Marin supervisors approve vehicle buyback at Novato encampment

Marin County will offer to buy the vehicles of people living in them hoping to speed up the dissolution of a large bayfront encampment near Novato.

On Tuesday, supervisors approved using $100,000 of county general fund money to fund the vehicle buyback program, part of the $500,000 the county has allocated to the effort to remove the illegal campers lining Binford Road.

“For eligibility for that program, individuals will have to have been present on Binford as of or before Oct. 1 of this year,” said Gary Naja-Riese, director of Marin County’s homelessness division.

Naja-Riese said participants also will have to document that “they’re exiting to a permanent housing destination.”

Supervisors received a status report on the county’s efforts to remove the encampment that indicated some modest progress.

“The population of individuals at Dec. 1, that’s our point in time where we marked our metrics, was 101 individuals,” Assistant County Administrator Dan Eilerman told supervisors.

Eilerman said as of the beginning of the month, the Binford Road encampment consisted of 132 vehicles, including 57 recreational vehicles, as well as cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles and boat trailers.

When the county rolled out its program in August, officials estimated there were 80 to 90 people living there in about 100 vehicles. Eilerman said the earlier estimates were inaccurate.

“The overall population has not increased,” he said in an email.

The county has received a state grant to help underwrite the effort; the grant requires that the encampment be dispersed within three years. The county also expects to utilize $1.8 million in state and federal funds for housing vouchers and rapid rehousing over the next three years.

The higher head count at Binford Road as of Dec. 1 comes despite the fact that the county says 10 occupants have been housed since Aug. 25 — three via permanent supportive housing, five through a state rapid rehousing program and two through their own means.

Naja-Riese said another 19 people are on a “pathway” to housing through permanent supportive housing or rapid rehousing. The county recently hired an additional social worker to focus on securing housing and support services for people living in the camp.

The vehicle count has also been reduced from a high of 150 in October. The sheriff’s office has removed 18 vehicles, including five RVs, nine vehicles, three trailers and one sailboat.

The county’s health and human services department has determined that about 85% of the people living on Binford Road qualify for permanent supportive housing through the county’s “housing first” program.

“That is more than we initially expected,” Eilerman said.

Supervisor Katie Rice expressed concern regarding whether the county would be able to obtain enough federal housing vouchers to accommodate such a large number of people. The county’s program for housing the homeless relies on vouchers that allow holders to pay no more than 30% of their income to cover their rent.

“That flow of vouchers is not this big wide thick stream ongoing,” Rice said.

“I’m thinking that there’s an opportunity to improve the overall financial, medical, physical and mental health of some of these individuals that are there,” Rice said. “So that maybe they won’t need full-on permanent supportive housing over time.”

Despite the county’s new emphasis on ensuring that new programs are racially equitable, officials declined to provide a picture of the ethnic makeup of the people living on Binford Road.

Eilerman wrote in an email, “We do not provide that type of data for individual encampments as populations are small enough that doing so may impair privacy and maintaining occupants on a path toward safe housing.”

Supervisor Eric Lucan, whose district includes Binford Road, said, “This is really exciting progress that we made to date housing 10 individuals in just the past month or so. The individuals we are serving might not love everything we’re doing out there, but they don’t hate it. There’s a really good relationship that has been built.”

The county’s plan consists of three parts: increased efforts to find housing for people living at the camp; enforced removal of abandoned vehicles and possessions in the public right of way; and environmental protection of Rush Creek Preserve wetlands east of Binford Road.

The county is offering free, biweekly pump out of sewage waste to the RVs at Binford Road and so far 19 of the 57 RVs have used the service. Eilerman said some residents, however, have ignored the county’s offers of assistance.

“For those,” he said, “we are exploring other enforcement options with community development and with county counsel.”

The county also has installed 12 additional portable restrooms and hand-washing facilities.

Supervisors on Tuesday also adopted a resolution banning parking from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Binford Road adjacent to businesses between milepost 0.42 at the county line and milepost 1.75 at Airport Road.

The county in partnership with the sheriff’s office also will continue citing new arrivals who park in the right of way.

Eilerman said fencing backed by concrete bars are being placed in spaces after vehicles are removed.

“Our principal goal,” he said, “is to ensure no new arrivals to the corridor that are not in accord with county ordinances or state vehicle code regulations.”

For safety, the county has reduced the speed limit on Binford Road from 55 mph to 35 mph effective Dec. 28.