Community meeting about Jesus Cares 2020 Community Kitchen

The city of Santa Rosa has called a community meeting in the Cypress Room at the Finley Community Center to address growing concern Jesus Cares 2020 Community Kitchen at 610 Wilson St. in Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square and West End neighborhoods. Some neighboring businesses and residents around the kitchen have been complaining to the city officials and council members about what they say is an increase in loitering, harassment and littering by homeless/unhoused people in the blocks around the facility since meal service resumed Oct. 1, 2025. St. Vincent de Paul Society of Sonoma County had operated the soup kitchen for several decades in that location but closed the facility on March 10, 2024.

Jesus Cares 2020 Ministries, which had been operating the soup kitchen for St. Vincent de Paul since 2021, worked to secure a new conditional use permit to reopen the kitchen. The city in January 2025 approved the permit under an emergency order for downtown homelessness. The permit expires on Dec. 31, 2026, with no allowance for renewal. Because the current zoning no longer allows for a soup kitchen in that location, a zoning change and other significant government action would be required for the city to issue a new use permit.

Also set to attend the meeting are officials from Redwood Gospel Mission, whose men’s shelter and soup kitchen is two blocks south, and Catholic Charities, whose Caritas Center shelter and forthcoming kitchen is three blocks east of the mission. Homelessness has been a challenge for many urban areas for decades, including downtown Santa Rosa.

Hallel Fellowship has been supporting Jesus Cares 2020 Ministries with volunteers and other backing for several years. We ask congregations in the Santa Rosa area to come out to this event and pray for the Spirit of peace, wisdom, understanding and reconciliation to surround this gathering, speaking to the hearts of all who attend and are involved with this issue.