The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has voted unanimously to extend a contract to provide support services to residents of temporary emergency and transitional housing while proposals are reviewed for a long-term provider.

Supervisors on Tuesday also finalized a contract for food preparation and delivery to shelters for up to three years from Taqueria Sol Azteca in Rohnert Park at about $950,000 per year.

The restaurant’s owner, Frankie Lemus, said he was grateful to win the contract.

“I want you all to know how much my family, my staff, their families, appreciate having the opportunity to bid for this contract and how hard we have worked to ensure that we are meeting the proper procedures,” Lemus said at the meeting.

The county sought proposals to provide security and medical services for shelter sites in August and received four applications. An audit of the interim provider, DEMA Consulting and Management, should be completed in mid-February and will help determine the program’s expected costs.

“What’s triggering us to do an extension is to give sufficient time to complete the outside audit,” said County Administrator Christina Rivera.

The county extended the contract to provide interim services by two months at about $1.1 million per month.

“What’s triggering us to do an extension is to give sufficient time to complete the outside audit.” County Administrator Christina Rivera

DEMA provided services at the Mickey Zane Place supportive housing complex and the emergency shelter at the county campus on Ventura Avenue, which were opened last year after the county declared a shelter crisis. The shelters helped provide enough beds for the county to legally clear a large encampment that had grown on the Joe Rodota Trail.

The county is transitioning two of the sites to increase capacity.

The emergency shelter at 2550 Ventura Ave. will be replaced by a site on Russell Avenue that will include spaces for RVs, trailers, and tiny houses.

A Pallet house shelter in a parking lot at the county-owned Los Guilicos campus will also be closed and replaced with refurbished dormitories, which will lead to a net increase of 80 beds at the site, which is called Los Guilicos Village.

The county is making progress on sheltering its homeless population, but more than 2,200 people were without permanent housing as of the annual 2023 point-in-time count, a one-day survey of the homeless population in January.

The 2024 point-in-time count was conducted last Friday and will be presented to the Board of Supervisors after the numbers are processed.

Last year’s count showed that 85 percent of homeless individuals became homeless while living in Sonoma County and 63 percent said unaffordable rent was their main obstacle to finding permanent housing.