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Bay City News
On Jan. 29, 188 volunteers conducted the Point-in-Time Count across the county, accounting for people living outdoors and in vehicles, emergency shelters and transitional housing.
Of the 2,260 total individuals, 1,312 were unsheltered and 948 were staying in transitional housing or shelter beds, according to the Point-in-Time Count report from the county’s Health, Housing and Homeless Services Division, or H3. Additionally, the two largest racial categories among homeless people were white at 38% and Black at 33%.
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Compared to the 2025 report, this year’s survey counted 142 more homeless people in the county. However, this is still well below 2024 levels, with 583 fewer people experiencing homelessness overall.
In this year’s report, 54% of the individuals surveyed were identified as chronically homeless, 85% of their households reported having at least one disabling condition, and 75% of respondents have lived in Contra Costa County for more than 10 years.
Two Lake County residents have been arrested in connection with Santa Rosa’s first homicide of 2026 earlier this week, police officials said Wednesday.
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Dwight Kestler, a 56-year-old resident of Clearlake, was booked into the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility on suspicion of murder and a probation violation. Jill Bynum, 57, also from Clearlake, was booked for unrelated warrants and for allegedly being an accessory after the fact, Santa Rosa police said.
Police believe that at about 9:15 p.m. Monday, Kestler, who was wearing dark clothes and a facemask, walked up to a woman who was standing in a driveway to a shopping center in the 3000 block of Marlow Road shot her multiple times.
Bystanders tried to help the woman and administered CPR until officers and an emergency medical team arrived, but she was declared dead at the scene, police said.
Her name is being withheld pending notification of her family.
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The Marin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a redevelopment plan for the former Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary property in Strawberry.
The approval clears the way for 337 housing units, with a senior living facility and other amenities on the 101-acre site.
The former seminary property, which drapes the upper slopes of the Strawberry peninsula, will be transformed into a multigenerational town, bringing needed housing and at least four years of unavoidable construction noise to one of the Bay Area’s most scenic communities.
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In addition to childcare and a recreation facility, roughly 70% of the site will remain undeveloped open space, with two new public parks. Nine parcels will be divided into 185 lots, increasing tax revenue. In accordance with a 1953 conditional use permit, the developer North Coast Land Holdings LLC is authorized to retain a college-level campus for 1,000 students, but in an agreement to limit traffic impacts, only 325 will be permitted to commute to school.
The San Francisco Police Department on Tuesday at a virtual town hall meeting shared more details about a shooting that seriously injured an officer late last month.
Acting Cmdr. Thomas Harvey said an automatic license plate reader alerted officers at 10:29 p.m. on May 31 of armed suspects associated with a robbery who were on the Bay Bridge entering San Francisco. Southern Station officers observed and started following the suspect vehicle, a 2021 gray Toyota Camry, while other units coordinated plans to stop the vehicle, Harvey said during the town hall.
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At a traffic stop on Mission and First streets, officers stepped out of the police vehicle, telling the driver to turn off the car and yield, but the suspect continued to flee in the vehicle, according to officer body camera footage shared at Tuesday’s meeting.
The pursuit continued through San Francisco until the vehicle collided with a concrete barrier at the intersection of Bayshore Boulevard and Jerrold Avenue at 10:46 p.m., Harvey noted.
Several officers ordered the suspects out of the vehicle before the driver, Norris Reed III, opened the car door and immediately fired at the officers as police returned fire, Harvey said.
Both the passenger, who was identified as Ariunsanaa Dolgorsuren, and Officer Brittney Taylor were struck by gunfire and transported to a hospital. Taylor underwent emergency surgery June 1 and was in serious but stable condition as of last week, according to Sam Singer, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Officers Association.
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Portsmouth Square in San Francisco, also known as “The Heart of Chinatown,” is getting a multi-million-dollar facelift and city leaders broke ground there this week to kick off the transformation.
Mayor Daniel Lurie, City Attorney David Chiu, Chinatown and city leaders, and community organizations held a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday for the $73 million Portsmouth Square Improvement Project.
Starting Wednesday, the beloved neighborhood park will be closed for at least two years as it undergoes construction.
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The park has been known throughout the years as a place for residents to play board games like mahjong, and gambling may or may not have taken place at card tables where men laugh and chain smoke cigarettes together. Many people just sit and people watch, and a play area is usually bustling with children.
Now the oldest public plaza in San Francisco will be upgraded to include a new community clubhouse, expanded play areas, flexible event space and overall expansion of the space in the park.
The new 8,300-square-foot community clubhouse will be outfitted with meeting rooms and a commercial catering kitchen. A larger playground and a new adult fitness area are other upgrades, ensuring that generations young and old can have somewhere to play.
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In a special meeting Tuesday night, the Fairfield City Council voted against reimbursing former mayor Catherine “Cat” Moy for attorney fees accrued during a probe into her status as a Fairfield resident.
Moy resigned Tuesday morning, attributing her decision to the “emotional duress” she and her family have experienced during the investigation, which she claimed was political. Moy was appointed to the City Council in 2008 and was elected mayor in 2022. Her term was set to expire in November of this year.
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The investigation was first called by Councilmember K. Patrice Williams in November 2025. An initial report from investigating attorney Gary Winuk presented to the council in March that only reviewed Moy’s submitted evidence concluded that she was a Fairfield resident.
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Following deeper investigation, a second report presented by Winuk to the City Council revealed that Moy had withheld information about several other properties related to her.
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