Dear City of Santa Rosa and City Council Members,

As parents of the Santa Rosa French American Charter School and surrounding community members, we are very concerned about the plan for a portable toilet to be installed outside the school’s cafeteria entrance on Doyle Park Dr.  We understand that this is an effort to is to support people experiencing homelessness and have compassion for that part of our community.  However, by sanctioning the encampment along Doyle Park Drive, we are perpetuating a chronic problem that the school and neighborhood has been faced with for many years.   

On our campus and the streets bordering it, we have found hypodermic needles, human feces, trash and condoms, as well as incidents of indecent exposure related to the community of people living in Doyle Park.   Before the schools closed, there was an overdose along our schoolyard fence in front of dozens of children.  We have been dealing with problems such as these since before the pandemic and before the fires of 2017.   Our ability to re-open the school will depend on it being safe for children.  This decision will impact the measures needed to be taken to ensure that.   

Though students are not at SRFACS right now, it is still a school.   People still live on Doyle Park Dr.   We understand that people experiencing homelessness need a place to be, however, this place should not be adjacent to a school and we do not think that the City of Santa Rosa should encourage this encampment.   Installing a portable toilet communicates that SRFACS, Doyle Park and Doyle Park Dr. is an acceptable place for an encampment.   It is not. 

I urge you to think of our children and to reconsider this decision.  

Sincerely,

Concerned Parents, Neighbors, Community Members