Napa County wins $11.3M grant to combat homelessness

NAPA, Calif. (KTVU) - Napa County, known for wine and tourism, has a growing homelessness population and the county has received a multimillion dollar grant to help combat the problem.

The $11.3 million grant will help the county create and implement a five-year plan to combat chronic homelessness and help those most at risk of ending up on the streets.

This approach -- city and county leaders promise -- is going to change dramatically and will include several facets that include sheltering, outreach and housing.

"Let's go find folks where they are. Let's provide services where they are," Mitch Wippern, Deputy Director of Health and Human Services, told KTVU.

There are an estimated 300 homeless individuals in Napa County at any given time, according to the most recent head-count in 2015.

"Something happens with the human spirit when you have your own place," Reverend Linda Powers told KTVU.

Powers is Program Diector for Shelter Services with Community Action Napa Valley, which runs two year-round facilities that sleep about 100 people, and a temporary winter shelter with 55 cots at the fairgrounds.

Powers believes many homeless people are couch-surfing or living in cars, and uncounted.

She puts the number of homeless closer to 700, and notes, without freeway or mass transit access to Napa, most of them are from Napa originally, many born and raised.

"When people say they need to go someplace, where would they go? They know Napa, this is their home!," she declared.

Napa has a patchwork of services and meals from church-based groups and non-profits, but plans to become more comprehensive with the help of the state grant, which encourages a "whole person" approach.

"Really people just need housing as the platform so they can take care of all of the other things," explained newly-hired Homeless Outreach Coordinator Nui Bezaire.

The idea is to provide outreach, to get people into housing, and then work on their addictions, mental illness, or health issues.

Figuring out what each person needs, and providing intensive one-on-one support, has shown to be more successful than letting them find, but fail, at living independently.

"The whole country is now looking to these pilot communities that are launching 'whole person care' to see what happens, added Bezaire. 

Some municipalities that have implemented a "housing first" approach have found as many as 9 out of 10 chronically homeless people who are placed in a stable living environment, remain there years later.

The philosophy sounded promising to Becky Olivieri, who has a campsite under a palm tree, just steps from a busy Napa shopping center. .

"We've got a pillow, about five blankets, and we stay under the tree because it keeps the rain off us," said Olivieri, showing the pallets that she and others sleep on to stay off the wet ground.

Olivieri admits her drinking causes her problems staying at a shelter.

She wants her own place, qualifies for aid, and has money saved, but says she needs help making it happen. 

"Don't say, 'we're going to help you, but only if you do this, this and this," she exclaimed.

"Because a lot of people out here, can't do 'this this and this.' That's why they're out here!"

For the Bay Area, the biggest challenge is finding housing for the needy, in markets where availability is low and prices are high.

"There's nothing out there and they they want your income to be three times the amount of the rent," a tearful Iva Calderon told KTVU, as she sat in her van outside daily the Salvation Army lunch line.

She and her boyfriend bought the van last month and removed the back seats so they could sleep in it, after losing the duplex they'd rented for a decade.   

"I had that place kept it ten years, and we did nothing wrong," she explained, "but  somebody else bought the house and we had to move out."

The property is being renovated, for rental or sale, and Iva is priced out, moving from place to place in the van.  

"And it's so cold at night, and so much work, figuring out where to go where we can park."

The "whole person" approach depends on landlords being willing to take a chance on someone so needy. They will be offered incentives, such as a caseworker to call directly and contingency funds set aside.       

"That way, there' s money to fix the unit should something happen," said Wippern.

Reducing a landlord's financial risk is one thing.

Wippern says the reforms are also rooted in the belief that people can change. 

"Shaking the idea that people are so flawed, that they can't get out of where they are," he enthused, "and there are things that bring us all, to where we are in life."

At an auto parts supply shop, Jenna Bolyarde took time from customer calls, to talk her experience formerly homeless.

She was hooked on heroin, in and out of jail, with eight tries at drug rehab.

But Bolyarde has been clean for three years, and is active as an advocate, sitting on the boards of several community organizations that deal with homeless issues.

"I have a long record and somebody still took a chance on me and I'm forever grateful for that," she told KTVU.

Bolyarde is reunited with her children, and very capable at living life now, but  remembers when it was all new.

"Coming out of that environment, you really don't know how to live," she explained, "and I didn't have any idea how to show up on work on time, things other people take for granted. "

She is convinced a wraparound approach, with caseworkers to keep people on track, will succeed.    

"You are talking to a human being whose whole job is to make sure you're healthy and your needs met. How do you argue with that?"

Another survivor of heroin and homelessness went on to become the manager of Napa's main shelter.

"We need housing, that's the backbone," Rodney Seib told KTVU, as she pointed out a vacant lot where he pitched a tent for five long years.

He is optimistic, but has his doubts, housing can be found for all who need it.

"There's hardly any housing in Napa, so you've got to think out of the box," he posed.
"Build something! With eleven million dollars I think you can build something."

Otherwise, Seib fears the revolving shelter door won't stop.

"You can promise somebody something and if you don't go through with it, what happens after that? They're not going to believe anything we say!"

About $560,000 of the annual $2.2 million grant will go to administration, compliance and billing, and the rest to delivery of homeless services. 

The goal of Whole Person Care is reducing money spent on emergency room visits, and hospitalization among the homeless population, that ultimately cost the system more.