Goldemberg Weighs In On Purchase Of Columbia Inn

Photo by BJ Hansen

(An updated story has been posted here to reflect board member Anaiah Kirk’s plan to shift his vote to no)

Sonora, CA — Tuolumne County District One Supervisor David Goldemberg will be the deciding vote on whether to purchase the Columbia Inn motel, and he is sharing his position on it.

Goldemberg, who chairs the county’s Homeless Committee, was unable to attend Tuesday’s meeting due to personal matters. We reported earlier that the vote was 2-2 on whether to acquire the 24-room inn for homelessness programs, and Goldemberg will cast the deciding vote at the next meeting.

Clarke Broadcasting reached out to Goldemberg after last night’s meeting, and he has provided a detailed statement, which he had prepared prior to the meeting, and indicated that he had hoped it was going to be read into the official record, yesterday.

He makes it clear that he is in favor of the $1.65-million property acquisition.

You can read it below:

“I am supportive of Tuolumne County purchasing the Columbia Inn to further our efforts to support the Homeless population in Tuolumne County. The Purchase including establishing what is called a “Navigation Center” with Housing to protect people is so important to do. Counties such as Merced County have had good success in establishing such programs.

I fully realize that there are concerns as to the county purchasing and using this property to assist the homeless. I do not however feel that there is the risk that some persons are stating.

This purchase will provide a clear path including “Case Management” by our professional staff within the Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) as coordinated by Director Rebecca Espino, who has strong knowledge in how to manage such programs. Outside agencies such as the City of Sonora with their progressive and strong efforts, the Amador Tuolumne Community Action Agency (ATCAA) and Continuum of Care (CoC) are a very important part of dealing with Homelessness issues in Tuolumne County.

I also want to say that I strongly appreciate that Michael Roberson, our Homeless Services Coordinator has been performing Excellently in addressing the Homeless situation in Tuolumne County.

Michael has been working with our committee as well as meeting with many people in our community along with multiple Staff members in order to do so. This includes involving non-profits and faith based entities. As we all know, this is not an easy task to undertake, so my personal Thanks go out to Michael for having the expertise and tenacity to do so.

A short history here: Tuolumne County has not dealt well with homelessness issues in the past – That said, our current Board of Supervisors have clearly demonstrated that they are willing to take on actions to address these problems, which are long overdue.

In closing, there is special importance that we as a board must address assisting our homeless persons with special needs. We need to help our homeless women, emphasis on women with children, our growing elderly population who are drastically being driven to becoming homeless, and looking to help our homeless veterans who need assistance after many years of serving our Country.

We cannot forget that other homeless people need assistance as well. We must take a serious look at helping them obtain benefits through the navigation center platform process – This can and should include determining potential financial benefits that they as many other people in our county qualify for.

We should not ignore by any means that homeless people who have addiction problems should be assisted to get them into programs to help them. This will pay dividends in helping our community overall.

The county is also exploring programs such as through the Mother Lode Job Training and Columbia College to help people to come out of being homeless by obtaining meaningful jobs.”