Union Pacific clears Turlock homeless camps along railroad. Where will people go now?
Union Pacific Railroad removed Turlock homeless camps along train tracks over the past week, clearing an area for safety reasons where tents lined the street.
Crews on Tuesday cleared tents, blankets and other belongings near the intersection of South First and D streets, prompting one homeless woman to ask where her friends are supposed to go now.
MaryJo Thompson, who lives in her truck in Turlock, said she gets lonely and often visits friends who stayed by those train tracks. As she helped move a friend’s belongings out of the eviction zone Tuesday morning, Thompson said many homeless shelters are not an option for people who want to stay with their pets or partners. Her friends must find a new place to live and once they do, Thompson said crews will likely tear down their tents again.
“I sat here and cried because it ripped my freaking heart out to watch these people get their homes torn apart,” Thompson said. “It may just look like garbage, but it’s not just garbage. It means something to them and they don’t have a house to put it in, so this is the next best thing.”
Turlock Gospel Mission Executive Director Christian Curby estimated 50 people lived in the areas crews cleared. Union Pacific conducted the sweeps along its right of way at the City of Turlock’s request, railroad spokesman Tim McMahan said.
But Maryn Pitt, assistant to the Turlock city manager for housing and economic development, said the city did not request the sweeps on Union Pacific’s private property and was not aware when the removal would occur. The Turlock Police Department sent officers to the sweeps only to help keep the peace, spokesman Sgt. Michael Parmley said.
“While we have compassion for individuals who lack permanent housing, safety remains our highest priority,” McMahan said in an email. “Trespassing on railroad property is dangerous for the homeless, the public, as well as Union Pacific employees.”
Curby and Pitt both described another Union Pacific sweep along the Golden State corridor around this past Friday. The homeless encampment of trailers and motor homes by those train tracks raised health concerns, Pitt said in an email, because people dumped human excrement in the right of way.
What happens after homeless sweeps?
Reducing the size of or eliminating homeless camps, Curby said, is a safe move forward for unsheltered people living in them and overall community health. People living close to each other without resources such as running water poses public health risks, Curby said. But he raised concerns similar to Thompson’s, asking what happens next for people the sweeps displace.
“The big questions are going to continue to remain,” Curby said Tuesday. “Do we have the right amount of (homeless) services, do we have the right kind of services, and what is the motivation for people to seek those services? That’s the thing we’re all sort of left wresting with today and obviously we’re hoping the city is wrestling with those questions as well.”
After all, Curby said some people live on Turlock streets because they decide not to or are ineligible to use services available in the city. For example, a father with children has few options if he wants to keep the family together in a homeless shelter, Curby said.
The mission’s overnight emergency shelter only accepts women and their children, if boys are age 10 and under. Meanwhile, the We Care Program provides shelter for homeless men. Family Promise provides some transitional housing in Turlock for families, including a house on Springville Way per a September 2020 agreement with the city, but its facilities are limited.
If the mission receives a grant it applied for from Stanislaus County, Curby said the nonprofit will be able to provide more options for fathers and their children. But those proposed services are not available now. People living on Union Pacific’s right of way along South First Street received a 72-hour notice, McMahan said.
The city previously asked Union Pacific to delay homeless camp sweeps in March 2020 that were originally scheduled to begin days after Gov . Gavin Newsom issued the first stay-at-home order for the coronavirus pandemic. Union Pacific agreed to delay the sweep back then, but Pitt said the city had no reason to ask the railroad to delay the recent removals because Turlock officials did not know when they would occur.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, there were an earnest attempt to ‘bend the curve’ and prevent further infection,” Pitt said in an email. “Given where we are now at a year into the pandemic, other health and safety issues are balanced with COVID infection spread.”
The city does not provide social services for homelessness, Pitt added, saying it is the county’s responsibility. The county outreach and engagement team visits homeless camps in Turlock weekly and offers services, Pitt said. To her knowledge, she said Union Pacific did not ask the county or city to send outreach workers to South First Street before the sweep.
Meanwhile, McMahan said Union Pacific did the sweeps after the city contacted the railroad about the property’s condition. Union Pacific does not have any additional homeless camp removals scheduled in Turlock, McMahan said.
