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Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Published: 29 July 2020

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with an Oroville-based nonprofit that proposes to temporarily operate a COVID-19 homeless shelter in a portion of the former juvenile hall facility.

The contract between Lake County Behavioral Health Services and Elijah House is for a maximum of $234,550, and will continue through Sept. 30.

With the Hope Harbor shelter at 2150 S. Main St. in Lakeport due to close at month’s end after a four-month extended run, the county was looking for an organization to take over offering COVID-19 sheltering operations for the homeless. As part of its reopening variance with the state, the county is required to offer such housing services.

Elijah House responded to a request for proposals the county issued in June for an organization to take over COVID-19 sheltering operations for the homeless.

Behavioral Health Director Todd Metcalf said Elijah House was the sole responder to the request for proposals.

He said the nonprofit provides substance use disorder and mental health services, and also operates a sober living facility in Butte County.

Metcalf said, upon approval, Elijah House will assume shelter operations on July 31 and has offered to transition the guests from the current shelter in Lakeport to the juvenile hall facility in north Lakeport.

He said the agreement ends Sept. 30, with the plan to transition the guests to the Hope Center, a transitional housing facility in Clearlake slated to open doors in late September or early October. In the event the Hope Center’s opening schedule changes, Metcalf said they incorporated language into the agreement outlining the ability to extend it on a month to month basis.

Supervisor Tina Scott thanked Metcalf for working incredibly hard on the contract. She said she had been concerned about putting the center’s residents on the street after having stabilized them, noting some of the shelter residents have found homes and jobs.

Scott said she’s met with some of Elijah House’s directors and hopes their programs can be brought to Lake County. “It’s a game changer here.”

Supervisor Bruno Sabatier wanted minor changes to the contract language, specifically, that while the county would be required to maintain the facility, the operator would have to cover issues arising from negligence.

Sabatier said he also had some “heartfelt disappointments” that the COVID-19 homeless shelter’s transition is being linked to the Hope Center in Clearlake, noting that the homeless problem has to be solved everywhere in the county, not just one area.

Metcalf said they could add the language about negligence, and while he said he also would like to see another facility in addition to the Hope Center, at this point it is all they’ve got.

“We are by no means giving up on having more than one location. But for now, this is what we have to work with and it seems to be the best path to ensure that these folks who are unhoused will have a place to go,” he said.

Health Services Director Denise Pomeroy said the county had to do an attestation several earlier this year as part of its reopening variance, and housing the homeless is a requirement.

“This also does help us stay within that variance that we wrote a few months ago,” Pomeroy said.

Elijah House representative John Mitchell, who called in to the meeting, said the organization would agree to Sabatier’s proposed amendment to the contract language.

Mitchell thanked the board for considering the proposal. He said the organization has been working to build relationships within Lake County. They have long-term goals outside of the grant proposal and saw the shelter operation as an opportunity to come in and meet that need.

He said Elijah House has been working with the Hope Center, Adventist Health and those operating the Hope Harbor shelter, and the organization wants to keep them on board. Having seen their results in housing and employment, within a few months there could be a lot more success in this program, he added.

Metcalf said it is a great opportunity to bring additional programs and services to the county in support of what Behavioral Health is trying to accomplish.

“I’m excited about this,” said Metcalf, calling it a win-win situation.

Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen also spoke to the board on behalf of his department and the city of Lakeport.

“We believe this is a very robust proposal” to bring in a good quality organization to expand services, Rasmussen said.

He thanked Kelseyville United Methodist Church – the fiscal sponsor for Hope Harbor – along with Hope Harbor, the county health department and current shelter staff. “They’ve done a lot of great work.”

Rasmussen said it was critical to get this new proposal approved so there was no break in service, as he said it would be detrimental if the people in the current shelter were put out on the street. He thanked the county for looking at it so quickly.

Pastor Shannon Kimbell-Auth, who works with Project Restoration and Adventist Health, thanked Sabatier, who she said opened up the idea of using the juvenile hall facility for the shelter, and Metcalf for the extraordinary amount of work required to get it done.

She agreed with Rasmusen that it would defeat a lot of the remarkable work the team at Hope Harbor has achieved over the last six months if there was a break in service.

Like Sabatier, she said she believes there needs to be more than one site in the county where the homeless are served.

Bringing Elijah House to Lake County, Kimbell-Auth said, is “an extraordinary opportunity for Lake County and the services that we are able to offer people experiencing homelessness.”

Sabatier asked if Elijah House could assist with counting the local homeless population and if they could conduct the annual point in time count at any other time rather than January.

Metcalf said he understood that more than one count could be done a year and he was open to it. However, Kimbell-Auth said the January count is required for federal Housing and Urban Development purposes while a summer count could be done to help identify the community’s needs. That responsibility falls to the Continuum of Care, not a provider like Elijah House.

Linda Hedstrom, a county resident and affordable housing consultant, explained that a lot of people seem to get stuck on the point in time count, which is a single use function for HUD for a certain kind of funding.

Hedstrom said most HUD funding, however, doesn’t rely on the point in time count. She added that there is other funding available to help with the work Kimbell-Auth and Elijah House are doing which don’t rely on that annual count.

Scott moved to approve the contract, with Sabatier seconding and the board voting 5-0.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.