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By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
While Rohnert Park struggles with a yawning deficit that has forced it to cut services and staff, it is quietly maintaining a basic level of social services through a web of nonprofit agencies that it funds with $355,000 a year.
At a time when deep social service cuts are being proposed at the state and county levels, Rohnert Park is among Sonoma County cities providing a last line of defense for the needy, nonprofit officials say.
“The cities, along with other concerned groups and individuals, have stepped up,” said John Records, executive director of Committee on the Shelterless, or COTS, which has programs in Rohnert Park and Petaluma.
Rohnert Park, Petaluma and Sonoma continue to fund nonprofit agencies. But budget woes have forced other cities to stop or cut their support for the groups, many of which provide services to the homeless, seniors and low-income families.
“They’re taking a hit like the rest of us here,” said Ron Puccinelli, finance director in Sebastopol, which plans to shrink its nonprofit funding this year.
Healdsburg and Cotati have eliminated their grants to nonprofits. Santa Rosa has slashed much of its annual giving to groups it has traditionally supported while focusing on funding for homeless services.
So far, Rohnert Park has been able to maintain its support because the money it gives nonprofits doesn’t come from its $26.5 million general fund, which faces a $6 million deficit, but from redevelopment funds dedicated to housing-related projects.
But the state’s decision to take redevelopment funds to help fill its own budget gap — it took $4.1 million from Rohnert Park — has cast a cloud of uncertainty over the city’s ability to continue funding nonprofits at the same level. The decision likely will be made in June, at the start of the new fiscal year.
“It’s a wait and see,” said Linda Babonis, the city’s housing and redevelopment manager.
The nonprofits that Rohnert Park helps fund are:
– COTS, which runs five transitional housing facilities for homeless people in the city and one 24-unit permanent housing complex for very low-income residents. It gets $155,000 a year from the city.
– Sonoma County Adult and Youth Development, or SCAYD, for its program giving emergency rental and housing grants to city residents. In the last six months of 2009, the program assisted 208 people. The agency gets $130,000 a year.
– Rebuilding Together, a Rohnert Park affiliate of a national program that rehabilitates low-income homeowners’ houses. This fiscal year, the nonprofit worked on 20 homes and went on 60 emergency service calls. It gets $70,000 a year.
“It’s absolutely essential,” Records said of the city’s support. “We couldn’t do it without it.”
In the past five years, 100 families have gone through COTS’ Rohnert Park transitional homes and more than 80 — or about 180 children and 120 adults — have gone on to permanent housing, he said.
The city’s grant to COTS is about 64 percent of the nonprofit’s annual budget for its Rohnert Park operations. The city also spent $2.5 million on developing COTS’ permanent housing facility, Vida Nueva, which has about 50 residents.
City officials say they are committed to continuing to support the nonprofits and they provide an essential service that benefits the city.
“It costs the city more for people to be homeless than to help them out, said Vice Mayor Gina Belforte. “It’s very gratifying and it is important for the public to know that it does come from a totally different fund, because sometimes people don’t understand that.”
Belforte is president of SCAYD’s board of directors, and abstains from votes or discussions involving the group.
The city’s redevelopment fund gets money from the county each year according to a formula based on property tax values.
The city gets the difference, known as increment, between assessed property values within its 1,711-acre redevelopment area in 1987, when the redevelopment area was created, and its current assessed values.
In recent years, Rohnert Park has received $6 million to $7 million a year in redevelopment funds, about 20 percent of which are set aside for housing-related projects, Babonis said.
Funding the nonprofits allows the city, which has no social service staff of its own, to ensure a minimum level of services for down-and-out residents, she said.
“We’re a small city, we’re not the county, so we do the best we can to function in that capacity without actually being” a social service agency, she said.
The decision whether to fund the nonprofits at the same level next year will rest on the size of the increment it gets this year, which could be less because the limping economy has led to foreclosures and lower property values.
At SCAYD, which no longer receives county funds for its programs, Executive Director Cecelia Belle said the agency is counting on the city’s funding.
“The homeless prevention program would not continue to exist, we don’t have that money without them,” Belle said.
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Ignorance is bliss if you work for the police dept, Player hater 57. My figures are from the Press Democrat NOT some fantasy numbers dreamed up by the corrupt police union. RP is the next Vallejo, and why are you hiding behind a fake name PH57?
While it’s true that the money is being used for a good cause, isn’t this really just another example of money that is supposed to be used for a specific purpose ‘reallocated’ for another use? As taxpayers, aren’t we sick of this?
Vote ‘NO’ on Measure E! Other than paying for city employee salaries, how will Measure E tax money going to benefit you, your children and the city of RP? Unless we get a written, long-term commitment to open all pools and keep our parks open and clean, vote NO!
First, vote NO on E.
Next, throw out all of the City Council. All of the spendthrifts. Every one of them. Breeze, Belforte, Callinan, MacKenzie, Stafford. If they hadn’t spent a total of about $15 million that the city didn’t HAVE to spend, Rohnert Park would be solvent now, with no worries.
When they come up for re-election, vote ‘em out. They have been spending taxpayers’ money like water.
And don’t be surprised, whether E passes or not, when they jack up the water and sewer rates again, even after THE PEOPLE voted down their last attempt.
The police and fire expenses account for 53.6% of the Rohnert Park budget. The income tax revenue is already 59.7%. Source: rpcity.org budget I don’t support Measure E. It’s time for the city of Rohnert Park to live within it’s means. Every household has been affected by the current economy. Is it really that much to ask that the city does exactly what every household already does? Adapt to a more reasonable budget?
Hey Sam Zuech, you better brush up on your reading skills. The PD/FD is about 50% of the city’s budget. Nice try to slander the city, though. Ignorance is Bliss, right?
Corruption is at such a high level in RP’s city government that they will use any ploy to try to justify the proposed tax increase. We all know where the money is going and why every department and agency in the city is underfunded
EXCEPT for the police department.
Vote NO on E, make RP cut the fat from the department that gobbles up to 70% of the city’s budget.
This is even more reason to support Measure E. Keep up the good work Rohnert Park!