Blog note: this article references a grand jury report.
Salinas native Irene Chavez doesn't know where to go in her hometown.
Homeless for three years at Sherwood Park, she says Chinatown isn't an option. Chavez, 46, lived there for years before. But she said women aren't safe in the Salinas neighborhood long associated with poverty and homelessness.
Chavez has been staying in a section of the park along with three other single women. There are dozens of others, though, who have formed a community there.
But the city of Salinas has begun ramping up enforcement against people camping in parks, particularly Sherwood, leaving many experiencing homelessness unsure where to go.
“I just feel like cattle,” Chavez said. “I feel like they’re risking my rights. It’s my home.”
Following two cleanups of Sherwood within a week’s span, city staff are notifying people sleeping in the North Salinas park that effective July 10, they will use “strict enforcement” of an existing no overnight camping law. City officials have provided four weeks' notice.
In the meantime, increased cleanups – whereby city staff and contractors notify designated areas in advance before going and removing materials – have disrupted encampments at Sherwood.
“To them, I don’t exist out here,” she said.
Chavez had a shopping cart but those are no longer allowed by the city following an ordinance passed last fall targeting shopping carts taken from stores. It was taken away in last week's cleanup, and moving her belongings is even more difficult now.
Health and safety issues
The city's cleanups have been controversial, even being unsuccessfully challenged in courts. From 2014 to 2018, they cost the city $300,000 annually, a Monterey County Civil Grand Jury report found.
The cleanups, per the city website, of encampment areas overrun with trash and other sanitation challenges are meant to protect waterways and ensure safety of residents from diseases like Hepatitis A. The Monterey County Health Department declared a Hepatitis A outbreak among the homeless in February 2018.
The city maintains more homeless people are staying at Sherwood, and staff received complaints about Sherwood not being usable, said Public Works Director David Jacobs. Former Salinas Aquatics Center operator Dia Rianda told the Salinas Californian about similar safety issues last year.
These actions are also in light of the September federal appeals court ruling, Martin v. City of Boise, finding cities cannot criminalize people for sleeping on public property when no sleeping space is practically available.
Boise had a camping ordinance that prohibited using “any of the streets, sidewalks, parks or pubic spaces as a camping place at any time,” the ruling read, which was upheld in April.
“The city believes that the laws adopted by the council are consistent with everyone’s constitutional amendments as set forth in Martin v. Boise,”said Michael Mutalipassi, assistant city attorney. He added residents have faced health and safety issues in parks, including excess refuge, needles and waste. “The city decided to take action to address those specific issues so all of the residents could access the park, not just the residents that camped there.”
Boise will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal in the lawsuit, as reported by the Idaho Statesman in early June.
During the cleanups, city staff is supposed to provide a container for people to place their belongings in for storage. People can store a certain amount of belongings with the city for 90 days.
'Salinas should be embarrassed'
In advance of the strict no-camping enforcement, city staff and Continuum of Care, the federally designated homeless provider for the region, are to sign people up for housing at places like Moon Gate Plaza, a 90-unit complex in Chinatown set to be completed in the fall, as well as emergency shelters.
Officials plan to be at the park each Tuesday and Thursday morning for two hours a day, a notice read.
Rita Acosta has stayed in Sherwood Park in the past and said she recently moved back there to protest the city's heightened enforcement. She now lives just feet from where her son Jose Velasco was beaten by Salinas police after Velasco attacked her in 2015.
Advocates like Acosta say the city’s enforcement puts people's lives at risk. There are around 26 people in the park. Acosta confirmed the number has increased.
Victory Mission, a faith-based shelter for men in Chinatown, currently has 40 people staying each night, with space for 65. But people must follow its rules, including prohibited substance abuse, says Victory Superintendent Sammy Jones, which often precludes people from staying.
A separate section of the Sherwood warning notice also delineates city code allowing people to camp in the public-right-of-way between 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. under certain restrictions.
The city plans to conduct park cleanups at Sherwood every Friday until the July 10 enforcement date, according to Jacobs.
'One bite at a time'
Previous data suggests the homeless population is increasing in Salinas: up 57%, to 1,367 people, in 2017 compared to two years before. A new point-in-time count – the federally mandated homeless census – is expected soon.
At Sherwood Park Wednesday, Officer Gabe Carvey, the Salinas Police Department’s homeless outreach coordinator, was there to connect people to services and oversee public works’ cleanup in advance of July’s enforcement.
Violators of the camping law could receive up to a $1,000 fine and six months’ imprisonment, per municipal code. But Carvey said police are not interested in arrests.
“Obviously this problem is grandiose,” he said, “but the old adage of how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
“So it’s really going to be about looking at the problem as a whole, but individual case discussion, management and using every available resource to try to solve these individual equations to figure out where we can get someone into housing – what works.”
On Wednesday, Chavez stored her belongings in a nearby alley as city staff and contractors combed through the park.
Her son, Miguel Medina Jr., was killed in 2011. She was homeless before his death and said grieving for her son made things worse. Cleanups and moving have caused her to lose photo albums of her son and other keepsakes.
“It’s just like a toll on the body,” Chavez said. “I can’t do what I need to do to get out of this situation.”
Still, she’s appreciated Sherwood because of the smaller community there. She can leave her belongings while she runs errands, like applying earlier this week for Moon Gate tenancy with MidPen, an affordable housing provider.
Moving out – let alone leaving for cleanups – would make things more difficult for Chavez, however.
“I know the point of it,” she said, “but if I had resources, I don’t think I’d be in this predicament. I’m tired of camping already.”
June 14, 2019
Salinas Californian
By Eduardo Cuevas
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