Editor, Manteca Bulletin:
The editorial of 9/6/18 on our City Council’s discussion of a shelter crisis declaration concludes its support for the 3 to 2 postponement vote with “Maybe Manteca’s cautious but somewhat innovative approach shows they are on the right track.” The editorial then continues the way it began by attacking Adam Cheshire as high salaried, as a czar, as a hammer to our council, and as flippant to our community.
I was taken back by such attacks on a county representative invited by our police chief to the council meeting as a resource concerning the shelter crisis declaration. So I watched the video for the meeting. First Chief Estarziau described the declaration and shared her view that a crisis did exist. Later she clarified that the funding for Manteca non-profits could be in the range of $407,000, which is hardly the “few crumbs” the editorial flippantly dismissed.
Mr. Cheshire is the recently hired Program Administrator-Homeless Initiatives. This position was created by our County Supervisors who also set a pay range of $95,244-$115,776 not the “$176,000 salary jackpot” stated in the Bulletin. (sanjoaquincountyca.iqm2.com, 10/18/17))
Mr. Cheshire was chosen due to his extensive experience with non-profits including his previous position as Director of the Stockton Shelter for the Homeless which serves about 320 homeless folks daily and shelters 170 single men and women, 26 families, and turns no one away through the provision of sleeping mats in the common areas. I would say that Mr. Cheshire merits Manteca’s attention, not attacks, when he is invited to assist us in securing Homeless Emergency Housing Program (HEAP) funds.
My perspective from watching the video is that all participants, including Mr. Cheshire, engaged in a civil and informative discussion. Mr. Cheshire’s county job description states his service is “to provide ongoing leadership to the Continuum of Care (CoC) and its continuing mission to foster collaboration and coordination among the organizations.” It seems to me that such collaboration is undermined by an editorial that feels informed by the fear of “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
The council postponed until October a final decision on this funding. This was so three members of the council can attend the League of California Cities Conference next week in Long Beach. Ironically the League was the major force that resulted in SB 850 (HEAP) which split SB 2 funding between long term and short-term solutions for homelessness.
The League sought and achieved a basically blank check $500 million block grant for CoCs and large cities: “The parameters of the program are intentionally broad to allow local communities to be creative and craft programs that meet the specific needs they have identified.” (https://bcsh.ca.gov/, 8/7/18)
The League’s achievement is a good fit for a prior Bulletin editorial: “And in order to give the non-profits critical to helping the city address homeless concerns more resources the city will need to think out of the box.” (May 16, 2018)
The Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council, which is responsible with in the Business, Consumer, Services and Housing Agency, for reviewing applications has posted 8 pages of FAQ. These expand on the categories listed by Sarah deRochemont’s letter of 9/7/18: “Eligible uses include, but are not limited to: Services: Street outreach, health and safety education, criminal justice diversion programs, … Rental assistance or subsidies: Housing vouchers, rapid re-housing programs, and eviction prevention strategies. Capital improvements: Emergency shelter, transitional housing, drop-in centers, … Some communities are discussing solutions to address homelessness and the public health crisis by using funds for handwashing stations or public toilet and shower facilities.” (https://www.bcsh.ca.gov/hcfc/documents/heap_faqs.pdf)
The previous examples seem to be a good fit for many of the Bulletin’s own out box ideas if only we could accept that the state’s HEAP is an apple a day, not a “poison apple”. One of the workshops at the League’s convention is titled “Accelerate from Status Quo to Status Go.” For the sake of our homeless and the city/non-profit collaboration that helps them, I hope this is the more concerned and less cautious result of the October consideration of the shelter crisis declaration.
Léo Bennett-Cauchon
Manteca
Editor’s note: The position of a “homeless czar” as eventually funded by the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors in February of 2018 was for an annual cost of $176,000 including benefits.
