DIXON, CA (MPG) - Have you noticed more homelessness here in Dixon?  I have too. It’s a very sad issue and there are very few resources to deal with it.  A few years ago, I called together other concerned persons to find out what was being done and/or what could possibly start to be done. It was a cold and wet winter like we are having now.

I was hoping the City would at least open up the fire department or another large enough space for the homeless to come in out of the severe storms we were having. Nothing ever came of that. Shortly after the meetings we had, City Council agreed with the Staff recommendation to contribute several thousand dollars of tax dollars to a supposed Solano county-wide homeless organization in the hopes that they would also be a solution for Dixon. 

But, people still show up often at DFS and think we can put them into a motel. A good many of them say they were referred by City Hall, by the Police Department, and in some cases, even dropped off by officers. All homeless seeking our help in all of 2021 were single or couples, none with children.  I believe that the shelters are prioritizing the families, and rightly so.  But the bad news is there are more and more single men and women and even many young people just coming out of the foster system who find themselves on the streets, living in cars, couch-surfing, etc.

We have had such an increase in people asking for shelter that I am making it a priority as we head into 2022 to do outreach and marketing to help the community understand that we are not a homeless services center. We never have been. There was a time many years ago that we got some HUD funding to enable us to place homeless people in motels for a night or two, but we all know that is not a solution to the big problem. A few of them we successfully found an affordable apartment or a local shelter to take them in longer term, but now the shelters are always full and there is no such thing as an open affordable apartment to rent.

Even worse, all the managers of Dixon’s motels told us they no longer wanted to take our referred clients due to some of them behaving badly, bringing in guests, tearing up the rooms, and the biggest problem were those that absolutely refused to leave when their time was up. 

All of our current services are for families and individuals who have a home.  We are fighting hard with the limited resources we have to keep people from becoming homeless by applying for rental and utilities assistance. This is because there is little to nothing we can do for them once they are homeless.  All shelters are full.  

The County Board of Supervisors put all of its HUD funding dollars into “a single point of entry system” and called it Resource Connect Solano. Call (707) 652-7311 or email [email protected] to learn how RCS can help you navigate a housing crisis. 

And the DFS Food Pantry is modeled for providing families with staple foods to help stretch the food budgets in households, so most of the food we give out needs to be cooked.  Our bags are not suitable for a homeless person. I wonder if maybe a church in Dixon would be interested in providing bags of foods that do not need to be cooked.  DFS would be happy to pass along things that we get such as granola bars, crackers, peanut butter, etc.  

DFS is not the correct referral for the homeless, but I’d like to know if any organization or church can help them or have ideas.