Benicia proceeds with SafeQuest Solano housing project, despite controversy

BENICIA – The Benicia City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to proceed with a plan to sell city-owned property to the nonprofit SafeQuest Solano to open new transitional housing for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking, despite recent allegations that SafeQuest has misused public resources.

The council’s vote followed an emotional public hearing where proponents of the organization read statements from survivors who had been assisted by SafeQuest and one woman gave an account of leaving an abusive marriage and staying with her children in a safe house operated by SafeQuest for three weeks.

But members of the city council sidestepped allegations made by former employees that SafeQuest’s shelters went largely unused for months and that an attorney for the organization lived in a shelter rented from the city of Fairfield for $1 per year. The allegations, reported by the Vallejo Sun in June, have spurred calls for an investigation and led to eroding support for the organization.

Each councilmember reported during the meeting that they met with SafeQuest executive director Mary Anne Branch privately to address concerns. But the councilmembers did not ask for a public explanation. Branch and SafeQuest have declined to answer questions from the Vallejo Sun, both before and after publication of the June investigation.

Councilmember Kari Birdseye defended SafeQuest, saying that usage statistics provided to her ahead of the meeting were “really impressive.” She said that in the last year, SafeQuest have sheltered 119 people, fielded nearly 1,000 crisis calls, provided peer counseling to 1,000 people, and transportation to over 200 people, as well as providing assistance in court, food and help finding permanent housing. 

“I think that’s a lot of good work that the city of Benicia wants to get behind,” Birdseye said.

SafeQuests operates two shelters in Solano County, one rented from the city of Fairfield and another house it rents in Vallejo. The statistics provided to Birdseye indicate that it has averaged 144 shelter stays per month over the last year across both shelters. 

But last year, when Fairfield city officials were considering whether to renew SafeQuest’s lease, emails show that city officials found similar usage statistics were below their expectations. 

In the first three months of 2022, SafeQuest told Fairfield officials that there had been an average of 124 shelter stays per month. Fairfield officials said that was only about one third capacity, and asked SafeQuest officials for a plan to increase capacity.

Still, the usage statistics provided by SafeQuest were up from 2021, when only 11 people stayed in a SafeQuest shelter between January and November, according to metrics provided to Fairfield.

In an interview after the meeting, Birdseye said that the council had looked into other potential partners to operate the transitional housing, but no other organizations are as well established to provide domestic violence services in Solano County as SafeQuest, which receives substantial funding from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. 

She said that SafeQuest is partnering with another nonprofit, House of Hope, which will help operate the housing and ensure that any previous problems won’t recur in Benicia.

"The services they're providing on a larger scale are important to our county,” Birdseye said. "That's what made me want to move in this direction. There's still hearings to be had, there's still questions to be asked."

The lack of other providers is a reason why the city of Fairfield has yet to move on from SafeQuest. Following the publication of the Vallejo Sun’s article, Fairfield issued a request for proposals to find a new provider for its safe house. But the city received only one applicant, SafeQuest, according to Fairfield Mayor Cat Moy. SafeQuest remains in the property on a month-to-month lease.

The Benicia City Council first approved the transitional housing project last year, when it allocated nearly $300,000 in funds from the state Permanent Local Housing Allocation Program. The project would convert two city-owned buildings with approximately 3,100 square feet of space into temporary shelter for victims of domestic violence, human trafficking or sexual assault.

On Tuesday, the council voted on whether the project qualified as an agency use under the Surplus Lands Act, so that the city would not have to consider another buyer, and then to adopt a written program for transitional housing. City staff said that the next step will be to create a formal agreement for SafeQuest to purchase the property.

Benicia Mayor Steve Young raised concerns with what he called an “aggressive” construction schedule to complete renovations in six months. When SafeQuest revealed that it still had to raise funds to complete the project, it raised further doubts whether the organization could keep that timeline.

SafeQuest was buoyed by several supportive speakers, such as former Benicia City Attorney Heather McLaughlin, who is a board member of the Soroptimist International of Benicia organization, which has agreed to help SafeQuest with fundraising. McLaughlin submitted a funding proposal for the transitional housing project last year. 

Some current and former SafeQuest board members read statements sent by people who had used SafeQuest’s services and were grateful for the help they received. “I am writing to express my deep appreciation and gratitude for the invaluable support that SafeQuest Solano has played,” one unidentified woman said in a letter read by SafeQuest board member Jacqueline Crawford. “The shelter provided us with the tools and resources to rebuild our lives.” 

Another woman told her story of marrying her high school boyfriend and having an externally “perfect life,” but said that she lived like a prisoner from persistent physical, mental and sexual abuse. She said that the abuse was “debilitating” and she was “trapped,” particularly after her husband took control of her finances. She said when she finally contacted SafeQuest to escape,  Branch held her hand as she cried. 

She said she lived in a SafeQuest shelter for three weeks before she could move into a new permanent home, and SafeQuest continued helping her after that. 

The woman referenced the Vallejo Sun’s reporting, and asked the council to disregard it and take her as the “face” of SafeQuest. "I would ask that you set aside whatever you may have heard,” she said. "My family is the reason SafeQuest should exist."

But another woman who called into the meeting said that she felt she was mistreated during a stay with SafeQuest in August. Crystal Hollander, who reached out to the Vallejo Sun last week, said that she stayed at the Fairfield safe house for one night before she was asked to leave “to make space for someone who was actually being abused.”

She said that she was also disturbed that SafeQuest gave her the address of the Fairfield safe house in a text message, which she said was a security concern for others who may stay at the property, and that she was not offered any food. She said that she begged to stay. Later, a SafeQuest employee said that she was ensuring that Hollander was a “good fit” for the program. 

“I'm deeply disappointed in my experience and I'd like to know how SafeQuest would make this right,” Hollander said. 

Court records show that Hollander had obtained a temporary domestic violence restraining order. Hollander provided text messages that corroborate that she stayed at the safe house, that the safe house address was provided in a text message, that she was asked to leave early, and which show the SafeQuest employee questioning whether she was a “good fit.” 

Branch said during the meeting that she could not speak about Hollander’s concerns because of privacy issues, but that SafeQuest has a grievance procedure. She said that she returns all the phone calls she receives and can’t help it if the other person doesn’t pick up or call back.

Hollander told the Vallejo Sun that she reached out to Branch multiple times and Branch hasn’t called her back.