ROSEVILLE, Calif. — Roseville City Council did not sign a letter of support for The Gathering Inn's application for a 30-bed medical respite center at a Sept. 7 meeting.
The Gathering Inn is a nonprofit serving people impacted by homelessness with a vision to end homelessness. It's proposing a 30-bed medical respite center at 300 Elefa Street, depending on site control and funding. A medical respite center cares for people experiencing homelessness who are too ill or injured to recover on the streets but aren't sick enough to be in a hospital.
The proposed center would be an expansion of the current 10-bed medical respite center in Auburn, which has been open since 2009 and serves around 75 people each year.
The city council discussed the letter of support at a previous city council meeting and decided that there wasn't much outreach done to neighbors and more needed to be done before they could decide.
Keith Diederich, the CEO of The Gathering Inn said in a Sept. 7 meeting that there was a meeting for the Los Cerritos neighborhood on Aug. 11.
"The meeting was very well attended, it was vocal and it was not supportive of our request," Diederich said.
Melissa Anguiano, Roseville's Economic Development Director, said the application for a 30-bed respite center does not require a letter of support, but it would make The Gathering Inn's application more competitive.
The application was already submitted, according to Anguiano and if The Gathering Inn is awarded funding, they would be able to build without the city's support.
The city council ultimately decided not to move forward with a letter of support for a 30-bed respite center application.
"Because of the size of it and the outreach — it hasn't gotten better in a few months and so that's why I won't be able to support a letter," Mayor Krista Bernasconi said at the meeting.
A glimpse at homelessness in Placer County
Placer County has seen little change in its homeless population based on the most recent point-in-time count conducted in February.
According to Placer County, a point-in-time count is a snapshot from a single day and is typically seen as an undercount of a community's homeless population. Homelessness service providers, law enforcement and community volunteers work together to conduct the federally mandated count.
A total of 750 people experiencing homelessness were counted from Roseville to North Lake Tahoe in 2022, compared to 744 people from a count in 2020. The rate of homelessness has gone down slightly in the county.
"I think a lot of folks have a hard time hearing that and seeing how visible homelessness is becoming— more and more visible. And so we're really focused on getting the number of people who are experiencing homelessness, who are unsheltered down," said Rob Oldham, the director of Health and Human Services for Placer County.
Oldham said one of the things that has to be balanced is the different needs and wants of the communities in the county.
"Sometimes it requires making some difficult choices and so not everyone is happy with those investments that we've made over the years. The homeless shelter in north Auburn, that was not exactly a popular decision in north Auburn at the time, but I think if we go back and look at that decision over time, it has had an impact a positive impact on homelessness in the community," Oldham said.
There are currently 231 permanent supportive housing beds, according to Placer County.
Oldham said moving forward, a big focus is working together across jurisdictions.
"We want to continue to maintain the lowest rate of homelessness in Northern California, so that's one kind of clear direction from our policymakers that we want to continue, but also to address the visibility of homelessness. So really trying to do even more outreach to people who are experiencing homelessness, especially those who are chronically homeless, and more partnerships with law enforcement," Oldham said.
Find more about homeless services in Placer County HERE.
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