Tuolumne County will continue operating a sanctioned homeless encampment at the Law and Justice Center southeast of downtown Sonora into next year with some changes to rules, while looking for nonprofit organizations to take over two other homelessness-related projects.
The county Board of Supervisors has held several discussions since the beginning of the year about housing and homeless initiatives that are currently operating or in development within the county.
Most recently, the board provided direction to county staff at a public meeting this past Tuesday on future plans for the county’s sanctioned homeless encampment, dubbed as Camp Justice, as well as a former dialysis clinic at 136 Columbia Way in Sonora that was purchased two years ago with the intent of turning it into apartments for local veterans who need affordable housing.
Camp Justice was approved by the board in July 2024 as a one-year pilot project to provide a sanctioned area for people who are homeless to temporarily stay. Funding to operate the site came from a grant through the state’s Encampment Resolution Funding Program, with no money from the county’s General Fund being used.
The board previously approved extending the project through Dec. 31 at a meeting earlier this year.
County staff said during a presentation to the board Tuesday that 177 people have stayed at the camp since it opened, with 22 of those successfully transitioning to permanent housing, 20 to an emergency shelter, five to a treatment facility and two to a medical facility. Twenty-six have also been trespassed from the site due to violating rules.
Following some discussion, the board ultimately voted 4-0 on Tuesday to continue operating the camp through September, or until grant funding runs out, and make some changes to the rules that were recommended by staff at the county Health and Human Services Agency and the county’s Homeless Services Committee.
The rule changes approved Tuesday included limiting stays to a maximum of 120 days, requiring the site to be cleared out for cleaning once per month or more if necessary, and removing all recreational vehicles from the site by Jan. 31.
District 1 Supervisor Mike Holland was absent from the meeting.
At the same meeting, the board voted 4-0 to seek a nonprofit partner that would take over the property at 136 Columbia Way for the development of veterans housing.
The former dialysis clinic was among three in late 2023 that the board voted to purchase using various outside funding sources for projects aimed at addressing the county’s housing and homelessness needs.
Also purchased at the time were the Miner’s Motel on Highway 108 in Jamestown for $1.85 million and two homes on Snell Street in Sonora for $565,000.
Funding to buy the Columbia Way property, which cost $250,000, came from money the county received through settlements of lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies that contributed to the national opioid epidemic.
The board unanimously voted in September to seek a partner who would accept the Miner’s Motel via donation for the development of low- and moderate-income housing that would meet the requirements of the Encampment Resolution Funding grant used to purchase property.
A notice of availability was issued by the county for the Miner’s Motel in October, with a deadline for interested parties to respond by Dec. 6. The county now will do something similar with the Columbia Way property, with the requirement for it to remain as veterans housing.
Trinity Abila, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Tuolumne County, spoke during public comment and praised the board for using funding that’s only available to public entities like the county to purchase properties such as the former dialysis clinic.
Abila said organizations like Habitat for Humanity can then partner with the county to take the next steps in developing such properties into housing and oversee their operation into the future for the intended purpose.
“I encourage you … to really consider the benefit of partnering with nonprofits such as Habitat for Humanity so that a project like this can be implemented in a timely fashion, definitely with hopefully a lower budget, and we’re going to be able to really help the people in Tuolumne County,” she said.
Late last year, the Sonora City Council approved partnering with Habitat for Humanity to renovate a dilapidated historic home at 290 S. Stewart St. that the city had originally purchased to develop as an emergency shelter.
The city purchased the home for $150,000 using a federal Community Development Block Grant. Now, the plan is to seek more grant funding for renovating it into four affordable-housing rental units that would be managed by Habitat for Humanity moving forward.