We review the City's response to the atmospheric river events in January 2023, which posed a significant threat to unhoused residents at risk of flooding. Ragan and Bea take listeners back to December 2022 – January 2023. With creek levels rising and the danger of mudslides growing, the city prioritized the safety of those experiencing homelessness along waterways. The discussion covers the decision to open evacuation centers, sending emergency workers to notify people living in tents of imminent danger, and the extensive collaboration with partners like the American Red Cross and HomeFirst to manage the logistics of feeding and caring for people. The discussion also includes the innovative thinking that turned a potential tragedy into a unique opportunity to help many unhoused residents find housing after the storms passed.
Episode 19 - The January 2023 Storm Event and Homeless Rehousing
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JS: Welcome to Dwellings, a podcast from the city of San José Housing Department, where we talk to thought leaders about ending homelessness, building affordable housing and key housing policies. I'm Jeff Scott and I'll be your host for season four of Dwellings. On today's episode, I'm joined by Ragan Heninnger, deputy director of the City of San José Housing Department and Bea Ramos, from nonprofit Home First. We're talking about the atmospheric river events January 2023, and the city's response to help the unhoused residents at risk of flooding.
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JS: So good morning to both of you. And Bea, why don't you start it off by introducing yourselves and letting people know a little bit about home first?
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BR: Hi. Good morning. My name is Ramos and I'm the deep emergency housing. I work with Homeless Services and we have a nonprofit that focuses on unhoused resources and ending homelessness. We are currently serving the populations of Santa Clara County and Sonoma County as of today. I have been in homeless services for going on seven years and providing services to the community through nonprofit and social services for over 20 years.
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RH: Hey, Jeff, I'm Reagan. Heninnger, I'm the deputy director of the city's housing department. I oversee our homeless solutions programs, as well as our residential development work. Super happy to be here and talk about this really heroic effort that happened over the winter.
00;01;31;04 - 00;02;03;28
JS: Great. Thank you both. Let's just jump right into it. Maybe we can start with you, Ragan, and can you take our listeners back to kind of late December of 2022 and into January 2023 when we were getting hit by some very severe atmospheric river storms in San Jose, Santa Clara County. Can you kind of tell us what the city's reaction to that was and how the city decided to go about helping its unhoused residents.
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RH: Winter 2022 and 23 seems so long ago, but really, it was just a few short months ago, right around late December, where we started watching the weather and working with the National Weather Service.
We were going to see creek levels rising and San Jose has 144 miles of creeks and rivers and our city boundaries. And when we saw that that it was and it was also not just one atmospheric river, but it was a couple right after, right after each other, which means ground would be very saturated from previous atmospheric rivers. And so it was just we were really seeing that we were going to get hit quite hard. Working with the National Weather Service and Valley Water, we realized we probably wouldn't see flooding in very many streets or in neighborhoods that would affect people who are housed. But what we would see is creek levels rising, which means people who are experiencing homelessness, living along our creeks were in danger for two things the creek levels rising, but also unstable ground that could be subject to mudslides. And so we quickly activated our emergency operations center and the focus was large early on, responding to people experiencing homelessness who were living along our creeks because it was determined they were in the greatest danger.
00;03;57;28 - 00;04;25;09
JS: And if I recall correctly, there was a decision made to open up emergency evacuation centers. So can you take us through that decision? What exactly is involved if the city is going to, if the city of San José is going to open up evacuation centers, its probably a lot more complicated than just turning on the lights in a building somewhere. If I remember correctly, pulled in the American Red Cross to help you set up and staff those emergency evacuation centers.
00;04;25;12 - 00;07;08;13
RH: Our focus, I would say, in our emergency response was in three parts. The first part was we issued emergency evacuation orders all along the city's creeks and waterways. And so what that meant was that we were really focused on getting people experiencing homelessness, living along our creeks, getting them up out of the creeks and into safer conditions. The second focus was opening up emergency evacuations centers. Those were designated safe places for people to go who were leaving the creeks and needed a place to stay. We pulled in our partner, American Red Cross, to open two emergency evacuation centers. One was at the city's Seven Trees Community Center. And that center had a capacity, I believe, of 120 beds. And that shelter quickly filled up within about five days or so. And then we opened a second emergency evacuation center called Camden Community Center, which again, was operated by American Red Cross. And that evacuation center had a capacity for 100 people. And we filled up capacity on that as well. So all in all, we were we had a little over 200 people who were evacuated from our creeks and waterways who were staying safely with us for receiving warm meals, blankets. Crisis response services. We had a partnership with the county who had behavioral health staff there. Red Cross staff was there. And then we also had city staff working the shelter as well. So it really was multi partner effort. And then I would say the third area that we focused on was opening up daytime warming centers and our community centers and libraries. And this was a place where people could come during the day and get relief from the weather. They could get hot drinks and food and other supplies like rain gear and blankets, any supplies they might need. And then we were able to offer them also transportation to our evacuation centers if they wanted to stay with us overnight as well. So those were kind of the three, I would say, response areas over the course of our winter storms.
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JS: Well, that's quite a bit of work from the time the decision was made to open these centers up to the time that the centers were actually open and people were coming in. About how long did that take was that? A few days. A few weeks. How long did that take to activate?
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RH: We opened our the city's emergency operations center on December 27th. On January 1st, we started with 30 additional beds at a overnight warming location that we were already operating. And we added some capacity. So really, you know, three days later, we already had extra capacity to serve people who needed relief from the storms. And then a few days after that, on January 4th, we opened the first emergency evacuation center where we could take 120 people. So really pretty quick, considering we had so many partners involved from American Red Cross to City of San Jose employees to the county to at home. First, it was really a very quick response.
00;08;30;19 - 00;08;49;19
JS: And Bea, Ragan mentioned that HomeFirst was part of the response team, the outreach teams that were going out to the creeks and waterways and trying to notify people. Can you walk us through what's that actually like to be part of for your team to be part of that outreach effort?
00;08;49;21 - 00;10;12;02
BR: Yeah, definitely, so during the storms, our team was dispatched to the creeks and to any areas that were in danger of being impacted by the storms. And what they do is they trekked through the creeks, then with backpacks that carry in items such as hygiene, water warming, ponchos, critical supplies that will support anyone that's living outdoors. And during these times, their number one goal was to save lives. And so what they were doing was they were going from tents, a tent, advising individuals of the storm and how quickly it was approaching and giving them information on where they can seek shelter. So our teams worked diligently throughout the storm. They were out there every single day and they actually engaged with quite a few people who were being severely impacted. One individual comes to mind who was sitting in the creek and was watching his tent get swept away and had just given up and was literally sitting in the mud crying, not knowing what to do. And so when our team reached this individual, they were able to get him into safety, bring him into our outreach vehicles, provide him with some clothing, and get him out of the elements and connected to a bed. So when I say that our outreach team saves lives, they actually really do save lives.
00;10;13;05 - 00;10;26;15
JS: That's an amazing story. Just the visual of that is really powerful. So your teams are out there not just in between storms, but during the storms as the rain was coming down, your teams are out there going tent to tent.
00;10;26;17 - 00;10;57;07
BR: Yeah, definitely. There are, you know, we had to make a decision really quickly around the trees that were in danger of falling and the safety of our staff. And so for a short period of a few hours, I think less than one business day we had everyone stayed back due to the dangers. But immediately our team was asking, can we please go back into the field? We need to go out there. We need to reach these people. And so now, less than 24 hours, our executive leadership team made the decision that we would send everyone to deploy them back into the field to help save as many lives as possible.
00;10;58;00 - 00;11;17;02
JS: So, Ragan, can you take us through the emergency evacuation centers? So you explained how they were opened. What was kind of a typical day in the life of an emergency evacuation center? How does it actually operate? Because I would imagine there was, you know, logistical issues about getting supplies and food and water there and staffing.
00;11;17;04 - 00;13;16;09
RH: Yeah, it's definitely a takes a lot of coordination. And the great part, I would say is having a partner like American Red Cross does what they do, opening up, you know, emergency shelters in a short amount of time. So American Red Cross came with staff. They came with supplies. We had city staff who are also trained for emergency responses and they get called in from their day jobs, I would say. They could be a recreation leader at another community center and they get called in. We provide things like cots, blankets. We're constantly watching the supplies. So if we need more blankets, bringing in more blankets, towels, waters, We also were able to take people with pets, which is so important. Pets are your family. No one wants to leave a member of their family behind. And so we welcomed people with pets of any kind. So we had dogs and cats, and we were able to provide all the things you need to care for your animals. And that's really important because when you're going through this traumatic experience, having your loved ones and your emotional support, which is often your pet with you, is really important. We had to bring in shower trailers and laundry trailers and extra porta potties and hand-washing stations. So it's a lot of equipment to also coordinate. And that's where our public works department and the city came in to help coordinate that kind of equipment and setup as well. So it really was a lot of logistics and programing that we worked in partnership between city departments and the Red Cross.
00;13;18;10 - 00;13;30;24
JS: So Ragan, how did you or how did the city get people from the creeks, waterways, wherever they were living outdoors to the evacuee centers?
00;13;30;26 - 00;14;54;02
RH: The short answer is any way we could, but really we had a couple different tools. We mentioned that home first has vehicles that they can provide transportation to individuals. But we also had quickly developed a relationship and reached out to two local taxi companies and reached an agreement where the taxi companies were able to provide rides to anyone who was going to one of our warming centers or one of our emergency evacuation centers. And all they had to do was call a taxi number and the city would pay for that service. So that was also really helpful. And then we had a partnership with Valley Transportation Authority or VTA, who was coming to our warming centers in the evenings, and they were able to pick up anyone who wanted to go from a warming center to an evacuation center in the evening. So between those three primary partnerships, we were able to make it as easy as possible for people to get to our evacuation centers.
00;14;56;07 - 00;15;24;12
JS: I believe what the city did next is instead of exiling people back out to homelessness and telling them to go back to the street, I believe the city then worked with home first to set up some what we called evacuee transition facilities, if memory serves. And so maybe you can tell us about that decision to continue providing services to people and move them to these evacuee transition facilities.
00;15;24;14 - 00;18;25;13
RH: So we opened the first emergency evacuation center on January 4th, and we closed it on January 23rd. So opened just a few short weeks. But already when we opened, we were already thinking about what are we going to do when it closes? And we have 100 very vulnerable people and it's we're still in the middle of winter. There were still going to be future rains. The conditions along our creeks were still going to be unsafe. And so we really had to think about what do we do next, because sending people back out to unsafe conditions wasn't that wasn't the right option. So we had to think, what are we going to do next? And we thought about a lot of different things hotels, sanctioned encampment. Do we have existing capacity in our existing shelters, which we did not? And so we thought, well, what about offering people a safe place to be within our existing interim housing communities? And so what that ended up looking like was working with the San Jose Conservation Corps and our Parks department and our public works teams and designing temporary tent communities within our interim housing. We erected individual tents on raised on pallets, and we brought in extra equipment, porta potties, lighting, security, storage. And what we were able to offer people was really a safe, temporary place to be while they received supportive services from home first to move them into other transitional housing or in some cases, even permanent housing. And we ended up calling these communities evacuee transition facilities because it was really meant to be a temporary place while we helped individuals transition into other temporary or permanent housing. And we ended up opening in our largest emergency evacuee
transition facility at our Rue Ferrari interim housing community and also at our Mabury Bridge housing community and our Monterey Bernal interim housing community. And then eventually we were able to consolidate those three communities into one community, which was just easier logistically and with staffing.
00;18;25;15 - 00;18;56;23
JS: And Bea, if I'm not mistaken, I believe HomeFirst was already providing supportive services and helping to operate these interim housing facilities where the evacuees were then moved to where these tents were set up. So can you tell us how it was that adding more people and kind of a greater capacity, a greater volume of operations to an existing interim housing site?
00;18;56;26 - 00;20;24;25
BR: There are there were a few challenges with incorporating a brand new program. But again, we always look at the challenges with a solution oriented attitude and lens. And so our team really focused on the wonderful opportunity that we had at hand to really support these individuals with having a safe place to move on to and transition to, versus going back to the streets. And so our team really pulled together to identify how we can make the best use of all the resources we currently had at the site. So, for example, our emergency interim housing location has a few community buildings on site. And so the decision was made to transition one of the buildings to a emergency transition facility area where they can access resources, they can access a warm space to come into if they felt the elements were too hot or too cold, they can charge their cell phones to ensure that they have communication with their natural support systems and so that they can access warm food and microwaves 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Aside from that, we also looked at the impact that we could have with needing additional laundry and shower services, which Reagan mentioned and the city was so supportive and partnering with Dignity Moves and our other partners to ensure that we had sufficient resources on site to welcome these individuals and a safe capacity and manner.
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JS: And Bea, what was the what was the scale of this about? Approximately how many people additional people were you helping when you helped open up these evacuee transition facilities?
00;20;38;09 - 00;21;44;09
BR: Yeah. So we actually had 160 individuals enrolled into the program since we started. And from those 160 individuals, we actually had 95 individuals transition from the emergency shelter sites into our emergency transition facilities into an actual tents. And what that meant is that we had to quickly make some adjustments to our staffing to ensure that we were strategic in our approach and really ensuring that best practices were being followed. And so not only making sure that there were sufficient resources to address shower sanitation, but also the resources necessary to really serve the person as a
whole. So ensuring that we had access to things like case management, things like housing problem solving, things like clinical support services, if identified and needed. And so what we did was we transitioned our current saw staffing to the emergency transition facility to help operate and ensure that we could really serve that individual's complete needs.
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JS: And just for our audience, that might not know all the language. When you say a case manager, for example, what does the case manager do?
00;21;53;26 - 00;23;47;01
BR: Yeah, so our case managers work hand in hand in partnership with all of our participants. They sit down to create a housing action plan, which is actually a requirement, as Ragan had mentioned, with these new laws that have passed, a pathway to permanent housing is always at the forefront of the work that we're doing. And so each case manager will provide an opportunity for each participant to create a housing action plan, list out steps and resources of the parts that are needed to ensure that that plan and the goals that are identified are met. So the case manager is on site and provide services. Typically, they're onsite Monday through Fridays. If needed, they can be onsite on the weekends. Let's say, for example, someone has a work schedule and they can only meet on a Saturday. Then our case managers would rearrange to ensure that those needs are met. Aside from creating this housing action plan to supporting what the steps, they also really focus on housing problem solving. And so we've actually had great success with housing problem solving. We've seen an individual from our emergency transition facility work with their case manager to have family reunification. And so what they did was they reached out to the family with the permission of the participant. They discussed what with the situation and they reassured the sister the progress that the participation had been making, their commitment to their sobriety, their commitment to wanting to live with their sister. And our case managers worked with the entire family to identify what are the support that are going to be needed to ensure that this is a positive transition and that this individual would not be entering homelessness once they get to their sisters home. And so we were able to successfully purchase this individual bus pass to relocate with their sister. And I'm happy to report that they're currently happily house with their sister and no longer experiencing homelessness.
00;23;48;04 - 00;24;01;22
JS: Oh, that's great. That's a great story. And then I also have heard you, Bea, mentioned and Reagan mentions to the phrase supportive services. So can you give us an example or a couple of examples of what supportive services are.
00;24;01;24 - 00;25;29;22
BR: Service are supportive services include, one of the big things are transportation, and so oftentimes our participants do not have access to their own transportation. And so our case managers will provide support services and assisting with applying for benefits, things that can help increase their income. So that can be anything from Social Security that can be applying for Medi-Cal to address our health needs. It can be applying for employment, assisting with resumes. We offer different workshops onsite. We also actually host employment fairs. So these support services include linkage to resources, linkage to family and natural support systems that we mention, linkage to applying for and getting on low income housing, which Ragan shared is at the forefront of ending homelessness as well. And so our support services include, like I mentioned, resources to natural support systems, resources to different needs that the individual identifies in the community and again, support with even financial assistance. For example, we have individuals who are working and they are able to move forward with sustaining their own rent and all they really needed was assistance with having their first month, their last month in deposit paid for. And so through these financial assistance opportunities, we're seeing people end their homelessness and become self-sufficient with their current employment.
00;25;31;25 - 00;25;58;26
JS: Oh, that's great. I guess that's the goal, right? We want everyone, everyone to get stable, safe housing. Ragan. I know you've been with the city now for a number of years. In your experience, kind of looking back on your career at the city, have you seen a response to the severe weather like we have this this winter? Have you seen a response like that in the past, or is this really something that you've never seen the city of San Jose undertake?
00;25;59;16 - 00;27;32;26
RH: I've been with the city for almost 17 years and with the housing department for about five years now. And this winter was really the winter that I have seen this level of response. I've never seen it before. Every year we do have a winter response. We open up overnight warming locations or shelters in city facilities. We usually use a community center and a library at home. First is our partner on that program as well. But this response in particular was so focused citywide on our unhoused population, it was really heroic, I think, from home first, being out there in the storm and dangerous conditions, bringing people inside to our police department and our Beautify San Jose departments also out along the creeks, warning people, trying to bring people up into safer conditions, to partnerships with the Red Cross for emergency shelter. And then a whole other focus on now that we have people in shelter. How do we transition them to something more stable? So it was really this kind of full circle response at a level that I have not experienced before.
00;27;33;21 - 00;27;44;09
JS: Could you see the city undertaking this type of response again, if they were if we experience severe weather again in future winters?
00;27;44;12 - 00;28;02;25
RH: I think now we have a blueprint for a success. You know, sure, there's things we learned and maybe things we would do differently. But I also think to other cities or other jurisdictions could also learn from this response as well.
00;28;02;27 - 00;28;16;06
JS: And if you did, you received generally positive and supportive feedback from elected officials throughout the city or the county. Anybody that you may have spoken to in the last several months since these storms.
00;28;16;08 - 00;29;02;14
RH: San Jose's elected officials, our mayor and council, were very, very supportive. Our mayor came to our evacuee transition facility and actually helped do some of the construction to help build it. All of our policymakers were very supportive. I did mention briefly, we also had the support of the county and the county Board of Supervisors. As you know, we had a mutual aid request for some behavioral health and mental health support at our emergency evacuation centers. And so we really did have a lot of support, again, across jurisdictions.
00;29;02;28 - 00;29;19;13
JS: And, Bea, can you reflect on some of the reactions from the participants and if anything, that they may have said that stuck out to you or anything? That was really poignant, that that will kind of remain in your memory as you think back on the winter of 2023.
00;29;19;16 - 00;31;28;11
BR: Our outreach team is consistently out there, so during the storms that were out there, but also during the summer when it's 103 degrees, are out there with these backpacks and they are out there providing support and building relationships and building trust. And I think that's one thing that really stood out to me from the individuals. There was a little bit of reluctance to accept these services. And when we had our team come out there and explain the benefits and the real dangers, the potential changes that were coming because of that established trust, individuals were accepting of the services. Our team was really involved in ensuring that it was a good experience for all. And so not only did they provide transportation, but they supported with packing up their belongings, making sure that everything was safe, making sure that their pets had crates of pet food that was needed, and making sure that their transition and moving to the emergency shelter site that was operated by American Red Cross in the city of San Jose's staff, that they stayed with them until they felt comfortable and assured them that, you know, once everything settled down, that we would be back to check in on them and they would come back every other day, checking in at night, making sure that their experience was a
positive one. One thing that really stands out is an individual who shared that, you know, I can't believe that this happened. I lost all of my belongings, but this is the most positive thing that has ever come out of my life because I've been able to really engage in the services that were offered. And one individual that we actually engage with was a pregnant individual. And she really wasn't sure what was going to be happening with her once her baby came. And our team was able to connect her, bring her from the tent, from the crate, bring her from a tent, bring her into the emergency shelter. From the emergency shelter, Bring her to our emergency transition facilities. And from there, looking her to resources through Bill Wilson that ultimately got her to her own apartment today. And so that individual shared that this was actually a blessing in disguise for them and that they were so thankful to the city of San Jose and to home first and to Bill Wilson for the opportunity to welcome her baby and her new home.
00;31;29;16 - 00;31;39;20
JS: That's remarkable. Be that as it. Amazing story. Wow. I guess talk about finding a silver lining in an even the most dire circumstances.
00;31;39;23 - 00;32;05;15
BR: And it really speaks to the partnerships. Right. And none of this would have been possible if it wasn't all of us coming together. So it wasn't just one entity. It was the city. Our community partners are volunteers. Our donors are donors who really stepped in to provide additional resources that were needed for these individuals being able to offer, you know, new baby clothes, new new home kits, things, things like that really made a difference.
00;32;05;21 - 00;32;51;29
RH: They also, Jeff, we had a donor step up to help the city provide financial assistance to individuals who moved to our evacuee transition facilities. Everyone was able to receive a gift card, know one of those visa gift cards that was really meant to help them replace any personal belongings that they lost in the storm. And that was you know, I remember giving people these gift cards and people were moved to tears because they had never received this amount of money before and that someone actually cared to help them replace what few things they did have before the storm.
00;32;52;01 - 00;33;17;18
JS: And Ragan, that is a very powerful image to think that people were so emotional about receiving that. And I believe if I remember, in addition to those visa gift cards, were we also able to give people that chose not to go to our transition facilities? Were we also able to give them tents or blankets to kind of help them weather future storms?
00;33;17;22 - 00;34;13;02
RH: Yeah, you got it right. Anyone who chose not to participate in the evacuee transition facility, we we did offer them a care kit that had tents, tarps, ponchos, rain gear, hand warming packs, anything that we could think of that could make their lives a little bit easier if they were going back out to live along creeks or our or waterways. The fortunate part is, is we had most people accept the offer of coming with us to the evacuee transition facility. That's the ultimate best option, right, is when we can have someone participate and then support them into other transitional or permanent housing.
00;34;13;12 - 00;34;23;25
JS: So I remember, I think while over 90% of the people who went to the evacuation centers took us up on the offer and also went to the transition facilities, is that correct?
00;34;23;27 - 00;34;51;18
RH: Yeah, We had a really high acceptance rate, which was really wonderful. And I think it also shows that, you know, no one wants to be homeless. No one wants to live outside. People do want assistance and support. And I think this this just illustrates that, that people were welcoming the support and the opportunity.
00;34;51;20 - 00;35;19;04
JS: Well, thank you both. It's been wonderful to hear you guys share these stories and remind us all of the incredible efforts that went into dealing with what was such a severe winter that we all faced several months ago. I don't know. Bea or Ragan, if you have any final thoughts, anything you'd like to add before we wrap up today?
00;35;19;07 - 00;36;18;09
RH: I'm just super grateful for the partnership with HomeFirst and the city's partnership with American Red Cross for heroic efforts that really saved lives, truly life saving. And for that, I'm incredibly grateful.
00;35;40;28 - 00;37;14;04
BR: I'm really thankful to our staff who are trained in trauma informed care and the best practices on how to really engage through motivational interviewing, home first practices, housing first and harm reduction, which go hand in hand to really solve and homelessness. And so our team is really passionate and dedicated to providing a safe space for everyone that we encounter every single day, whether it be through our outreach efforts in the field or whether it be at one of our emergency shelter sites or whether it be at one of our houses, rapid rehousing or permanent supportive housing homes for for our participants. We really do feel that this is a challenge that we all face as a community and that it can't be solved alone. I think that we all do have a difference in perception and opinions, but at the end of the day, and really the bottom line is that we all have to work together to come to a solution. And I think that that happens through education. And so I would really encourage anyone to really do their research and learn more about ways that they can help be a part of the solution. They can visit home first website at home first scc dot org. They can also learn about coordinated entry and what the county is doing to help end homelessness here in Santa Clara County. And again, I welcome you to be a part of the conversation when we have a seat open for you at HomeFirst. I welcome any calls or any emails in regards to how I can help you be a part of that solution.
00;37;14;17 - 00;37;20;07
JS: Right. Thank you both. I really appreciate it. This has been a great conversation and I've really enjoyed talking to both of you.
00;37;20;10 - 00;37;22;18
BR: Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
00;37;22;21 - 00;38;11;25
JS: Thanks so much, Reagan and Bea for joining me on today's episode. Thanks for listening to Dwellings, the City of San José Housing Department podcast. Our theme music is “Speed City,” composed and performed by Etienne Charles. Thanks to San José Jazz for letting us use their music. If you like the show, please subscribe and share with your friends and family. If you're looking for more ways to get involved with housing and homelessness response, please check out the show notes. You can follow the Housing Department on social media. We're on Twitter and Facebook at S J city housing. If you have questions or comments about today's episode, please send them to housingcomms@sanJoséca.gov. Our artwork is by Chelsea Palacio. Dwellings is produced by me, Jeff Scott and Jose Chavez of the Housing Department.