Turlock begins another homeless emergency. Officials gave these reasons why
The Turlock City Council approved another unsheltered homeless emergency on Tuesday, four months after authorizing plans focused on reducing dangers associated with encampments.
Efforts to connect people with shelter and services will continue under the new local emergency because homelessness persists, even though the city has not recently identified new encampments, Interim Police Chief Steve Williams said.
Officials also authorized rolling over about $400,000 in unspent funds from the previous crisis to the new one. Most of the transferred funds allow the city to quickly open an overflow shelter at the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds if needed, said Williams, who leads the homeless efforts as incident commander.
The fair extended the rental agreement with the Turlock Gospel Mission to the end of this month, said Matt Cranford, CEO of the Stanislaus County Fair. They plan to develop a new contract for later in the year that considers how the fair may schedule more events as the pandemic eases, Cranford said in a phone interview.
Overflow beds set up in April remain inside the exhibit hall, which is not being used for the modified fair on weekends, Cranford said. The fairgrounds can accommodate both running the fair and potentially opening the shelter because of existing plans with the mission and the city, he added.
Turlock did not spend the majority of the about $500,000 budgeted for the first emergency because it did not open the overflow shelter, Williams said. The mission and We Care shelters had beds available every night, and Williams said the mission never exceeded 60 people per night despite its increased capacity of 80 beds. Even so, Turlock reimbursed the mission $48,000 for the cost of renting the fairgrounds exhibit hall, per a city report.
“I think we spent our money very wisely,” Council Member Pam Franco said during the meeting. “I want to commend you for making sure that we didn’t just throw money at a problem and it didn’t get fixed.”
But Council Member Nicole Larson questioned why the city did not open the overflow shelter with 170 beds, especially for families with children. The city did not document any children at the cleared homeless encampments, including ones on West Main Street near Planet Fitness and on West Glenwood near the Travelodge, Williams said.
“I don’t want to be in the business of separating families,” Larson told Williams. “I understand from your verbal report that we don’t have any family units identified through this process. But to me, that isn’t a prepared enough foundation to be able to move people if we can’t allow them to have a place for them to go for their family unit.”
The mission changed its women and children-only rule during the initial emergency, Executive Director Christian Curby previously told The Bee. But men and women cannot sleep in the same bed, even in the mixed-gender overflow space in the shelter’s dining room.
New Turlock homeless crisis lacks end date
Unlike the emergency declared in March, the new one lacks a set end date. The council must reaffirm the emergency Interim City Manager Sarah Eddy proclaimed on Friday every 60 days, however.
City staff do not expect the emergency to last forever, interim City Attorney George Petrulakis said. The emergency may last through the beginning of implementing the longer-term homeless plan, he said during the meeting.
Franco and Council Member Rebecka Monez are developing a proposal for the plan in an ad hoc committee, as Mayor Amy Bublak previously announced. The council members said they are set to hold a first meeting with Petrulakis on Friday.
Franco and Monez are expected to bring the proposal to the council after Aug. 6, Williams previously told The Bee.
This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
