And from Mary Frances Kelly Poh ...
The Benicia CAC is the Homeless Assistance Center for Benicia. We help the homeless as best we can but there is really not a lot that we can do for them here in Benicia. We do not have a shelter, and affordable housing is very limited. The Section 8 vouchers have been cut,and usually there is a 4 year wait to get housing here. The Federal Government only wants to pay for permanent housing but this is not what a chronically person frequently needs. Plus no one wants to pay for services which are needed to help these folks become successful.
Most of our homeless in Benicia couch surf. Which means that they stay two weeks here and then there. When you have a Section 8 voucher, you can only have a visitor stay with you for two weeks, otherwise you are at risk of losing your voucher. Our parents will do almost anything to keep their kids in Benicia schools. Often you will find the kids staying in one place and their parents in another. Sometimes the parents sleep in their car while the children stay with their friends. (*see explanation of Section 8 vouchers below)
We do have funds through the SF Chronicle's Season of Sharing that we use to prevent homelessness, and we can help with the first month's rent. We do not pay deposits. It is important to note that this is private money and it comes with requirements. A recipient can only use it once in a lifetime and they must be able to maintain the next month without assistance.
We work with all the shelters in the County and try, if there is a bed available, to get our folks into one of them. We will even drive them to the shelter if needed. Each of the shelters have their own requirements and so for example we can't put a non-married couple in one of the shelters. In another, the couple doesn't have to be married but they must agree to not stay together at the shelter, and their children may be separated from them also.
I am not aware that the Christian Help Center isn't taking teens anymore. AHA is working with the House of Joy out of Vallejo which is trying to purchase a defunct convalescent hospital to turn into a TAY housing facility (TAY means transitional age youth which are 18-24 years old). We are absolutely aware of the need for this type of housing but the funding for it is at best miserable to get, and everyone in government keeps throwing up obstacles. Plus it takes years from the idea to completion of supportive housing. It costs the same to build or re-hab this type of housing as it does to build a single family home and so it is quite expensive to build or rehab.
There is very little political will on either the city or county level to solve this problem. Most of the time it doesn't make it on the radar screens. I am sorry to say that. We have two projects in the County that are in trouble and may not get built due to community opposition.
Benicia is not an "entitlement city" for Community Services Block Grant money, which other communities use to support low income housing. For Benicia to get this money they must bid against other communities which have a much larger homeless and low-income population. It is very hard for Benicia to access these funds. Without the CSBG funds Benicia will need to look for other funding to assist and perhaps will need to dedicate funds from another source to provide this housing.
The Housing Element is going to need to be updated here in Benicia. The City is waiting for the numbers of units but I don't know where they are going to be built. We can't contribute money to another city that has land. Because of the orderly growth amendment, the County feels that it has no right to tell the cities to build this type of housing or any other housing for that matter. This is why it is so sad that we lost the project down the street from the CAC. It costs almost $200,000 per unit to build and then there are the supportive services costs which no one is interested in pay for. The CAC uses the general donations that are given to us at holiday time to pay for staff to help prevent and cure homelessness.
We at the CAC try as hard as we can to prevent homelessness because that is so much less expensive. Anyone with questions can contact us, either by calling 756-0900 or through our website, www.bencac.com
*Explanation of section 8 housing vouchers ...
The housing choice voucher program is the federal government's major program for assisting very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled to afford decent, safe, and sanitary housing in the private market. Since housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, participants are able to find their own housing, including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments.
The participant is free to choose any housing that meets the requirements of the program and is not limited to units located in subsidized housing projects.
Housing choice vouchers are administered locally by public housing agencies (PHAs). The PHAs receive federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to administer the voucher program.
A family that is issued a housing voucher is responsible for finding a suitable housing unit of the family's choice where the owner agrees to rent under the program. This unit may include the family's present residence. Rental units must meet minimum standards of health and safety, as determined by the PHA.
A housing subsidy is paid to the landlord directly by the PHA on behalf of the participating family. The family then pays the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the amount subsidized by the program. Under certain circumstances, if authorized by the PHA, a family may use its voucher to purchase a modest home.
[because section 8 housing is a market based program, the increase in the price of housing decreases the number of units that can be funded; additionally the federal government averages the cost of housing - meaning that California section 8 housing vouchers are averaged with the cost of housing in Wyoming - thus the number of vouchers is limited and the incentive for landlords to participate is reduced.]
