The combination of 1) a significant population of unsheltered homeless in Sonoma County; 2) the length of time that such large numbers of the homeless are forced to live “on the street” and unsheltered; and 3) the unconscionably-harsh policy of constantly forcing many of those homeless to move to “another location on the street,” from which they will inevitably once again be forcibly removed, fully constitutes a violation by Sonoma County and it's cities of those individuals human rights.
Therefore, the Sonoma Chapter of the ACLU, while not directly involved with activities involving the homelessness, actively supports organizations such as Homeless Action! in their efforts to redress these injustices.
We have delivered statements to the SC Board of Supervisors and to the Santa Rosa City Council.
One of our recent interventions was our April 15, 2019 letter to the SC Leadership Council in which we urged it to accept, fully fund, and swiftly concretize the proposal by Homeless Action! and The Living Room for the establishment over the next 1-2 years of 3-4 villages for the homeless at an approximate cost of $1-1½ million. We were gratified that that group did allot a sum $450,000 for that proposal.
Our most recent action was a July 8 censure of the City of Santa Rosa for their latest “street cleansing” of the homeless.
Links to relevant websites:
Homeless Action!: https://www.facebook.com/humanitycounts
SC Leadership Council: https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Home-Sonoma-Leadership-Council
If you have any questions about these issues or would like to assist the Sonoma County ACLU Chapter’s activities in this area, please contact us at info@sonomaaclu.org
Page last updated: December 6th, 2019