Manuel Santiago, a 52-year-old Pomo Indian, has been homeless for many years. He’s lived in tents, RVs, motels — anywhere but a shelter.
In and out of state prison since 1979, Santiago said his many years behind bars include several stints in solitary confinement. That’s left him with an aversion to crowded places like the Sam Jones Hall homeless shelter in Santa Rosa.
“I can’t be around people,” he said Friday, crouched in front of a tent he shares with another person in the city’s southwest area. “Being locked up, I was in the hole a lot. I just don’t deal with people very well.”
Santiago is one of 2,657 homeless adults and one of 715 chronically homeless in Sonoma County, which was highlighted last week in a federal report to Congress as having one of the nation’s biggest homeless populations among largely suburban communities.
The annual homeless assessment report, from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said when compared with similar-sized communities, Sonoma County also has among the highest numbers of unaccompanied homeless youth, living in shelters or on the streets, and chronically homeless people. They live without a home for a year or more.
Homelessness remains one of the most stubborn public health problems in the county, one that’s now getting worse after years of improvement. The reversal is confounding to local leaders who’ve made multiple efforts to remedy the predicament.....
.......... In the small encampment where Santiago lives, Clemente Marrufo, 38, stays with his father, mother, sister and cousin. Marrufo, a Kashia Pomo Indian, said he and his family have been homeless since they lost their home in the Stewarts Point Rancheria after his grandfather died four years ago.
Standing outside his tent Friday, Marrufo’s right cheek was swollen from an infection in his gums caused by a broken tooth. “I really don’t have too many resources here to keep clean,” he said.
Marrufo said he and his family try to “keep out of sight” in the little encampment to avoid drawing attention from neighbors and law enforcement.
“Out of sight, out of mind,” he said. “But then that’s the problem. If we keep out of sight, then they forget we’re even here. ... They forget about us, but when they do remember us they corral us up like animals.” .....
.... the county is poised to receive $12 million from the state for homeless emergency programs, including shelter and street-level services. She said a new “leadership council” of government and housing officials, along with homeless advocates, are hoping to revamp the services offered and decide how best to spend the money....
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