Turlock nears end of its homeless crisis. Displaced woman calls for new approaches
Three months into Turlock’s four-month-long homeless emergency, one woman living on the streets called on the city to consider different approaches such as opening an authorized camping site.
Since the City Council ratified a local emergency on March 16, Turlock has cleared three encampments and a spokesperson said an overflow shelter remains unopened.
Toni, who declined to give her last name out of safety concerns, has mostly lived near Monte Vista Avenue since the city worked with the California Department of Transportation to evict an encampment near Taylor Court on May 12. The 50-year-old woman said she has struggled to afford food over the past month and no longer sees outreach workers who visited the former camp once every two or three weeks. An outreach worker offered to spay her dogs, Sadie and Gabby, but Toni said she has not had the chance to follow up since the sweep.
“I’m tired of people revving their engine as they go by and then flipping me off for absolutely no reason at all,” Toni said, adding she tries to stay out of the public’s view. “Or calling me mean, hateful disgusting names just because I’m homeless.”
To help homeless residents, Toni said, opening the overflow shelter the city has committed to pay rent for is one option. The Turlock Gospel Mission began renting an exhibition hall at the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds for an overflow shelter on April 9, Maryn Pitt, spokesperson for the city’s homeless emergency, said in an email.
The rental agreement expires June 30 and Pitt said the shelter has not opened as of Wednesday because both the mission and We Care still have beds available every night. The mission is renting the facility at $15,000 per month, executive director Christian Curby previously told The Bee. The city has already paid the mission $30,000 for rent, according to a working budget estimate Pitt provided.
Turlock gives estimate for long-term homeless planning
Toni also suggested the city provide individual shelter in hotel rooms. She does not accept existing shelter services because her dogs stick by her side, but said she would stay in a hotel. Her dogs are house-trained, she added.
The National Homelessness Law Center urged the council to apply for federal funds for non-congregate shelter like hotel rooms last month. The city will consider the center’s recommendations in its two- to three-year strategy to reduce homelessness, Pitt said, adding long-term planning may begin in July.
Despite the council approving $24,000 in March for 64-square-foot shelters for men with dogs, the city has not taken action on that form of individual shelter, either. Pallet shelters are still an option in the future, however, Pitt said. The city has spent $78,000 of the about $500,000 budget approved for the homeless emergency, according to the estimate Pitt provided Wednesday.
Other emergency spending includes about $25,000 for cleanup crews and $800 on space dividers for We Care, allowing it to increase its bed capacity from 40 to 49 while following COVID-19 guidelines. Turlock also has spent about $11,000 on fencing, site security and mobile security towers for the former encampment near Planet Fitness on West Main Street. Instead of preventing people from returning to encampments, Toni said she would rather see the city directly help homeless residents.
One other recommendation Toni gave is an authorized camping lot. Sacramento recently opened two “Safe Ground” sites for homeless residents in April with rules such as no drugs, The Sacramento Bee reported. The Modesto Outdoor Emergency Shelter, a tent city beneath a Ninth Street bridge that about 450 called home, operated under a similar concept from February to December 2019.
“Then give everybody a little square, have them keep their area clean and they have somewhere to put their tent up,” Toni said. “So that we have somewhere to go and that your police force is not wasting its time making us move from spot, to spot, to spot, to spot.”
Homeless shelter provider shares bed statistics
Between March 16 and May 31, We Care executive director Maris Sturtevant said 45 men have stayed at the nonprofit’s shelter after not accepting the service since July 2020. At least one of them came to We Care for shelter after being evicted from an encampment, Sturtevant said.
Tuesday night, 34 men stayed in We Care’s shelter, Sturtevant said, leaving 15 beds available. The occupancy rate has been consistent the past couple of days, she said.
The average point-in-time count for Turlock’s homeless population in 2019 and 2020 was 239 people. The city estimated the population grew during the coronavirus pandemic and that 225 people lived in Turlock’s five largest homeless encampments as of February.
Turlock’s homeless emergency is set to end in mid-July unless the council announces its termination sooner.
This story was originally published June 17, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
