Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On 7/10/2024, at about 12:05 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the 4600 block of Crane St. in Eureka for the report of a stabbing.

Upon arrival, deputies located and detained 25-year-old Maria Hernandez-Ruelas, who was being restrained by persons on scene. Deputies also located a 30-year-old female victim suffering from multiple stab wounds and lacerations. During the investigation, it was learned that Hernandez-Ruelas and the victim were acquainted. The victim was transported to a local area hospital with significant injuries.

Hernandez-Ruelas was arrested for attempted homicide (PC 664/187(A)) and was later booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility after being medically treated for injuries she sustained during the assault.

This case is still under investigation.

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

When a shortfall of several hundred thousand dollars almost derailed new homeless housing in Bakersfield, the savior that swooped in to salvage the project wasn’t an affordable housing nonprofit, state housing grant or other traditional source.

Instead, it was a health care company that had never before built a single home.

That unorthodox move is part of a broader effort to commingle California’s health care and homeless services agencies, as providers in both areas increasingly acknowledge a glaring truth: It’s nearly impossible to be healthy if you’re living on the street.

Health care company Akido Labs, which runs clinics and street medicine teams in Southern and Central California, covered about 10% of the cost to build that 16-unit project in Bakersfield. Health insurance giant Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield is funding homeless housing projects in Alameda, Kings and Tulare counties. And Los Angeles County’s biggest health plan is paying to lease properties for its homeless clients.

“For the unhoused, housing is medicine,” said Karthik Murali, head of public health at Akido Labs. “Providing stable housing can alleviate more health conditions than taking them to the ICU and the hospital and providing street medicine…Knowing that fact, we wanted to be part of the solution.”

People who are homeless have higher rates of illness, and die an average of 12 years younger than the general U.S. population, according to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council.

Gov. Gavin Newsom set the marriage between housing and health care in motion in 2022, via his massive overhaul of the state’s Medicaid system. With the launch of CalAIM, the state allows Medi-Cal to fund things not traditionally covered as health care — such as helping homeless clients find housing, paying for security deposits and preventing evictions.

As an incentive for health care plans to ramp up these new services, the state also provided $1.3 billion in additional funding under the Housing and Homelessness Incentive Program. Managed care plans can earn those funds by investing in solutions to homelessness. It’s that money Akido and other health care providers are using to build and lease new homeless housing.

Dr. Rishi Patel from the Akido Street Medicine team checks on an unhoused man living in a vineyard in Arvin on May 28, 2024. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

It’s still a relatively rare use of the money — it’s more likely to pay for services for unhoused people, such as case managers or safe RV parking sites. That’s partly because creating housing is so expensive in California, and partly because most health care providers don’t know much about homebuilding.

Even so, Murali said the new funds made a big difference. Recognizing that it could only do so much to help its homeless patients as long as they were living on the street, Akido had long wanted to get into the business of developing housing. The incentive program gave it the funds to do so.

“It could not have been possible before, and it’s possible now,” Murali said.

Housing as medicine

Los Angeles-based Akido Labs got its start as a health tech company out of Y Combinator, the startup incubator that grew big-name companies such as Airbnb and Dropbox. It later launched medical clinics and street medicine teams in Central and Southern California.

When the Kern County Housing Authority found itself over budget on the Bakersfield homeless housing project — in part because the housing authority underestimated the cost of an expensive retaining wall — Aikido jumped in.

Construction workers building an apartment complex site for an affordable housing project in Bakersfield on May 29, 2024. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

“We would have been stalled, and who knows where it would have been now if we hadn’t had that money come in,” said Stephen Pelz, executive director of the housing authority, who said Akido funded about 10% of the roughly $3 million project.

The two-story development, where tenants will pay 30% of their income in rent, sits on a formerly vacant lot next to what used to be a large homeless encampment. Each apartment is a small one-bedroom, one-bath — about 500 square feet — and you can see the Sierra Nevada from the upstairs windows on a clear day. It’s a big deal to complete a project in that area, where most of the street doesn’t even have a sidewalk and new construction is rare, Pelz said. You’re more likely to see something here catch fire and then be torn down than you are to see something new get built, he said.

Aikido also took on a second, 40-unit homeless housing project in Bakersfield. That development, now set to open in 2025, would have fallen apart without the health care company’s funding. The county had applied for a state Homekey grant, but that wasn’t enough to buy the property or fund the project.

Aikido paid about 20% of the project’s total $10 million cost, and it’s now working with the county housing authority. Akido is advocating for features it knows will help its clients, such as wheelchair accessible outdoor spaces, suicide prevention designs (such as shelves in closets instead of rails) and semigloss paint that makes cleaning easier. The health care company is learning to navigate the complicated world of housing production as it goes.

“That’s been an interesting process,” Murali said.

Homeless housing from Sacramento to L.A.

Other counties are using the money to secure housing units without putting shovels in the ground. Sacramento County won $3.2 million for its Landlord Engagement and Assistance Program, which gives unhoused clients rental subsidies and places them with private landlords, while also working with landlords to prevent evictions.

That money will allow the county to expand that program by about 30%, said human services program manager Neil Kurtz.

“It’s everything,” Kurtz said. “We’re going to be able to make a significant impact, I think, in reducing homelessness.”

A homeless encampment at W Street and Alhambra Boulevard in Sacramento on April 11, 2023. Photo by Rahul Lal for CalMatters

Los Angeles County’s largest health plan, LA Care, is using the incentive funds to help open 1,700 homes to homeless residents by 2027. Working with the county, the health plan is funding programs to buy and lease those units, or pay for security deposits and other expenses. As of the end of last year, 600 of those homes were available, said Dr. Sameer Amin, chief medical officer for LA Care.

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield recently put money into a 42-unit homeless housing project in Tulare County, helped fund two more projects in Kings County, and contributed to a fund in Alameda County that’s building additional units.

“We’re looking at other opportunities,” said Kris Kuntz, program director for housing and homeless strategy at Anthem. ”We’re looking at: Do we go purchase single family homes that are on the market? Things like that.”

Can the housing-health care partnership be sustainable?

Blurring the line between housing and health care has been confusing for many involved, said Carolina Reid, faculty research advisor at the UC Berkeley Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

Health care providers don’t know what organizations to partner with in order to get housing built, or how to enter their clients’ information into the state’s homelessness data system. Housing providers don’t know how to navigate strict patient privacy laws. The Terner Center is researching ways to help both sides adjust.

The state paints this health-care-meets-housing experiment as a success so far. Health care providers using the Housing and Homelessness Incentive Program money reported they now are more frequently screening their patients for homelessness, while also offering them more housing-related services. According to the state Department of Health Care Services, 48,172 patients have received housing – and 81% of them have remained housed.

But the problem with this money is that it’s a one-time grant, and Newsom has given no indication that he’ll replenish the coffers when it runs out. After Newsom and legislators scrambled to close a multibillion-dollar budget deficit this year, there’s little state funding up for grabs.

“One question I have that I can’t answer is: Are these efforts sustained after the HHIP funds run out?” Reid said. “There needs to be a sustained source of funding to help managed care plans do this type of work.”

A sign for a construction site for Golden Empire Affordable Housing in Bakersfield on May 29, 2024. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

Murali hopes Akido can drum up private equity to replace the state funding in future projects, but whether investors can be convinced it’s a good business move remains to be seen.

What’s more, when up against the steep cost of building or buying housing in California, the money the state allocated doesn’t amount to that much, Reid said. That’s why, she said, we haven’t seen more health care providers using the money to create new housing.

Kuntz agrees.

“When it comes to housing and homelessness,” he said, “you think it’s a large amount of money, but per county, it’s still…not huge, per say, given the need.”

In Kern County, the housing authority typically receives anywhere from 500 to 1,000 applications for each new project, Pelz said. The project set to finish next month in Bakersfield has room for just 16 households.

That means, if you get chosen, Pelz said, “It’s kind of like winning the lottery.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

William Wayne Jones
April 6, 1949, to June 5, 2024

William Wayne Jones passed away peacefully on June 5, 2024, surrounded by loved ones. Bill grew up in Eureka and went to Eureka High School. Bill joined the United States Marine Corp during the Vietnam War and received a Purple Heart after being wounded in combat. When he returned home, he went back to his original job at McCrae Nissan, where he worked for 47 years. He also married his high school sweetheart and had three children.

Later he married Gwendolyn Jones and became a stepdad to Gwen’s daughter. Years later they had their own daughter together. Bill and Gwen moved to McKinleyville in 1979 and raised their five children. Bill and Gwen were married for 48 years.

Bill enjoyed spending time with his family. He attended all their sporting events, he enjoyed taking them camping and playing hours of card games with them, and just spending quality family time. Bill was an avid hunter. He loved being outdoors hunting, fishing and camping. Bill was very involved with the McKinleyville community, where he coached Little League Baseball for 12 years.

Bill was proceeded in death by his wife Gwendolyn Jones, his parents Jim and Mable Tucker, his sister Barbara Black and his biological father George Whiting.

He is survived by his children: Mendy Jones (Gary), Raeleen Olson, Carolee Strong (Randy), Brandon Jones, Kimberly Adams (Rodney) his eight grandchildren: Brittany, Derek, Ashlie, Connor, Halle, Natalie, Harlee and Robert and six great grandchildren: Aden, Mckinzie, Denali, Kota, Wade and Gunnar. He is also survived by his seven sisters, his brother-in-law Delbert Faulk and many nieces and nephews.

Thank you to Hospice of Humboldt and his nurse Krystal for all your support for the last few months. In lieu of flowers please make a donation to the American Cancer Society.

There will be a memorial service in the near future. The date is not yet determined.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Bill Jones’ loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

On Saturday June 29, 2024 Myrtle Louise Martin, known as Suzy by all her family and friends, passed away.

Suzy was born in Wyoming on February 2, 1938. She came to Humboldt County in 1954. Suzy met Carl Martin and they were married in 1956. Suzy and Carl lived on Martin Ranch, raising three children there.

Suzy was a wonderful cook and loved doing it. She and Carl hosted many community dinners. She especially loved events where she and Carl could dance together.

She worked for Carl Johnson Company for many years. If you went to the auction and visited the snack bar you would have seen Suzy.

She was predeceased by her husband Carl Martin and her youngest son Elbert Martin and her son-in-law Larry Cardoza.

She is survived by her oldest son Eugene Martin, daughter Carla Martin Cardoza, grandsons Joey Martin, Michael Martin, Justin Martin (Stephanie), great-grandchildren Kaden Martin and McKenzie Martin.

She was a loving mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She will be greatly missed by her entire family. Suzy loved flowers, so please plant a flower.

Right now I’m in a different place
and though we seem apart
I’m closer than I ever was
I’m there inside your heart

— Anon

Arrangements by Paul’s Chapel, Arcata. Interment at St. Mary’s, Arcata.

As Eureka works to expand housing options downtown and elsewhere, fears of a future city overwhelmed by cars with supposedly nowhere to park continue to alarm some Eurekans. 

That’s the issue that claimed the spotlight this morning, anyway, at a meeting of the Eureka Design Review Committee, which discussed a 44-unit affordable housing apartment complex for seniors coming to the corner of C and Clark Streets in Eureka. 

The project is an element of the Housing Authority of the City of Eureka’s (HACE) repositioning plan, which aims to improve and increase Eureka’s affordable public housing. For this project, HACE is working with the developing firm Brinshore Development LLC. 

The duplexes currently at 1115 C Street. Screenshot from Design Review Committee meeting.

The three-story apartment building – which will replace six existing duplexes at 1115 C Street – borrows design elements from nearby historical buildings in an effort to match the neighborhood. HACE will offer tenants in the 12 to-be-demolished units other housing owned by the authority or tenant protection vouchers to rent elsewhere. 

The 44 one-bedroom, one-bathroom units will each be about 555 square feet in size, and half will be mobility units (meaning they’ll have accessibility features like low countertops, wide doorways and Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant hardware). And the complex will include laundry rooms on each floor, elevators, an outdoor community space and garden, an indoor community room, bicycle parking and 11 on-site parking spaces.

During today’s meeting, the Design Review Committee held a public hearing and considered a resolution that will move the project forward. Specifically, the committee was asked to consider approval of exempting the project from CEQA (because it aligns with Eureka’s General Plan), consider conditional approval of design review (which is a discretionary permit for the project) and consider conditional approval of density bonus for the project (which means it may exceed standard housing density regulations because it is low-income housing).

At the meeting, HACE Executive Director Cheryl Churchill said that residents living near the site “overwhelmingly” cited a need for senior housing during a HACE outreach effort. 

“I think that we’ve really worked to fit in what we heard the community ask for, which is accessible units, units for seniors, and a design that has a sense of community,” Churchill said.

A few community members appeared for the public hearing. Though some offered words of support for the project, every speaker worried that a boost in housing units will impact a neighborhood that’s “already pretty stressed on parking,” as one commenter put it. 

Parking is already tight, they said, because many of the homes – including Victorian buildings and multi-family units – have limited or no onsite parking spaces. And, they asked, what about the caretakers some of these seniors might employ, who will also need to park near the new building? 

“There’s 44 some-odd units and only 11 parking spaces. If that makes sense to you guys, then we’ve got a problem. Where are these people going to park?” said a Clark Street resident named William. “I foresee walking blocks to my home […] and if you haven’t considered that, I think you should.” 

Committee Vice Chair Gailey Browning asked if it would be possible to include an underground parking garage in the design.

“This is affordable housing, and with that, obviously, comes certain limitations around funding. And that is one of the biggest limitations, obviously, to bringing more housing,” Churchill said. “So while I think that’s a lovely idea, it’s not something that’s really feasible.”

Michael Den Hartog, the project architect, explained to the committee that there is parking beyond the 11 on-site spaces. HACE plans to redevelop the parking lot on a property it owns across the street, which would create another 12 spaces (that property has four units on it). And then there are the two dozen-or-so street parking spaces lining each of the two HACE-owned properties. 

Add all those up and suddenly the parking issue doesn’t seem so dire after all: around 46 spaces for a total of 48 units (that’s the 44 new units and four existing ones on the property across the street). 

“I know that’s not quite the same as 44 spaces on the property, but I think we’ve tried to look at it sort of holistically,” Hartog said. “The amount of units can be served by the parking that’s around the property.”

The project site and intersection at C and Clark Streets. Photo: City of Eureka

Though parking was certainly the main topic, other questions were asked and answered at the meeting. Can the entire property be lowered to street-level to make the new building feel less overbearing? (Too expensive, and also intrusive to neighboring properties, Hartog said; plus the Victorian next door is taller than the new apartment building will be, anyway.) Isn’t increased activity around the Clark and C intersection, which doesn’t line up evenly, a safety concern? (That’s something the Transportation Safety Commission and Public Works Department might address during the permitting phase, if it’s determined an issue, said Eureka Senior Planner Caitlin Castellano.)

Before voting, three of the four committee members present said that they, too, worry about the parking issue. 

“I think we’re at a place where parking regulations have been laxed in order for the downtown area to utilize less parking. And it’s having a detrimental effect on some of the residential neighborhoods unintentionally, I think,” said Committee Member Ryan Cameron. 

“The way to solve it is to do underground parking,” said Browning. “And I think that finding financing for that is very important.”

The motion passed 3-0, with Browning abstaining. Committee Member Chuck Ellsworth was absent.

We are reminded, via press releases from the cities of Eureka and Fortuna, that the local fall election season is almost upon us!

Here on the ground – we’re not talking way high up in the stratospheres of state or federal office – the fall election is about cities. County government usually gets its business done in the spring, but the cities wait until the general election to elect their representatives.

So if you live in one of the Seven Cities of Humboldt – Eureka, Arcata, Fortuna, Rio Dell, Ferndale, Blue Lake, Trinidad – and you think you have something to offer your town’s government, this is your moment!

Starting Monday, July 15, you can take out papers to run for City Council on the Nov. 5 ballot. That paperwork must be completed and filled out and returned by Friday, August 9 – unless an incumbent councilmember decides not to run for reelection, in which case the deadline for that seat is extended to Wednesday, August 14.

The person you need to see to go about getting this done is your city’s City Clerk. You’ll find ‘em in your City Hall.

If you’ve never done this before, you’ll want to get a jump on it. The paperwork can be arduous, and that’s especially true if you plan to raise or spend money on your campaign. At the very least, you’ll need to gather up signatures from your friends and neighbors and future supporters, who have to be registered voters in the jurisdiction you’re seeking to represent. Those will be required for you to even get on the ballot.

Here’s a reminder that Eureka is a charter city, and so it can do things a bit differently. Eureka elects its councilmembers by neighborhood. This year, the city’s Second Ward (currently represented by Kati Moulton) and Fourth Ward (currently represented by Scott Bauer) are up for election. Here’s a map for reference. If you don’t live in the Second or Fourth Wards, you’re going to have to wait another two years before you get your chance to serve.

Also, this will be the first time Eurekans will elect their councilmember by ranked-choice voting. You don’t have to worry about being a spoiler!

(Fortuna is the county’s only other charter city, by the way, but Fortuna does elections in the regular way – anybody can run in any election, regardless of where in town they live.)

Now get to it, aspiring councilmembers! Good luck and God bless!

The California Energy Commission today unanimously approved a sweeping plan to develop a massive floating offshore wind industry in ocean waters — a first-of-its-kind undertaking that will require billions in public and private investments and could transform parts of the coast.

The new state plan sets the path for harnessing wind power from hundreds of giant turbines, each as tall as a 70-story building, floating in the ocean about 20 miles off Humboldt Bay and Morro Bay. The untapped energy is expected to become a major power source as California electrifies vehicles and switches to clean energy.

California’s wind farms represent a giant experiment: No other place in the world has floating wind operations in such deep waters — more than a half-mile deep — so far from shore.

The commission’s vote today came after representatives of various industries, environmentalists, community leaders and others expressed mostly support, along with some concerns.

State and federal officials use the word “urgency” to describe the frenetic pace needed to lay the groundwork for development of five areas that the federal government has leased to offshore wind companies.

“I feel the urgency to move forward swiftly,’ said energy commissioner Patty Monahan. “The climate crisis is upon us. Offshore wind is a real opportunity for us to move forward with clean energy.”

She added, though, that the plan “is a starting point…There are a lot of uncertainties about environmental impacts. We need to be clear-eyed and engage the right scientific interests and move carefully.”

The five energy companies are now assessing sites within the 583 square miles, which is expected to take five years. That will be followed by about two years of design, construction and environmental and technical reviews.

Energy Commission Chairman David Hochschild recently called it “one of the single most complex processes I’ve been involved with.”

That complexity was reflected in the heft of the strategic plan, which includes three volumes and 500 pages of public comment. The breadth of the document — which involved coordination among nine state agencies — reflects the sheer size and scope of what’s being envisioned. State officials said offshore wind requires an unprecedented level of planning and policy development in California.

The offshore wind industry must be created almost from scratch: a new manufacturing base for the still-evolving technology; a robust and reliable supply chain; transportation networks on land and sea; specially configured ports to make, assemble and maintain the gargantuan seagoing platforms; finding and training a highly specialized workforce; building a large transmission network where none exists and beefing up those that operate now.

The Energy Commission’s plan estimates that just the work to upgrade California’s ports will cost $11-$12 billion, much of it publicly funded. The plan identifies the large ports of Humboldt, Long Beach and Los Angeles as viable for storing, staging and assembling parts needed for offshore wind operations.

By 2045, 16 large and 10 small ports will be needed along California’s coast for various aspects of development and support, according to the plan. “Funding and permitting for these projects are a critical challenge to address,” the plan says. An estimated $475 million would be set aside for port infrastructure in a climate bond measure that will be on the November ballot.

Another pressing challenge is transmission — the complex job of getting the power onshore and distributing it to users. The Humboldt area presents the biggest challenge, the report says, given the rural region’s already sparse transmission network.

Capturing wind energy from giant floating ocean platforms is considered essential to achieving California’s ambitious goal of electrifying its grid with 100% zero-carbon energy. The state’s blueprint envisions offshore wind farms producing 25 gigawatts by 2045, powering 25 million homes and providing about 13% of California’s electricity.

Powering an expansive economy free of fossil fuels by 2045 means the state must triple its power generation capacity and deploy new solar and wind energy at almost five times the pace of the past decade.

The endeavor will require coordination with multiple state and federal agencies, as well as local and tribal governments, with overlapping jurisdictions and sometimes conflicting priorities.

That heavy lift, said Adam Stern, executive director of Offshore Wind California, an industry group, made it all the more remarkable that the strategic plan was finalized.

“This is tangible progress. It’s a remarkable record of intent and determination,” he said. “None of these things was happening a year ago. The plan mobilized the ecosystem of state agencies, industry, organized labor, environmental groups and tribes. There are lots of challenges ahead, but this is a great start.”

The plan “is tangible progress. It’s a remarkable record of intent and determination. None of these things was happening a year ago.”
— Adam Stern, Offshore Wind California

The Energy Commission missed its March deadline included in state law to approve the plan. Then the agency postponed a scheduled vote two weeks ago to give interested parties enough time to digest the dense package of documents.

The shipping industry is concerned that the plan doesn’t “address and ensure navigational safety and efficiency” for the commercial ships that serve California’s seaports. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the nation’s busiest.

“The plan lacks any effective identification and analysis of potential impacts to the commercial shipping industry,” the Pacific Marine Shipping Association wrote in a letter to the Energy Commission. “It is frankly confounding that there is resistance to include the maritime industry in this vital Plan; to be clear, the industry is not opposed to offshore wind development in practice.”

Environmental groups scoured the documents for answers to what have been unanswerable questions about offshore wind’s potential effects on marine life, migrating whales and birds, and the onshore environment.

Even state scientists have publicly noted a “data gap” when it came to understanding the impact of platforms in the sea, electrified underwater cables, huge spinning blades and increased boat traffic.

To answer those questions, the commission’s plan calls for a broad-based science consortium and a bird and bat conservation strategy, among other topics. Recreational and commercial fishing will be affected, the report says, and that will require continued research, officials say.

Some environmental groups have come to terms with the uneasy tradeoff between the need to address climate change with cleaner energy and the potential harmful impacts that come with any energy development.

Understanding that climate change is contributing to the rapid decline of bird populations means accepting some development, said Mike Lynes, director of public policy for Audubon California. “We want these projects to be successful. But we want to avoid impacts first and mitigate where we can.”

Dan Jacobson, senior adviser to the advocacy group Environment California, said he is becoming comfortable with the unknowns. “But we can’t slow down on the science and information that we need. We have to do things quickly, inexpensively and very smartly. You usually get two out of three of those things. How do we do this so that we cause the least harm and get the most good out of it?”

Assemblymember Dawn Addis, whose district includes 200 miles of the Central Coast, said it is clear to her that her constituents don’t have enough information to understand the implications of the new industry. Her 2023 bill to fund offshore wind scientific research was folded into the budget, with $3.6 million going to the state Ocean Protection Council to organize the research effort.

“Everyone’s hungry to understand the science,” said Addis, a Democrat from San Luis Obispo. “There’s still work to do to get that science into the world. This is a tremendous opportunity to study the deep ocean.”

Addis, who chairs the Legislature’s select committee on offshore wind energy, said lawmakers will analyze the strategic plan and “uncover needs that we just don’t know about yet. Getting this right is not just a slogan for me.”

Generally, the plan acknowledges environmental impacts but says that so-called “adaptive management” — flexibility to change an approach if it proves unexpectedly damaging — can address most concerns.

The projects will industrialize sections of the California coast with an indelible footprint, and could usher employment and revitalized economies to neglected regions. Nearly a fifth of Humboldt County households live in poverty.

Community groups and tribes along the North Coast, in particular, have been participating in formulating the state’s strategic plan to make sure that wind development doesn’t follow the boom-and-bust cycle of so many extractive industries, such as mining and timber. that have come and gone from the Humboldt region.

“We need to be part of the decision-making structure, to make sure that this industry delivers local community protection and investment, through legally binding and enforceable mechanism,” said Katerina Oskarsson, the executive-in-residence at CORE Hub and the Humboldt Area Foundation, part of a coalition of community groups and tribes.

“If this industry moves forward, host communities need to benefit.This is not just about jobs and economic benefit. It’s about justice beyond jobs. This needs to be transformational in a meaningful way,” she said.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.