• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Valley Citizen

Nature, Environment, History & Politics

The Valley Citizen

  • Arts
  • Education
  • Environment
  • History
  • Nature
  • Politics
  • Wit
  • About
  • RSS Icon

Busting the Homeless: Wasted Dollars?

October 30, 2016 By Eric Caine Leave a Comment

Victor, third-generation homeless
Victor, third-generation homeless

Call him Martin. He’s a homeless man and meth user. In the last year, he’s been in jail four times and in the hospital twice. His jail time has ranged from a few days to several weeks. His last hospital stay was almost six weeks.

Then there’s the Oakdale man who’s periodically arrested for misdemeanors related to homelessness. He’s often driven to the county jail in Modesto, held a few days or hours, then released, usually around 5:30am. He’s a good walker and can be back in Oakdale by mid-afternoon, when he buys a forty-ounce beer, wraps it in a brown paper sack, and starts the cycle over again.

Chronically homeless people often have long arrest records. It’s easy to assume the arrests always involve drugs, but sometimes arrests and citations are for “crimes” like camping in a city park.

Police officers say, “We know we can’t arrest our way out of this situation,” but continue to arrest homeless people, mostly because of citizen complaints. Apparently, most citizens haven’t yet realized the futility of arresting people who are soon released and right back where they started from.

But futility isn’t the only problem with arresting homeless people. Another problem is the cost, not just in dollars but in distraction of law enforcement from attention to serious crime.

The cost of incarceration of one prisoner at the county level is generally estimated to be well over $40,000 a year. That doesn’t include lost hours busting, citing, transporting, and booking homeless people guilty of victimless crimes.

In one of the leading cities for auto theft nationwide, Modesto residents have learned that police response can be a hit-and-miss proposition—mostly miss. They’re told it’s because officers are too busy with “serious crime.”

No camping allowed
No camping allowed

Serious crime notwithstanding, citizen outrage at the presence of homeless people in our parks and on our streets keeps cops occupied with what are usually minor infractions. The really curious thing is the refusal of most everyone to consider allowing homeless people to stay in sanctioned locations, including parks, empty lots, and vacant buildings.

Instead, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, there is a widespread belief that if we keep punishing homeless people, they will go away. The fact that they have nowhere to go simply doesn’t register.

A few local leaders have suggested it might be less costly to suspend Modesto’s anti-camping ordinance in a few places and then try to direct people experiencing homelessness toward those locations. Generally, officials react with horror and claim such a policy would only make things worse.

Meanwhile, the city and county will spend several hundred-thousand dollars to set up twenty garden sheds in a lot near the Salvation Army Shelter on Modesto’s Ninth Street, knowing full well there are at least a thousand homeless people in Modesto alone, including destitute women and children and the mentally ill. The sheds are designed to house forty people.*

It seems we’d rather keep using our jails and police officers as the primary forces against homelessness, despite the costs, futility, and cruelty. Though authorities say homelessness isn’t a crime, we seem to be doing our very best to make it one.

* Another two-hundred thirty-five total beds are available at the Modesto Gospel Mission and Salvation Army shelter.

 

 

Filed Under: Featured, History Tagged With: Homelessness in Stanislaus County, Modesto homeless, Modesto Homelessness

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Some comments may be held for moderation.

Primary Sidebar

Off The Wire

So What if Romney Doesn?t Solve the ?Root Causes? of Poverty?
So What if Romney Doesn’t Solve the Root Causes of Poverty?
We handle problems all the time without dealing with their root causes.
nymag.com
The Facts of Life - The Bulwark
The Facts of Life – The Bulwark
My suggestion last week that perhaps the best way some of us who’ve been conservatives can now help the country is to help the Biden administration succeed, and help the Democratic party move to the center, seems to have stirred up a minor tempest in the conservative teapot. I asked whether one shouldn’t consider allying…
thebulwark.com
WSJ News Exclusive | Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation
WSJ News Exclusive | Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation
Texas’s deregulated electricity market left millions in the dark last week. For the past 20 years, its consumers have paid more for their electricity than state residents who are served by traditional utilities, a WSJ investigation found.
www.wsj.com
The making of Madison Cawthorn: How falsehoods helped propel the career of a new pro-Trump star of the far right
The making of Madison Cawthorn: How falsehoods helped propel the career of a new pro-Trump star of the far right
Cawthorn has emerged as one of the most visible figures among newly arrived House Republicans, who have promoted baseless assertions and pushed a radicalized ideology that has become a driving force in the GOP.
www.washingtonpost.com
Los Angeles Just Opened a Tiny Home Village for the Homeless
Los Angeles Just Opened a Tiny Home Village for the Homeless
The colorful community was built in just 13 weeks!
www.housebeautiful.com
California's coronavirus strain looks increasingly dangerous: 'The devil is already here'
California’s coronavirus strain looks increasingly dangerous: ‘The devil is already here’
California’s coronavirus strain is more transmissible than its predecessors, is more resistant to vaccines and may cause more severe cases of COVID-19.
www.latimes.com
More Than 150 Biz Leaders Endorse Biden's Sweeping COVID Package
More Than 150 Biz Leaders Endorse Biden’s Sweeping COVID Package
More than 150 business leaders from various industries have signed a letter backing President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief…
talkingpointsmemo.com
Exclusive: Defeated and impeached, Trump still commands the loyalty of the GOP's voters
Exclusive: Defeated and impeached, Trump still commands the loyalty of the GOP’s voters
www.usatoday.com
The Christian Prophets Who Say Trump Is Coming Again
The Christian Prophets Who Say Trump Is Coming Again
In the growing community of charismatic Christian prophecy, faith in Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House is a new dividing line.
www.politico.com
AOC raises $1 million in Texas relief, heading to Houston as Ted Cruz douses Cancun flames
AOC raises $1 million in Texas relief, heading to Houston as Ted Cruz douses Cancun flames
The New York congresswoman said she would travel to Houston to highlight the problems faced by Texans hit by power outages and freezing weather.
www.newsweek.com
Rush Limbaugh Did His Best to Ruin America
Rush Limbaugh Did His Best to Ruin America
How the right-wing talk radio icon corrupted the Republican Party, spread hate, racism, and lies, and laid the groundwork for Trumpism
www.rollingstone.com
?I Don?t Trust the People Above Me?: Riot Squad Cops Open Up About Disastrous Response to Capitol Insurrection
“I Don’t Trust the People Above Me”: Riot Squad Cops Open Up About Disastrous Response to Capitol Insurrection
Interviews with 19 current and former officers show how failures of leadership and communication put hundreds of Capitol cops at risk and allowed rioters to get dangerously close to members of Congress.
www.propublica.org

Find us on Facebook

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Footer

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Subscribe for Free

* indicates required

Search

• Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 The Valley Citizen

Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Editor and publisher: Eric Caine

Website customization and maintenance by Susan Henley Design