Editorial: New services annex fills need in Marin City – Marin Independent Journal

For years, Marin City residents have said county resources that they need are too far away.

By miles it doesn’t seem that far away, but getting to the county Civic Center and back, by public transit, sometimes can take the better part of a day, Marin City residents have complained.

Then there is navigating the county’s complex of offices that today stretch across several North San Rafael buildings.

It is hardly a one-stop scenario.

The county is addressing that longstanding complaint by opening a services annex at 630 Drake Ave., across the street from the Sausalito Marin City School District offices.

The objective, in the works for more than a year, is intended to bring to the community of roughly 3,000 residents one-stop help for food and nutrition programs, employment and workforce development services, healthcare coverage assistance and behavioral health support.

The county, in recent years, has provided outreach programs to help provide these services much closer to their clients’ homes, but the new center provides a permanent convenient location.

“The government should meet people where they are,” says Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters, whose Southern Marin supervisorial district includes Marin City.

Governmental bureaucracies can be enough of a challenge, adding to those that they are physically hard to reach in person, especially for elderly residents or young parents. That combination created a long-obvious problem that the new center is addressing.

In the past, some services have been provided from space made available at the Golden Gate Village apartment complex or at the Manzanita Center.

The annex helps bring them together to a single hub.

As Moulton-Peters put it: “Access matters.”

In the past, there’s been discussions that these services could be part of the design of a new community center in Marin City, but progress toward that vision has been slow and coming up with the funds to make it a reality will be a steep climb.

The annex, which cost $1.2 million to renovate an existing building, measures 2,700 square feet.

The county wanted to do the project right, as county Executive Derek Johnson said, “not skimping on any details.”

The annex will provide the community with space to meet with behavioral health specialists, bringing assistance closer to the youth and their families who seek that help.

For households that need assistance with Medi-Cal, CalFresh food stamps, CalWorks for jobseekers and other support services, in-person help will be a short walk away rather than having to find a way to get to the Civic Center or other county offices.

It has been estimated that some 15% of Marin City’s population struggle below the poverty line. Many of its residents live in government-subsidized low-rent apartments.

The annex is open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed for lunch, from noon to 1 p.m.

Now that the county has opened the annex and invested more than a million dollars to transform an old building into a new services center, the county needs to make sure that it continues its investment in staffing and making sure its programs meet community needs.

That’s going to have to include consistent public outreach to help make sure that local residents know that those services are readily available nearby.

That commitment was certainly reflected in the nearly 75 people who turned out for the June 11 ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Now comes the hard part, providing those services, making sure the community is aware of them and possibly building on them, keeping them responsive to changing needs. The county should build a regular schedule for assessments of the services provided at the center to make sure community needs are being addressed.

With the county strengthening its services presence in Marin City, looking for opportunities to break down multiple jurisdictional silos to better meet other community needs could be a possibility.

That takes a committed leadership with a sharp focus on serving the public.

The county has recently undergone an expensive revision of its top-management structure, including providing more pinpointed leadership focus on communities with deeper needs, such as Marin City.

In the past, some services have been provided from space made available at the Golden Gate Village apartment complex or at the Manzanita Center.

The annex now offers Marin City a close-to-home, one-stop hub for many of those public services.