City Council adopted a comprehensive Homeless Strategy in 2017 that includes four critical components:
1) Protect Health & Welfare;
2) Connection to Services;
3) Supportive Housing; and
4) Regional Homeless Strategy. Reducing homelessness continues to be a priority for City Council.
The City is aware of several churches and other religious facilities that would like to provide temporary homeless shelter services in order to help address the homelessness crisis and lack of shelter space. This crisis has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 emergency and the need to provide housing that minimizes the risks of COVID-19 for a population that is particularly vulnerable due to the lack of resources and access to health care.
In the past, some churches provided “nomadic sheltering,” whereby churches housed homeless individuals on a rotating basis at a different church on different nights of the week. The City’s current Zoning Ordinance does not clearly address or allow temporary or nomadic sheltering at churches or other places of worship, or at assembly uses more generally. While religious facilities may include accessory uses associated directly with worship service, including living quarters for clergy and staff and child or senior day care facilities, other regular activities of a church are classified according to the activity type and regulated accordingly. In addition, religious facilities and other assembly uses are often not intended for overnight human occupancy, and so may not be compliant with critical life safety standards under the City’s building and fire codes.
The proposed Urgency Ordinance would establish a Temporary Shelter Program in Chapter 5A of the City Code to allow existing religious facilities and other assembly uses to obtain a permit to provide shelter for homeless individuals and families on a temporary basis. The Temporary Shelter Permit program will be administered by the Manager of the Homeless Services Division in the City Manager’s Office, in coordination with the Planning Division, Building Division, Fire Department, and Police Department to best ensure the safety of those being housed, with minimal impacts on the surrounding community. To minimize the costs to facilities wishing to provide shelter services, no fee will be charged for processing permit applications. However, facilities that will require additional permits for fire or building code compliance may be charged the normal permit fees.
As part of the permitting process, an applicant will need to obtain a Zoning Clearance from the City’s Planning Division. The standards for this Zoning Clearance will be codified in a new Section 25.32.20, require that the temporary shelter will be operated as an ancillary use subordinate to the principal use of the facility, and be located at least 1,000 feet from any other temporary shelter or homeless shelter use.
Chapter 5A establishes specific operating criteria for permitted temporary shelters with respect to the maximum number of people, duration, monitoring and other operational controls. Additional site-specific conditions may be imposed on individual permits to ensure the health, safety, and general welfare of the individuals being provided shelter, shelter operators, and the surrounding neighborhood. Prior to permit issuance the Fire Department and the Building Division will perform inspections to ensure that the portion of the facility to be used as a temporary shelter meets the applicable building and fire code requirements for the use.