Stockton City council to wrestle with homeless camping issue

At Tuesday’s Stockton City Council meeting, the council will discuss camping on city property, as it continues to grapple with the city’s homelessness problem.

The discussion stems from a June 28 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows cities to enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside in public places, even if there are not adequate bed spaces.

“I think this Grants Pass decision the Supreme Court just made has a tremendous impact on the local homeless population here,” said District 2 Council Member Michael Blower, prior to the council’s Ad Hoc Homelessness Committee on Wednesday, where Blower serves as a member.

On a sweltering Wednesday afternoon in which temperatures soared to 108 degrees, the City of Stockton’s Ad Hoc Homelessness Committee gathered for the first time since March 7, to hear a presentation from the Housing Authority of the County of San Joaquin. Executive Director Peter Ragsdale updated the committee on the numerous projects the county agency is working on to provide bedspace for homeless residents in San Joaquin County. The Housing Authority is constructing permanent supportive housing for persons with serious mental illness, as well as transitional housing.

The presentation underscored the comprehensive work several county and city agencies have done to assist people without housing. However, the ad hoc committee has taken a public drubbing for its perceived lack of efficiency.

“Obviously, homelessness is a very important issue in our city,” said Blower, during comments at the June 18 city council meeting. “One thing I’ve noticed is that the committee has not met a whole lot.”

The committee has met three times in the past year and a half. Meanwhile, the council approved a 5 percent pay raise for council members in April, bringing their annual compensation to $30,832.

“ I’ve served on committees that really do things, and I would like to see this committee have more purpose.”

District 1 Council Member Michelle Padilla has been at the helm of the committee since its inception. At Wednesday’s ad hoc meeting, Padilla said the committee could rarely meet because it couldn’t schedule the use of the council chambers, but she offered little comment on the purpose of the ad hoc committee.

“With regards to dates, for whatever reason, this committee continues to get pushed off the calendar,” said Padilla on Wednesday. “There are several committees that use the chamber throughout the week…. Every time we pick a date, there’s another committee that gets priority.”

For now, the ad hoc committee’s purpose seems to be hearing presentations from community nonprofits and county agencies that assist people without housing. In its past three meetings, the committee has heard presentations from St. Mary’s Dining Room, Gospel Center Rescue Mission, and most recently, the Housing Authority of the County of San Joaquin. The committee has taken no action during any of its three most recent meetings.

At the June 18th city council meeting, Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln took the committee to task for its inaction. “The chair has the discretion to set the agenda, however, every agenda should have an item that is an open discussion,” said Lincoln, “where the body can make recommendations on things they would like to see considered for future agendas. The committee has ownership. The members have ownership. This is the number one issue in our community. The reason why I established this ad hoc committee three years ago is [because] we didn’t have a… space for these members of the council [to discuss homelessness]. … We are the legislative body for the city of Stockton. This is our process, our space, this is our platform within our committees to provide feedback to staff. So, I say, own it.”

The City of Stockton issued a press release July 3 offering residents four cooling locations open through Wednesday amidst a crushing heat wave, offering water and air conditioning. The locations are Seifert Community Center and Arnold Rue Community Center in north Stockton and Stribley Community Center and Van Buskirk Community Center in south Stockton. Stribley and Van Buskirk will close for the Fourth of July holiday and Sunday, July 7, while Arnold Rue and Stribley will remain open. Arnold Rue and Stribley also have two crates available for pets, according to city official Rosie Calderon.

The San Joaquin Regional Transit District (RTD) is also offering free rides to the cooling centers on the system’s standard bus lines, most of which run until around 10 p.m. Frequency generally ranges from every 15 minutes to once an hour. At the close of the ad hoc committee meeting, Blower said he would like to get a report on how effective the cooling centers are, and how many people are using them. He also questioned the weekend hours of the cooling centers, which are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. “It’s still pretty hot at five,” said Blower. “Maybe we should be expanding hours so people don’t have to be turned out into the heat at 5 o’clock.”

Read published article: https://stocktonia.org/news/homeless/2024/07/09/stockton-city-council-to-wrestle-with-homeless-camping-issue/