Turlock plans to clear next homeless camp. How much has the city spent on crisis?
Turlock employees are preparing to clear a homeless encampment in northwest Turlock, but as of Friday have not set a date for the third sweep of the city’s 120-day emergency.
The city reported spending about $20,000 on cleanup crews for the previous two sweeps and estimated much of its nearly $500,000 emergency budget remains unused heading into the next sweep.
Turlock has yet to schedule the cleanup near Taylor Court, or Highway 99 and the railroad tracks between Taylor Road and Monte Vista Avenue, spokesperson Maryn Pitt said in an email Friday. The planning period for this sweep is taking longer because city, railroad, state and private property are involved, Interim Police Chief Steven Williams said at the last City Council meeting Tuesday.
The city began preparing for this cleanup on April 16, Williams said, which was two days after the city started clearing the encampment along West Glenwood Avenue off of Lander Avenue on the south side of town. Eighteen people live at the Taylor Court encampment as of Wednesday, Pitt said. For comparison, The Bee counted 30 people at the former Glenwood encampment and the city estimated 50 people resided at the camp on West Main Street near Planet Fitness before the March 18 sweep.
Staff plan to follow the same process of giving notice and partnering with county and nonprofits to offer services before the sweep, Williams said. The city spent about $10,000 on the West Main sweep plus another $10,000 for fencing, site security and security towers to ensure people didn’t return to the site, according to a working budget estimate Pitt emailed. Turlock stopped paying for the security service on April 2, Pitt said.
For staffing costs, the city estimated it spent $449 for the West Main sweep. The working budget document did not list how much the staffing for the Glenwood sweep cost. But it did estimate the city spent $9,200 on cleanup crews for the operation.
Other shelter plans in limbo or on standby
Meanwhile, the city has not spent a budgeted $24,000 for pallet shelters for men with dogs, both Pitt and the We Care Program confirmed. We Care could set up three 64-square-foot shelters in its yard between the dining hall and shelter, said Maris Sturtevant, the nonprofit’s executive director. Sturtevant said she heard the city was still studying approving placing pallet shelters, which cost $7,000 each, there.
“The city is still considering if this type of non-congregate housing is the best option,” Pitt said in an email.
Out of $139,000 Turlock budgeted for We Care during the declared emergency, the city reported spending $800 for supplies. The city did provide space dividers, Sturtevant said, allowing We Care to increase its bed capacity from 40 to 49 while still meeting coronavirus safety rules. The fire marshal did not approve a proposal to add beds in We Care’s dining hall, Sturtevant said, so the other funding is not needed.
The city has not paid Turlock Gospel Mission any of the $190,000 the council authorized on March 16, per the working budget document. But Turlock plans to reimburse the mission for renting an exhibition hall at the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds for an overflow shelter, Pitt previously told The Bee.
The mission is renting the facility at $15,000 per month, Executive Director Christian Curby said, and the fairgrounds told him they usually rent the facility at $1,300 per day. The fair has reserved the exhibit hall as an overflow shelter since the second week of April, Matt Cranford, CEO of the Stanislaus County Fair, said previously.
Both the mission and the city agreed to open the overflow shelter once existing shelters hit a certain occupancy rate, Curby said. As of Friday, Curby said the shelters are 10 to 15 people away from reaching that point. The mission has 80 permitted beds total.
Part of the challenge of reducing unsheltered homelessness, Curby said, is developing practical perspective on shelters and how they differ from a private home. Curby added he understands the need and desire for a home, but said people can leverage resources like shelters to improve their situations.
“Shelter is intended to be a safety net and a rebound platform,” Curby said. “It’s a place for you to find help, to find the resources that you need to begin move your life back toward those things you desire: that home, a safe and secure place for your things, pets, partners and all that.”
