Rangers reach out to homeless in Modesto parks as outreach workers provide services
Modesto park rangers Justin Rocha and Ivonne Salamanca have been keeping an eye on the city’s parks and trails since early July, issuing citations for illegal camping, asking people who are in parks after hours to leave, and connecting homeless people to services.
Rocha, 21, and Salamanca, 23, are Modesto’s first rangers in a new pilot program. The Police Department expected to start training the program’s third ranger last week and is recruiting for a fourth ranger. The city has set aside about $1.25 million from its federal pandemic relief funding to operate the program for three years.
The rangers work closely with police officers and the Police Department’s Community Health and Assistance Team. CHAT outreach workers try to establish relationships with homeless people and get them to avail themselves of services.
The rangers don’t carry guns and cannot arrest anyone. They have pepper spray, handcuffs and police radios. They can write citations for minor offenses.
Sgt. Eric Schuller, who oversees the rangers, said Rocha and Salamanca issued 34 citations from July 7 through Sept. 4. Citations can be for such offenses as illegal camping, drinking in public and having a warming or cooking fire.
Schuller emphasized the rangers try to educate people about park rules and gain voluntary compliance before issuing a citation.
As the Police Department faces tighter budgets each year, the park ranger program fits in with its effort to use less expensive civilian workers to handle lower-level calls. That allows police officers to spend more time on higher-priority calls.
A Modesto Bee reporter and photographer shadowed Rocha on a recent Friday afternoon as he patrolled parks and responded to calls for service. Rocha and Salamanca initially were paired together but recently started working solo. They each work four 11-hour days followed by four days off. They provide 88 hours of coverage of the city’s parks and trails seven days a week.
Rocha’s afternoon included patrolling Tuolumne River Regional Park near the Modesto Airport. He encountered an encampment of several tents along the riverbank.
He spent about 45 minutes talking to the people there. That included Rocha telling one man he would cite him unless he removed his motorcycle from the park. (It was parked near the paved trail above the encampment. The man left on his motorcycle.) and talking with another man interested in going into a shelter. Rocha planned to return Monday with CHAT workers to help the man.
Rocha also posted a notice giving the occupants 72 hours to pack up and leave or face having the city remove the encampment. That did not faze Alan Sanchez, 51, who said he and his wife have been living at the encampment for about two months after someone else abandoned it.
Sanchez said he and his wife have been living along the Tuolumne River for about seven of the last eight years. He said authorities have posted 72-hour notices at their campsites about 20 times in those years. Sanchez said he and his wife simply move to another spot along the river.
“We’ll pack up and move ’cause we ain’t gonna let them throw our (stuff) away,” he said. “... We know the bottom line is the man in the suit wins.”
New court date issued
Sanchez said he and his wife don’t panhandle, keep their campsite tidy and make ends meet by recycling and working odd jobs. He said their encampment is open to anyone 60 or older who needs a safe place to sleep and something to eat.
Sanchez’s wife, who was growing impatient with him as he continued to talk because she needed to start dinner, said she feeds five to 10 people a day. She was cooking spaghetti Friday.
Rocha checked Sanchez for outstanding warrants and found an arrest warrant for missing a court date for an illegal camping citation. Rocha cited Sanchez for the warrant and issued him a new court date.
Rocha said 80% to 85% of the people he deals with are experiencing homelessness. He said about a third will accept services. He acknowledged it can be frustrating when people don’t want to change.
“... At the end of the day,” he said, “we are kind of chasing our tail, trying to go back and dealing with the same campers over and over.”
But Rocha said he hopes that it will change with the park rangers providing more of a law enforcement presence coupled with CHAT workers providing services.
“I don’t think one way is the solution to it,” he said. “You’ve got to have both. You can’t just have enforcement only. And you can’t just have services only. You’ve got to have that two-pronged approach.”
Rocha said he also has learned that he can’t go up to someone experiencing homelessness and believe he knows what the person needs to do. “You’ve got to kind of adapt how you are going to treat every person ... and see what solution, what option is best for them,” he said.
Modesto states on its website that it has 76 parks and 1,246 acres of parks and trails. That’s a lot of ground to cover. But Sgt. Schuller said the rangers have focused on James Marshall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Graceada and Enslen parks, as well as the section of the Tuolumne River Regional Park from Santa Cruz Avenue to the Mitchell Road bridge.
Schuller said that is because of the number of complaints and questionable activity at those locations.
The rangers also tell people with shopping carts they are violating a city ordinance. They are given a warning and bags for their possessions before the rangers take the carts. The rangers will cite someone for a second offense. They have an app in which they enter the names, photos and other information of the people they contact.
Posting campsites
Rocha picked up an an abandoned shopping cart at Downey Community Park on Friday and put it in the bed of his pickup truck. He would drop the cart of at the city’s corporation yard. The city would return the cart to its store.
Rocha also put a 72-hour notice on a pile of items being stored by a clump of trees in the park. He said a city crew would remove the items and throw them away if no one claimed them within the 72 hours.
Schuller said as of Sept. 4, the two rangers had posted 87 campsites with 72-hour notices. Campsites range from as small as a mattress with a tarp over it providing shelter for two people to an encampment that can accommodate 15 to 20 people.
Schuller said the rangers and CHAT workers ensure the people whose campsites are posted know about services. He added that rangers will not cite someone if there is not a shelter bed available for them.
That complies with a federal appeals court ruling that states it is not a crime for someone to sleep in a public park if there is not a bed in a shelter for them. Schuller said the rangers have an updated list of available shelter beds, and beds are available more often than not.
Rocha and Salamanca are former Modesto Police Department explorers and cadets. They both hope to become Modesto police officers one day.
Salamanca said in a phone interview that she wants to help homeless people. She said she does that by getting to know them and building trust with them. “Everyone in life makes bad decisions, goes down the wrong path,” she said, adding that does not mean they don’t need another chance.
Rocha said being a ranger allows him to learn more about the Police Department while taking on new responsibilities. He said being a ranger also fits in with his love of nature and being outdoors.
This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 6:30 AM.
