 6, 2020

On October 1st, 2020, City of San Rafael officials, including the Police Chief, Fire Chief, City Attorney's Office, and City Manager's Office, met with community members to discuss recent encampment activity in residential parts of the city.

Homelessness during a Pandemic

Posted on June 10, 2020

The past few months have brought a number of unprecedented challenges to our local system of care. This newsletter will provide an overview of six of the most significant ways in which the City, the County, and our local homeless service providers are responding to the COVID-19 crisis. If you or someone you know is...

A Day at the Ritter Center

Posted on February 21, 2020

In the early days of the City's homelessness newsletter, we posted a series of interviews with local stakeholders to help the public meet the various people involved with this important issue. Those interviews included the City of San Rafael's Mental Health Outreach Liaison Lynn Murphy and the County of Marin's Homelessness Policy Analyst Ashley Hart McIntyre....