The Novato City Council has formed a new advisory committee tasked with overseeing the city’s efforts to address housing and homelessness issues.

The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to form the seven-member committee, with plans to open the recruitment period in December and appoint members in February.

The city was mandated to form the panel as part of a settlement in federal court earlier this year with the California Homeless Union. The organization had challenged the legality of the city’s anti-camping regulations passed in 2021 in response to a camp of homeless people at Lee Gerner Park.

City Manager Adam McGill said one of the first tasks the committee will have is developing criteria to determine who will be admitted to the city’s now-sanctioned camp at the park.

“Staff and our partners in the homeless union would really like to get this up and running as quickly as possible so we could identify the criteria and start getting people that are spread all over town in tents into the more supportive services of the camp at Lee Gerner Park,” McGill told the council on Tuesday.

All members of the committee must be Novato residents. Two of the seats must be reserved for California Homeless Union members. City staff, consultants and vendors are barred from seats on the committee.

San Rafael resident Jason Sarris, a former inhabitant of Lee Gerner Park and head of the union’s Novato chapter, said he intends to join.

He said there are vacancies at the camp because seven occupants have been housed since February and another five have been assigned county case workers. Both Sarris and McGill said the city and the California Homeless Union are working on interim criteria to begin finding new camp occupants before the committee is formed.

“The way it looks like, it won’t be up and running by springtime,” Sarris said of the committee. “There is an ability to give these people some safety and out of the weather and into the camp where there is some services and aid. I look forward to getting these camp members in soon.”

Mayor Pro Tem Susan Wernick raised concerns about the broad scope of the panel’s responsibilities. The responsibilities are to “provide information to the City Council regarding housing and homeless issues within the city.”

“They could bring up all kinds of issues,” said Wernick, noting that other agencies are already responsible for handling the housing element, for example.

In response, McGill said the settlement did not provide more specific language about the committee’s responsibilities. He said the California Homeless Union also felt it was important to include housing issues, given the link to homelessness issues.