It’s a dirty job, but new downtown Modesto ‘ambassadors’ glad to do it

Employees of the Downtown Modesto Partnership see things most of the rest of us don’t – and wouldn’t want to.

Between the launch of the new “downtown ambassadors” crew in early August and Nov. 30, for example, workers picked up 41,557 pounds of trash. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

If only it were ice, or even just trash. Unfortunately, what they clean up is often far worse.

Vomit, urine, feces, syringes, condoms – all in a day’s work for the six ambassadors doing cleanup and assisting downtown visitors and business and property owners.

Tom Volz is one of the ambassadors who primarily does cleanup. Others focus on assisting visitors and business/property owners but pitch in on cleanup. To document for the board of the nonprofit DoMo Partnership the work that’s being done, Volz takes before-and-after photos on his phone. He’s taken pictures of hypodermic needles being put into a sharps box, of graffiti removed from windows and walls, of a trash pile he swept up at the transit center, including hundreds – if not more – of cigarette butts.

But the pictures don’t always tell the full story. After sweeping up the trash pile, for example, but before putting it into a can, several homeless men wanted to sort through it for smokable butts.

Speaking on the job last week, Volz shared another account. “Today, a guy seen I was doing such a good job, he just threw down a whole bag of trash. I said, ‘Dude, why? Why would you do that?’ And then he cleaned it up.”

As he’s become familiar with groups of the homeless downtown, Volz said, some people are making the effort to at least drop their trash in the can on his push cart as he approaches.

“There are different homeless populations downtown,” noted Josh Bridegroom, CEO of the nonprofit DoMo Partnership. “Most are nice, but there’s definitely a criminal element and an abusive element.

“One lady about two months ago realized these guys were doing cleanup work. She said, ‘Hey, you guys clean up human s---, right?’ ” She gestured to a nearby area where she’d just defecated, Bridegroom said, and said, “ ‘Why don’t you go pick it up?’ Just kind of taunting them.”

Fortunately, such people are the minority among the homeless downtown, he said. If all the homeless were using the outdoors as their bathroom, and not the public facilities at places like the library, transit center and city/county government building, the cleanup crews would be overwhelmed, Bridegroom said.

He also noted that the downtown trash problem can’t be placed entirely on the homeless. DoMo ambassador John Cunningham said he’s often seen people toss trash toward a can, miss it (and realize it) and not bother to pick it up.

A shortage of cans also has contributed to the problem, Bridegroom said. “There are places down here where you can walk two or three blocks and not find a trash can, and people get tired of carrying it and just throw it in the bushes,” he said.

DoMo recently bought 72 new trash receptacles and is going to distribute them all around the downtown core, three per block, he said. Some of the older, concrete receptacles will be relocated to the downtown periphery.

The ambassadors, who work each day but Sunday, are easy to spot in brightly colored shirts, jackets and caps that bear the DoMo logo. Beyond cleanup, Cunningham said, their jobs include everything from directing the homeless to resources – they carry the same community referrals pamphlet as police – to helping business owners set up outdoor dining furniture or displays, to assisting visitors in a variety of ways, to providing a security presence.

They’re not security guards, Bridegroom said, but they got some training from the Modesto Police Department on how to effectively interact, observe and report. They’ve also received training from the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, whose program Modesto’s mirrors.

Cunningham shared one recent encounter, in which a woman came out of an I Street restaurant, was looking around as though confused, and was walking in a way that suggested she was tipsy. It was 7:30 p.m., dark, and a homeless man known to the ambassadors quickly approached her and began to direct her the wrong way.

“I asked (the woman), ‘How are you doing?’ He said, ‘Her car’s over here this way,’ and tried to direct her down an alley, maybe to rob her. Anything can happen,” Cunningham said. “I took her keys and helped her find her car, which was four blocks away.”

Not knowing whether her behavior was from being rattled over being unable to find her car or from having a bit too much to drink, Cunningham said he had the woman wait 30 to 45 minutes before driving.

“We’ve had a lot of people tell us they feel safer just seeing these guys walking around,” Bridegroom said.

DoMo workers determining if someone is in need or identifying signs of trouble and contacting officers right away is a benefit to the police and citizens, said Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves.

In addition to DoMo’s cleanup and beautification work, the ambassadors’ presence “is a big bonus. They’re extra sets of eyes and ears out there for us. ... That’s a big thing for us. We promote getting involved whether it’s Neighborhood Watch or things like this.”

This story was originally published December 15, 2016 at 10:33 AM with the headline "It’s a dirty job, but new downtown Modesto ‘ambassadors’ glad to do it."