Modesto meeting on homelessness, city parks

Modesto officials are inviting the public to a Wednesday meeting to talk about the homeless and city parks as the city receives more complaints about the homeless who camp in parks as well as use drugs and engage in other bad behavior.

The meeting will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Modesto Senior Citizens Center at 211 Bodem St. Mayor Garrad Marsh and Councilmen Tony Madrigal and John Gunderson as well as City Manager Jim Holgersson are expected to attend.

“We know the community is demanding their parks back, and we want to work with the community,” city spokeswoman Amy Vickery said. “We want safe, clean neighborhood parks.”

She added this is not an effort to criminalize homelessness or stigmatize the homeless. The focus is on behavior that breaks the law, such as using drugs, and other actions that make the parks less inviting, such as people urinating and defecating in public or leaving used hypodermic needles in park bathrooms, where parents and their children find them.

Modesto officials report seeing more homeless people in the city and are receiving more complaints about the homeless in parks, panhandling and vagrancy. The city has started a homeless task force to find solutions and is looking at adding more restrictions on where people can panhandle and an ordinance that would regulate how churches, nonprofits and others feed people in parks.

City officials say the ordinance comes as residents complain that feeding people in parks can create litter and the parks can become a magnet for the homeless.

Vickery said the city has invited organizations that help the homeless, such as the Gospel Mission, the Salvation Army and the United Samaritans Foundation, to Wednesday’s meeting. She said Ruben Imperial with the Stanislaus County Chief Executive Office will be there to talk about the county’s Focus on Prevention effort, which aims to find permanent solutions to homelessness. As part of that effort, there will be an Oct. 1 summit on homelessness at Modesto Centre Plaza.

Solutions cannot come fast enough for one man who has lived near Enslen Park for the past decade. He asked that his name not be used but said that the homeless have always been part of the park, but in the past year there are more of them and more problems with drinking and drug use and thefts from homes.

“This has been pretty much a frustrating year,” he said.

Another man who lives near the park and also asked that his name not be used said recently his daughter’s cross-country team held a jog-a-thon and potluck fundraiser at Enslen Park. He said homeless people who had been drinking tried to crash the event and lined up for the food, saying it was their constitutional right to do so. He said he also has been assaulted two times while out walking.

But Justina Sanders, 44, considers Enslen and nearby Graceada parks her home. She said she came to Modesto as a teenager with her family and has been homeless for the past decade. She said she gets about $800 a month from Social Security because she has a mental health disability.

She also said she is hooked on methamphetamine.

“I’ve tried my darnedest,” she said about her efforts to become drug-free. “It doesn’t help being out here.”

Sanders said she and the other homeless in Enslen Park try to be good neighbors and coexist with other park users. She said while some people treat the homeless with respect, others look down on them.

“They open their windows (of their homes) and they don’t want to see dingy people,” she said. “We are not dingy people.”

This story was originally published September 19, 2015 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Modesto meeting on homelessness, city parks."