Along the Corte Madera Creek and a designated Safe Route, a roadway that encourages children to safely walk and bicycle to school, 1251 South Eliseo Drive sits vacant amongst medical buildings and residences. However, on February 15, 2022, the Marin County Board of Supervisors unanimously accepted $15,497,200 in awarded state funds to purchase the lot and renovate its existing structure to be a housing center. This followed public outcry, with threats of electoral recall and protests, in response to the county’s push for the South Eliseo extension of the statewide initiative, Project Homekey. Designed to provide long-term support for the state’s 51,785 chronically homeless individuals, disabled persons who are houseless, Project Homekey is now set to expand into Larkspur.
With a maximum occupancy of 50 residents and a 55 year long operating period, this project is expected to have lasting implications. The type of implications, however, is a point of heated contention between the Project’s proponents and its community-led opposition.
Katie Rice, the President of the Marin County Board of Supervisors and the representative for District Two, including the Project Homekey site, has been heavily involved in the planning of the Larkspur housing center.
“[Governor Newsom] said to communities, cities and counties, there's grant money specifically to create permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals,” Rice stated. “In 2021, [1251 South Eliseo] was a site that we wanted to get one of those grants [for].”
The area was not only seen as the ideal site by local officials and the State who approved funding for the County’s proposal but also by various community members. Chuck Finnie, a member of the Citizen Advisory Panel to the Larkspur Project Homekey planning, lives in close proximity to the Homekey site and supports the initiative.
“[Project Homekey] is the morally right thing to do. Local governments and the residents of Marin have a responsibility to address homelessness,” Finnie said. “[Additionally,] people who have been living on the streets [and are] finally getting the opportunity to live in [South Eliseo’s] pastoral setting are going to be very moved by this opportunity.”
Behind much of the support for Project Homekey are studies, including one by the University of California San Francisco, in 2020. It found that 86 percent of chronically houseless individuals who were randomized to permanent housing remained successfully housed for several years after. Looking at the research, Rice believes that supportive housing is the best path forward in addressing homelessness.
“There's enough data that shows if you bring someone into housing, they're more likely to accept services and then stay to continue on receiving those services. [Thus,] we shifted from screening people out of housing, to this model where we take in the most vulnerable,” Rice said.
As a member of the Citizen Advisory Panel, Finnie was able to witness firsthand the work being done by the facility managing partner of this project, Episcopal Community Services (ECS), in San Francisco. Having also worked in the City as a reporter and editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, Finnie shares Rice’s belief that the “housing first” approach of Project Homekey is the most effective method of combating homelessness.
“The principle of permanent supportive housing is that you have to get people into a safe setting before you help them in addressing other issues that may have resulted in them losing their home. Creating a well-managed community with wraparound services from nutrition to employment, to alcohol and drug counseling, [and] mental health services makes sense to me,” Finnie said. “I’ve seen what [ECS does] and I watched what worked in San Francisco through the eyes of the reporters who covered it and what didn't work. The people who are living in these residences that are conducive to being able to put their lives back together are showing success. We have the opportunity in Marin to do it.”
Even with the proposed benefits of Project Homekey, there is strong opposition due to its proximity to schools — with eight in a one-mile radius of the site. The Kentfield School District Board, headed by President David Riedel, oversees two schools within walking distance of South Eliseo and has expressed its concerns.
“While [the District] recognizes the need for housing, we think the profile of the South Eliseo location is problematic because it's on one of our designated Safe Routes [that has] paths for students to walk or ride to school,” Riedel said. “[The Homekey program] has no screening for sex offender status, [and] does not require sobriety or [its residents to be] working. We feel that is a population that could cause issues with the safety of kids.”
The District’s stance on Larkspur’s Project Homekey is shared by many community members. However, Chris Rankin-Williams, a resident of Kentfield who is the rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Ross, supports the extension even though his children attended the Kentfield School District.
“I feel like a lot of the opposition is based on an assumption that if someone is unsheltered, they pose a risk or they’re dangerous, and I don't think that's true,” Rankin-Williams said. “In my work with the homeless in Marin, I've met people who went to Redwood, Marin Catholic and Branson. [From] almost all the schools in the Ross Valley, I've met homeless people who grew up going to them, so these are our neighbors; these are our kids.”
Although a recent Bark survey found that 76 percent of students support the Larkspur Project Homekey, Rankin-Williams’ message has not resonated with everyone. Community skepticism is overwhelmingly present in public comment sessions.
“Many people are opposed not to the idea of the Project and housing for the homeless but opposed to the location due to the proximity to schools, children and families and their safety, specifically about the [potential] drug paraphernalia and the lack of sobriety requirements,” said one participant.
Many are also upset by the absence of checkpoints for residents who can range from sex offenders to convicts whose histories of incarceration are largely disregarded in vetting. Another public commenter witnessed firsthand how these factors manifest themselves in a housing center.
“I used to manage a property in Marin where we had chronically homeless people… I saw everything from overdoses, sheriff [dispatches] and drug dealers,” said the commenter.
As of 2020, there were an estimated 1,034 unhoused people in Marin, and, statewide, there were approximately 160,000. To Rankin-Williams, the lives behind California’s and Marin’s unhoused populations speak volumes more than the numbers do, and lead him to support Project Homekey.
“If my kid [was unhoused], I would want them to get housing and get the treatment they need. I wouldn’t want people [saying,] ‘Not in my backyard.’ [Instead, I would say], ‘Yes, absolutely, in my backyard,’” stated Rankin-Williams.
Larkspur Project Homekey, as per a state-mandated timeline, will likely break ground for on-site renovation by 2023. A recent community effort to delay construction through litigation is currently underway, as are efforts to secure funding for supportive operations such as rehabilitative and mental health services. Despite the heavy opposition and threats of recall from the greater community, Rice and the County of Marin stand by their decision to approve the expansion of Project Homekey with the goal of reducing homelessness in Marin.