Homeless camps a 'health hazard'

A Monday action by Petaluma police to sweep the area of homeless encampments comes as local shelters begin readying for the cold winter months - and just six days after the body of another homeless person was discovered near the city’s waterways.

The police action also comes in counterpoint to numerous federal and local programs intended to help the homeless. And according to some advocates, stirring the homeless from their camps can be the best way to help them.

“I don’t fault the police at all for what they’re doing,” said Mike Johnson, CEO of Petaluma’s Committee on the Shelterless, or COTS.

“The police do these sweeps every year,” Johnson noted. The reason is twofold, he said: For one, it’s their duty to stop illegal camping on private property. But secondly, “They’re also sensitive to the fact that if you can get somebody that’s in a camp to move, they may make the decision to go access services instead of camping.”

While it may be unpleasant for these people to be evicted, he said, “There are a number of them who say, ‘You know what, I’m tired of this, I’m done with getting booted around, I’m going to go get some help.’ ... A significant number of those people are going to engage with us, because we are a shelter during the cold winter months.”

Police conducted the operation on Monday, using officers on motorbikes to locate people camping along the Petaluma River and Lynch Creek, near the railroad tracks and in other isolated spots. Eight people, ranging from a 36-year-old man to a 76-year-old woman, were cited for trespassing.

In addition, officers found 20 more vacant camps on Monday and posted warnings there, along with “resource guides to help people transition from homelessness,” police announced.

Lt. Ken Savano of the Petaluma Police Department said such actions are necessary for environmental and public health.

At the camps, “There’s so much garbage that it takes a backhoe to go in and clean it up,” he said. The department is hard pressed to keep up as it is, Savano said - but if it doesn’t, the garbage and human waste “can end up in the river and the creek. It’s a health hazard.”

“Left undone, it would just fester. And we’re barely keeping up with it.”

Savano said more such operations are planned for the near future. Police ask that residents who see homeless camps report them by calling 778-4373.

Monday’s action came soon after authorities found another body near Weller Street at the Turning Basin on Oct. 21 - the third to be found this month alone and the 10th in the last 14 months. Foul play is not suspected in any of the cases.

It is Johnson’s hope that such tragic ends can be avoided through one of several programs available to Sonoma County’s homeless residents. They range from “permanent supportive housing,” funded by Housing and Urban Development, to Rapid Re-Housing, recently given a boost locally thanks to a large county grant.

One recipient of supportive housing is Geoffrey Regent, a 57-year-old military veteran who came to Mary Isaak Center earlier this year and now lives in Rohnert Park in housing arranged by COTS.

Once a decorated Marine, Regent fell on hard times after getting out of the service in the 1980s. Eventually, “I let drugs become a problem for me,” he said. He later rehabilitated and has been sober for three years.

Regent said he’s been in supportive housing since March 1, though he adds that his situation remains “problematic” as he tries to piece together enough work to pay his share of the rent.

According to Johnson, Regent was the beneficiary of “a pot of money that is earmarked for permanent supportive housing programs” by HUD. Funding for other programs might likewise come from HUD, or Veterans Affairs, or other sources.

In August, the county Board of Supervisors approved a $900,000 grant for an overhaul of local homeless programs. That includes money for Rapid Re-Housing, an increasingly popular program whereby advocates “take a family or veteran or single adult from the street, you put them in a permanent place to live, you give them a subsidy,” Johnson said. Recipients receive support “in that house for up to 18 months or so, and during that period of time you’re providing them services to get their income at a level” where they can afford to pay the rent.

Johnson gave “major kudos” to county supervisors for responding to increased need - spurred in part, he said, by the spike in deaths in Petaluma.

“In the last two years they’ve really paved the way for a much more robust response system when it comes to sheltering people in the cold-weather months,” he said.

That includes new “warming centers,” the “safe parking” program in Santa Rosa and added capacity at the county’s cold-weather shelters. (The Mary Isaak Center currently can house up to 130 people.)

That help will be needed this winter, Johnson predicted: “You can’t raise rents 30 percent in the last three years and not dislodge people.”

(Contact Don Frances at don.frances@arguscourier.com)