Turlock shelter closes, homeless adrift

By MICHAEL R. SHEA
mshea@modbee.com

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TURLOCK -- Eight months pregnant, knees scuffed and dizzy, Victoria Mayfield, 26, rolled up a few blankets and trudged into the street Tuesday morning.

The cold weather emergency shelter at 400 B St. -- the only shelter in Turlock -- closed Tuesday. Plans for an apartment fell through last week, and as Tuesday evening stretched toward Wednesday, Victoria and her new husband, Randy Mayfield, 46, expected a night in the cold -- camping, most likely, on a slab of pavement near Foster Farms in the industrial southern end of town. Perhaps, if they could find a good price, a motel room.

They weren't the only couple calling motels. More than 60 people who thought of the shelter as home were talking about what to do and where to go Tuesday morning. Nine hours later, at a much-anticipated meeting, the City Council was talking about homelessness, too.

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Victoria was at the meeting, until she walked out holding her belly, her face tense, wincing in pain.

Since 2006, homelessness has been the most divisive issue in Turlock. Shouting matches, rivalries, college studies, promises, protests and numerous delays have come to define the issue. The City Council sought to cut through all that Tuesday and formulated some goals to do it:

400 B St. is not a suitable location for an emergency shelter because of effects on area businesses.

There must be some kind of emergency cold weather shelter available for homeless next year, even if it's temporary.

That emergency shelter must be a community collaborative.

The city will move forward in crafting a long-term homeless plan, such as a 10-year plan to end homelessness, with the help of the Center for Public Policy at California State University, Stanislaus.

City Manager Tim Kerr suggested selling the B Street warehouse, which has sheltered the homeless for four years, and using the money to come up with an immediate solution. Speed, he said, is of the essence.

Speed, the council agreed, is key.

"B Street has run its course, in that location," said Vice Mayor Kurt Vander Weide, adding that the city was obligated to have some form of emergency shelter up and running this winter.

Many expressed support for a new location. Business owners near B Street calculated costs of litter and other cleanup related to vagrants at hundreds of thousand of dollars annually. Others questioned the wisdom of saying the location definitely will not be used again because of the difficulty in finding and establishing a new shelter, even a temporary one, in eight or nine months.

Everyone agreed that something must be done and fast.

"We can't wait any longer," said Steven Baccus, co-owner of On Broadway with Two Guys, a catering business kitty-cornered from a popular homeless hang-out. "I say that for the homeless people, the business, the Police Department and the (emergency room). Everyone says, 'Not in my neighborhood.' It happens everywhere, so we need to get on it now."

Construction of a permanent shelter at the B Street site was stopped in 2006 when downtown clergy and business protested the location. California State University, Stanislaus, was hired to conduct a $70,000 study on community opinion on the issue, which was released last fall.

The study recommends creating grass-roots committees of the homeless, homeless service providers, businesses and residents to draft a long-term approach for moving people off the streets and into homes. The council unofficially endorsed that plan Tuesday. A formal vote is expected at an upcoming meeting.