Comprehending LatinX Homeless Needs

Organization: Sonoma Overnight Support (SOS)

This initiative will enable Sonoma Overnight Support (SOS) to better assess and support the needs of the Spanish-speaking clients they serve through a part-time Bilingual Resource Specialist. This position will enable daily Spanish intake surveys and some preliminary casework with the 44% of clients who speak Spanish (prior to the pandemic, only 5-10% of clients spoke mostly Spanish). Data collected from surveys will be shared with Vintage House, with whom SOS is developing a Springs meal delivery partnership and will also be used for general program evaluation.

Update: Meals are consistent at 450/day and the data the bilingual resource worker is collecting shows about 40% of clients are Spanish speaking as she connects them with services. Through collaborations with multiple local health partners, several vaccine clinics using the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine, have vaccinated scores of the chronically homeless.

Amount: $11,000, 1/22/2021

Amount: $25,000, 7/9/2021

COVID Eviction Prevention

Organization: Petaluma People Services

Create a collaborative 3-month pilot to help keep people housed by providing renters and landlords education about COVID-19 housing rights; assisting with COVID-19 declaration document completion; and beginning any needed conversations between renters and landlords.  It will be bi-lingual, flexible and augment the current rental assistance programs in place in Sonoma Valley. Data collected will inform the potential establishment of a more permanent housing support service in the valley, post-COVID-19.

Amount: $ 21,270, 12/11/2020

Update: The program has been named 'Casa Sonoma' and it utilizes two pro-bono retired real estate attorneys to contact landlords, in addition to the new reanter outreach caseworker the grant funded. Since the program kicked off in January, it has helped sign over 100 COVID declarations with renters and their landlords and has held 77 landlord trainings. The database of renter information, which can be used to document overcrowding situations and bring in more resources to address valley housing issues, has about 200 entries.