Modesto police have plan to combat illegal camping when outdoor shelter closes
Modesto police have started rolling out a plan to handle the potential increase in illegal camping — including in parks and downtown — and other violations of city ordinances in response to the impending closure of the Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter.
The outdoor shelter — a tent city of about 450 homeless people underneath the Ninth Street Bridge in Tuolumne River Regional Park — is expected to close Dec. 11, Assistant Police Chief Brandon Gillespie said in an interview last week.
The city opened the outdoor shelter in February as a temporary solution until more shelter beds and services came online. A big piece of that is the opening last week of a 182-bed shelter with services at The Salvation Army’s Berberian Center near downtown.
Stanislaus County, Modesto and The Salvation Army are partners in the new low-barrier shelter, which takes partners, pets and possessions. There are other projects coming online as well that will provide more shelter and housing.
Outreach workers have been helping outdoor shelter residents find places to go. City and county officials have said that between the new projects and existing housing and shelter, there is a bed for everyone at the outdoor shelter who wants one.
But some homeless advocates are skeptical about whether that is true. They and some homeless people also have said that not all of the outdoor shelter residents will want to move into a brick-and-mortar shelter or housing.
For instance, they have said living in a shelter could trigger anxiety attacks. Some homeless people have said they won’t go if it means giving up their dogs. (The new 182-bed shelter has space for about 50 pets.) Officials expect that some homeless people won’t go to shelter or housing, at least not initially, and are preparing for that.
The Police Department’s plan focuses resources on downtown and nearby parks, as well as areas that become hot spots for people being drunk in public or relieving themselves in public, illegal camping and other bad behavior that officials call vagrancy.
For instance, Gillespie said several of the department’s police cadets will be assigned to focus on vagrancy in the downtown business district, in parks and along the trails that can be home to illegal camps.
And the crime reduction team will be split into two units to provide coverage during the day and evening. The team is made of up a sergeant and eight officers and will respond to areas that become hot spots for vagrancy, according to Gillespie.
He added that the Homeless Engagement and Response Team will focus mainly on the downtown business district and nearby parks.
Gillespie said the Police Department will continue to use existing resources to address vagrancy, including the two officers assigned to downtown and the roughly dozen bicycle officers, who patrol such areas as downtown and the Virginia Corridor.
He said this is not about criminalizing homelessness, and officers will make every effort to connect people to services and shelter. But he said the police serve the entire community and there needs to be accountability for those homeless people who refuse help and through their bad behavior create problems for others.
Modesto opened the tent city in response to a September 2018 federal court ruling that said it is cruel and unusual punishment to prosecute people for sleeping in parks and other public property when they don’t have a choice because there are no available beds in a shelter.
The ruling was in a lawsuit involving Boise, Idaho, but applies to several Western states, including California.
Gillespie said officers will have an inventory of available shelter, and if there are no beds available, then they will not cite or arrest people sleeping in parks and other public property after hours. He said police will rely mainly on the new 182-bed shelter, and five beds have been set aside for police to place people there, but he said the police will have other options that comply with the court ruling.
The ruling did put restrictions on what constitutes available shelter. So the Modesto Gospel Mission, with its required religious services, is not available shelter for a homeless person who is not a Christian. Gillespie said officers know that but can offer the mission as an alternative if someone wants it.
This story was originally published December 2, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
