Homeless advocates protest Turlock shelter's last day

Students, others press council to change minds about closing Monday

By MICHAEL R. SHEA
mshea@modbee.com

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TURLOCK — With homemade signs and heart-shaped buttons, more than 150 people gathered outside City Hall on Tuesday night to protest next week's closing of the cold weather emergency homeless shelter.

Earlier this month, Vice Mayor Kurt Vander Weide, Councilmen Ted Howze and Kurt Spycher voted against extending the B Street shelter in downtown by 30 days, citing reasons of political ideology and the weather. The shelter's last night will be Monday.

Homeless people, homeless service providers such as shelter employees, and college students made up the bulk of the protesters. Signs ranged from "April is the Wettest Month of the Year" to "Build a Permanent Shelter" to one homeless man who carried a cardboard box with black magic marker on the side that read, "Without a Shelter This Box Represents My Home."

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Homelessness: continuing coverage
AREA SHELTERS

COLD WEATHER
- Modesto Salvation Army Address: Warehouse at Ninth and D streets
  Hours: 6 p.m. to 7 a.m.
  Capacity: 105 beds
  Open: Oct. 1 to April 30
  Phone: 525-8954
- Turlock Emergency Shelter Address: 400 B St.
  
  Hours: 5:30 p.m. to 9 a.m.
  Capacity: 60 beds Open: Dec. 1 to March 31
  Phone: 484-1768
- Sierra Presbyterian Church Address: 3603 M St., Merced
  
  Hours: 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
  Capacity: 65 beds
  Open: Dec. 7 through April 15 (tentative)
  Phone: Candice Adam-Medefind, 723-1872
  - YEAR-ROUND Modesto Gospel Mission Address: 1400 Yosemite Blvd., Modesto
    
    Hours: 6 p.m. to breakfast for single adults; people with children can stay around the clock
    Capacity: 250 beds
    Phone: 529-8259
THE BUDGET PICTURE

Despite a depressed economic outlook statewide and nationally, Turlock is in good fiscal shape, city staff reported to the City Council on Tuesday. The city is collecting money faster than last year and is spending it more slowly. City dollars and budgeting were discussed as part of the midyear budget review process. Sales tax revenue, which makes up most of the city's general fund, is rolling in as expected, said City Manager Tim Kerr. He expects to see $8.7 million in sales taxes in city coffers by July. Building and engineering revenues have taken a hit because of the housing crunch -- money generated on building fees, permits and the like. Those dollars, almost exclusively, fund the building and engineering departments, which are operating at a combined $1.3 million deficit. Councilmen Ted Howze asked staff to break out proposed department cuts -- what would go if 5 percent, 7.5 percent, 10 percent needs to be slashed from the bottom line. "But that doesn't mean we're going to make any cuts," Howze said. The Police Department is hoping for an extra $100,000 for a mobile command unit that can act as a communications system backup. -- MICHAEL R. SHEA

"We live in the wealthiest country on the planet," said Steven Filling, an accounting professor at California State University, Stanislaus. "We routinely pay $60,000 a year to keep a single person in prison. It costs a lot less than $60,000 to keep the shelter open another month. So I have a big problem with the economic efficiency of criminalizing homelessness."

The university's Sociology Club and Hunger Network brought several students, and a handful of churches were represented.

"The homeless don't have a voice, so we want to be that voice for them," said Sociology Club president Ally Bronner, holding a sign with three friends.

The shelter, which is funded with city redevelopment money, opened Nov. 20 and serves to keep homeless people protected during the valley's coldest and wettest months. The council had considered opening the shelter early, on Nov. 1, but decided not to because, according to Councilman Spycher, it wasn't cold enough. Spycher echoed that comment earlier this month when homeless supporters asked for the April extension.

It costs $207,000 to keep it open from November through April. From December through March, it's $161,000.

Tuesday, Spycher said he's being "consistent with prior years." The shelter was open through April last year, but not in the 2005-06 season or for two years when it was at Zion Worship Center, near Highway 99.

The Salvation Army in Modesto runs its cold weather shelter through April; the Modesto Gospel Mission runs year-round. Merced's emergency shelter, run through Sierra Presbyterian Church, stays open until the middle of April.

The regular Tuesday night City Council meeting didn't have anything homeless-related on the agenda, but with more than 20 people addressing the shelter closure during public comments, the issue dominated the night. The city was prepared for the crowd -- overflow seating was set up.

"You see all these people here supporting us," said a homeless woman, Donna Lofton, waving her hand across the standing-room-only crowd. "Could they all be wrong?"

Turlock resident Mary Jackson, who ran for City Council and lost in 2006, quoted Police Chief Gary Hampton, who said a shelter reduces nuisance calls to the department and minimizes expensive emergency room visits that can be a financial burden for hospitals.

Closing the shelter, Jackson said, "is not a fiscally conservative position. It is fiscally irresponsible."

Many called for the council to reconsider the extension and to reopen the B Street shelter next year. A majority of the council has publicly said they won't approve the shelter at all next season.

Mayor John Lazar said the council could not take action Tuesday, because the homeless issue was not on the meeting agenda. During a period reserved for council comments, the council was silent.

Before the meeting, asked if he'd reconsider keeping the shelter open through April, Spycher refused to comment. After the meeting, Howze said he'll never vote to reopen B Street. He will support a permanent shelter in a different location, he said.

Vice Mayor Vander Weide, who has said the city shouldn't be in the shelter business, was on vacation.

Bee staff writer Michael R. Shea can be reached at mshea@modbee.com or 578-2391.