Santa Rosa plans to restore its homeless shelter capacity by building a 60-person structure later this year in the parking lot of the Samuel L. Jones Hall shelter near the city’s southwest corner.
The move would come about the same time Santa Rosa aims to wind down the managed homeless camp established in May outside the Finley Community Center. That first-ever sanctioned camp for Santa Rosa was created to get some of the scores of campers living at downtown underpasses along Highway 101 into safer shelter.
The new outdoor space contemplated for Sam Jones Hall is just one of the ways Santa Rosa is looking to create new spaces for people experiencing homelessness amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to social distancing requirements that limit usable space inside existing shelter systems. The city also has considered partnering with Sonoma County on an indoor-outdoor shelter and expanding its safe parking program at several sites around the city.
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