California homeless increase
California’s No. 1 … and not in a good way. The state’s homeless population grew 6% in 2023, to 181,000 people, the most homeless people of any state in the country.
The Bay Area News Group reported that the increase comes as “public frustration” mounts over unprecedented spending on homelessness without moving the needle.
Experts blamed the increase from the severe lack of unaffordable housing in the state.
RSV death
The Marin County Public Health status update of Dec. 29 reported that RSV is spreading in Marin County long term care facilities, leading to two outbreaks with four hospitalizations and one death. Despite an effective vaccine, RSV vaccination rates among facility residents are low. Facility residents are dependent on their medical providers for vaccinations. Today, Marin Public Health issued an Advisory urging facility medical providers to offer residents the new RSV vaccine. Family members of facility residents should advocate for vaccinations against RSV, flu, COVID and pneumococcus.
In other health news, the Wastewater concentrations of SARS-CoV2 in Marin County are the highest they’ve been since April 2023. Virus levels are increasing in all 6 sampling regions within the county. The first local case infected with the emerging JN.1 variant has been reported.
Floodwall
The Marin County Environmental Planning Division has released the Supplemental Environmental Review and Subsequent Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Proposed Santa Venetia Floodwall.
You can find it on the division’s webpage. If you wish to comment, email envplanning@marincounty.org before 4 p.m. Tuesday, January 16.
Housing, water
As Marin communities implement plans to add thousands of new homes in the next 72 months, as mandated by state law on affordable housing, the question of water availability comes to the forefront.
To meet the demand, the Marin Municipal Water District is eyeing tweaks to the district’s water shortage contingency plan, one of which would include harder restrictions on golf course irrigation in drought conditions.
Should the district change its contingency plans, a public hearing will be held.
Housing Plan
The San Anselmo Town Council approved last month a state-mandated housing plan that would see almost 1,000 new residences created in town over the next 8 years.
Vaxx rates
The Marin County Public Health status update of Dec. 22 reports that a fast-spreading COVID-19 variant, JN.1, now accounts for 20% of the cases nationally, though it has not been detected in Marin.
“It’s likely,” the weekly report states, that JN.1 is just now sneaking into the county.
Vaccination rates for Marin residents over age 60 stands at 56% for the flu shot, 49% for COVID and 19% the RSV. These rates are among the highest in the state.
Emergency plan
The Town of Ross is working to update its emergency plan to better respond to catastrophes, if and when they should occur. The Town Council hired a consultant for $2,000 to review the plan. The consultant said the town is well prepared but recommended more training in the event a disaster severed the community from town resources.
The existing Ross emergency plan is about two years old.
Plans to address the consultant’s observations will be brought to the Town Council at a later date.
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