Editorials represent the views of The Press Democrat editorial board and The Press Democrat as an institution. The editorial board and the newsroom operate separately and independently of one another.

Paris has its Arc de Triomphe, Sonoma County has its fence of futility.

The arch is a tribute to those who fought and died in the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, the fence is a scar on the Joe Rodota Trail, denying public access to a popular pedestrian and cycling path between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.

The arch is famous worldwide. Aside from a few reports on San Francisco TV news, the fence is a mostly local embarrassment.

But every day the barrier remains puts one more link in a chain of failure by local elected officials and local government agencies to provide emergency shelter for homeless people sleeping on sidewalks, in parks and on trails.

The cyclone fence cuts off a mile-long stretch of trail between Dutton Avenue and Stony Point Road in Santa Rosa where 15-20 homeless people have pitched tents or built crude shelters. Bert Whitaker, Sonoma County’s park director, says he isn’t optimistic about reopening any time soon. But a county spokesman said Friday that an interim solution could be offered next week.

One obstacle is a federal court ruling that limits the county’s ability to force homeless campers to leave. But moving the problem from one place to the next was never a solution anyway.

And after four closures of the Joe Rodota Trail over the past two years, plus February census finding 2,100 people sleeping in vehicles or on the street, there’s no denying that Sonoma County and its nine cities need places where homeless people can stay without disrupting parks, trails, neighborhoods and businesses.

The county and local cities have taken an upstream investment approach to homelessness, investing millions in transitional and supportive housing over the past few years. The idea is to get people off the street, address the reasons they became homeless and return them to permanent housing.

But there aren’t enough units ready to accommodate people now staying in interim shelters, Staff Writer Mary Callahan reported, so spaces aren’t opening up for people living on the street. Many of them end up in places like the Joe Rodota Trail, a commuting route for cyclists as well as a popular destination for recreation. Cutting off public access to the trail isn’t a solution any more than ordering campers to move one to, well, somewhere.

If homeless campers are violating the law, police should step in. But a federal court ruled that people cannot be arrested for camping on public property unless there is somewhere else for them to go.

We resisted the idea of sanctioned camp sites for a long time, but the tiny home village at Los Guilicos and the temporary camp at Finley Park in 2020 showed that, with social services and proper supervision, sanctioned camps can be a safe, sanitary alternative to pushing homeless people from place to place.

Temporary camps and safe parking sites are stopgaps, and neighborhood opposition to any new site is inevitable. But until more shelters and transitional housing options are available, they may be the only alternative to fencing off the Joe Rodota Trail over and over again.

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Editorials represent the views of The Press Democrat editorial board and The Press Democrat as an institution. The editorial board and the newsroom operate separately and independently of one another.

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