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Following statewide calls to clear homeless encampments, Menlo Park’s City Council put the issue of homelessness on the local agenda. The council voted 3-0 to create an ad hoc subcommittee consisting of Mayor Cecilia Taylor and Vice Mayor Drew Combs to address homelessness in the city and to cooperate with San Mateo County efforts to tackle homelessness. Council members Jen Wolosin and Maria Doerr were absent.
The subcommittee will discuss the scope of the city’s involvement in the issue, and direct staff to return to the full council with a report on homelessness in the city and options to address it.
Though homelessness has been a persistent and public issue on the Peninsula, the issue has been brought to the forefront following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order urging local governments to address homeless encampments and help the people living in them. Additionally, the council has received several public comments over the last few months regarding concentrated overnight RV parking in several areas of the city.
“(RVs) have been an ongoing concern for us,” said Aileen Lattman, who works in offices near Campbell Avenue and Scott Drive in Belle Haven, where RVs are parking. “Despite numerous communications and Newsom’s recent order, we’ve seen no action or response from the city. In the past month alone, I’ve had to contact Menlo Park Police five or six times due to criminal activity, including illegal dumping, noise disturbances and witnessing children nearly getting hit by vehicles.”
Taylor, who asked that the topic be put on the council’s Sept. 10 agenda, said she brought up the issue because she would like to see Menlo Park set a zero homelessness goal in the city.
“What does (zero homelessness) look like?” she asked. “We have folks who sleep on the street. We have folks who sleep in the marsh. We have folks that sleep in their cars. And we have folks that sleep in their RVs. … How do we resource or connect with somebody who provides the resources for (unhoused) folks?”
Council member Betsy Nash said that, though she agrees that homelessness is an issue in the city, Menlo Park’s effort to address the unhoused population may be better spent by engaging in a county-wide or regional effort, rather than trying to take the issue on as a city.
“(Homelessness) is obviously perplexing the entire region, and I don’t think that the time we will put into it will come up with anything unique,” she said. “I don’t want to have each city pushing people onto the next city.”
Recently, Antonio López, the mayor of neighboring East Palo Alto, pitched a plan to form a “regional partnership” with neighboring cities to share resources such as shelters and supportive housing. Members of the Menlo Park City Council have not yet commented on this plan.
Nash also said that the city is already doing work to address housing, including the city’s plan to build affordable housing on downtown parking lots. She said she doesn’t want the city to “lose focus and momentum” on projects that are already in the works.
Adina Levin, a Menlo Park resident, commented that the city should also focus on preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place. “The first step is helping someone stay at home,” she said.
The city is developing an anti-displacement strategy plan as part of the programs included in its most recent housing element.
Following discussion, City Manager Justin Murphy ultimately suggested that the council form a subcommittee so that discussion of the issue could take place outside of regular council meetings when time is limited.
“I think it’s important to use our time on the upcoming council agendas as wisely as we can,” he said.
The subcommittee will direct staff to come back to the full City Council with a report on the homeless population in Menlo Park, the potential scope of the city’s involvement in remedying the issue, and how the city might engage in regional efforts to address the issue.
