Hi, I've been trying to follow the homeless encampment situation outside of HQ at 2260 Apollo, sometimes I have to go to the datacenter where the company I help spends thousands of dollars per month on private colocation services, and over the past several months I have had a really difficult time feeling safe going in to respond to Enterprise IT needs at night, which is my job. I've had to deal with no parking anywhere near the entrance and then walking at night with mace and a flashlight and box cutter, because that's all we can really have here in California, avoid campfires in the street, drug and alcohol activity, the smell of stench, trash, etc. I understand there are real concerns in Sonoma County regarding homelessness and displaced fire victims but I really don't think enough is being done to protect your handful of Enterprise colocation customers, and I'm not willing to talk about this with a sales rep. or anything like that, I've complained to my employer and I'll probably just get another job if I have to keep working under these conditions. I had a difficult time even explaining to my employer how bad it has been there so I've advised him to routinely check on the situation himself when he is in town. I think it would be appreciated if the lighting was improved and perhaps there should be some security at least in the area where Enterprise customers have to go to access their IT assets in your facility? I feel bad for employees that have to deal with that every day I have had a few near breakdowns just trying to get there and do my job.
The homeless encampment situation is clearly awful. For those interested, see news coverage in the Press Democrat, here:
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/8709 ... v-homeless
Sonic currently has overnight security on patrol outside our facility. I’d encourage you to park in our lot at the first entrance, near the walk-through gate to the collocation entrance.
I’m hopeful that Santa Rosa city leaders meet their commitment to resolve the situation by mid September. I’m optimistic, we have seen nearly half of the encamped homeless depart over the last couple weeks, since Santa Rosa provided them notice of the upcoming clearing of the encampment. We’ve also seen a number of vehicles and RVs towed, also good signs.
I’m sorry that you are dealing with this. It’s been a huge impact on our staff as well, and all of the people who work in the business park. We are eager to see the City place these folks in shelter, RV parks, and hotels, and that is progressing.