To assist the 100 or so people with finding a permanent housing destination, the Marin County Board of Supervisors was scheduled to hear an update on services provided to date and new actions to reduce the size of a large vehicle encampment along a County-maintained road just north of the Novato city limits. The topic of the Binford Road encampment is part of the Board’s regular meeting on Tuesday (Aug. 22).
The County of Marin recently secured $1.6 million in state grant funding over three years to resolve the Binford Road encampment through enhanced outreach, housing-based case management, and other direct support to homeless individuals. The County is also required to match funding support with vouchers for housing and to assist individuals to stabilize into affordable housing units, including security deposits, first and last month’s rent, or other housing-related costs.
Even before the county revealed its plans for Binford Road, social media commenters were skeptical.
“$1,579,137 for 95 people in Binford Road encampment = $16,622 each. Here’s the grift: Show up in a county that has lots of money. Camp out. Make a mess. Get a payout. Absolute insanity,” said Lili on Twitter.
The Board has asked to hear from representatives of the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, as well as others, including the Department of Public Works (DPW) and Marin Community Development Agency (CDA). These departments have been working to expand services and support through a collaborative effort to connect residents over time to permanent supportive housing, coupled with enhanced enforcement of regulations to reduce the environmental impacts of the encampment.
Enhanced enforcement efforts will initially prioritize abandoned or excess vehicles and property or possessions in the right-of-way, and those that present a risk to the environment or public.
As part of the new strategy, abandoned or excess vehicles will be removed after providing registered owners with a 30-day pre-notice period, followed by a 15-day action notice. Personal property stored in the public right of way will be removed after the notice period and stored for up to 90 days to allow for individuals to claim their items.
Several County departments will also coordinate protection of the environment along Binford Road, which runs beside San Francisco Bay wetlands. The County will increase efforts to support appropriate and healthy disposal of trash and waste prior to the wet weather season, when control of such discharges is more difficult.
Binford Road is on a narrow strip of land between Highway 101 and the Rush Creek Open Space Preserve. The reconstruction of Binford Road has been on Public Works’ capital improvement project list for several years. Design and engineering are underway with improvements scheduled to begin in 2025, including requirements along the east side of Binford Road to install sediment control to filter road runoff for protection of the sensitive habitat of the Rush Creek Preserve and slough.
The encampment, located along one mile of the road, has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic from a dozen or so recreational vehicles (RVs) parking for varying lengths of time to a shared community for approximately 80-90 individuals in over 100 vehicles.
“Our goal in addressing the encampment is to help individuals attain permanent supportive housing and providing key supports and services,” said Benita McLarin, Director of Marin County Health and Human Services. “This requires a coordinated, compassionate and service-oriented response across county departments, and this funding and corresponding plan are a critical next step.”
Progress will be reported monthly on the Health and Human Services’ Homelessness In Marin dashboard.
It’s actually $33,248.82 since the county has to match what the state is giving.
What a joke!
Rent a bulldozer, get on a loud speaker informing everyone to get out, then start dozing those filthy, toxic wrecks of former motor homes and cart them off to the crusher. They will have to burn that entire watershed/bird sanctuary to dispose of the garbage and human waste allowed to be dumped there.
Enough is enough!
Criticize what you mean I am now on social security which I put into for many years which came to a whopping $670 a month I used to live in Sausalito on the water and a four-story condo and now I’m on Bedford keeping it clean in a clean RV so whoever tweeted yeah make a mess and get paid how are you affording your home mortgage and continual fleecing from every department known to man the DMV the HP the police departments the IRS the state taxes should I go on inflation food prices gas prices it worked that out on my $670 American dream of retiring on social security not to throw in the fact of over-appreciated real estate and real estate taxes the original homes it was sold some around $50,000 what’s the word appreciated (inflated by the true players of this chess game )real estate homes are now valued it at well over a million the taxes alone or more than the initial payments to pay for a $50,000 home go figure all that out but people who were willed homes that have borrowed on them continuously get quite pompous in the view of things let’s get clear step out the door right now and go buy a 1.5 million home in Marin county and pay the taxes and mortgage payments on top of everything else around you without anything that was left to you tweet again