Call it the power of compromise. Call it being human. Call it community policing. Call it whatever you want. The deployment of just one community resource officer so far of two authorized by the Manteca City Council to address persistent homeless problems has already had a significant impact after just 30 days.
There are — depending upon who is interpreting the official headcount in January and how it was certainty an undercount — between 80 and 160 hardcore homeless in Manteca. By that it is the homeless who are sleeping in vehicles, in bushes, in trash bin enclosures, occasional doorways, and illegal encampments. This doesn’t include couch surfers, garage dwellers, and those that bounce from cheap motels to cheap motels.
In 30 days one Manteca Police community resource officer got three such homeless united with their families, six into a drug/alcohol treatment program, and seven into shelters.
That is more progress in 30 days than in three years.
Yes, it is social work but with a twist. It is being done by a CRO who has the authority to enforce the law.
Manteca has embarked on a pretty clear strategy. It is not simply based on the obvious that the homeless have rights just like everyone else. It also zeros in on the root of the problem. Everyone is on the street for a reason and it usually has to do with bad decision making or a catastrophic event.
Bad decision making can be as basic as making poor financial choices to drug or alcohol addiction. Catastrophic could be the loss of a job coupled with a health issue or a youth being kicked out of a foster home after they turn 18.
We all tend to think people on the streets simply don’t want to follow rules. While that is true in some cases, it definitely is not for all. We think all they have to do is a get a job or ask for help.
It isn’t that simple. They may not know where to turn to or they may not be able to get transportation to a physical location on the right day to access services.
They likely don’t have government identification or possess the essential document that opens doors to numerous possibilities — a Social Security card. Since they lack a permanent address, both are next to impossible to secure. There are a stream of issues such as not being able to take a bath and grooming yourself properly before a job interview that may seem insignificant to you but if you’re living on the streets they are major concerns.
Police Chief Nick Obligacion — who spent close to two years schooling himself about various resources available to help the homeless and getting a more precise understanding of the dynamics of being homeless as well as efforts that haven’t panned out — recommended the deployment of the CRO assigned for now to homeless issues. The City Council saw the value and then upped the ante. Obligacion had asked for one CRO keeping with fiscal policy adopted by the council that the city set aside 25 percent of its general fund in reserve. The council — led by Mike Morowit — after quizzing Obigacion decided the most effective approach would be to have two CROs to tag team homeless seven days a week noting it is a major concern with much of the community. In the end, the council met its goal of an $8 million general fund reserve and budgeted money for two CROs.
As a result Manteca now has an effective homeless outreach effort in place as well as a stepped up effort to make sure city laws are followed.
It is classic community policing. It is part social work, part problem assessment and identifying solutions, and part enforcement. Manteca is no longer waiting for the homeless to seek out help or rely on citizens to report problems. They are going to the homeless and offering to help find whatever resource they need to get off the streets. It involves building a rapport. It also involves communication hence a separate department issued cell phone for the CRO devoted exclusively to calls from the homeless who are ready to get off the streets.
The goal is to give the homeless back their dignity, put them on a path to being able to support themselves, and to become productive taxpaying citizens. At the same time those that want to keep abusing alcohol and drugs and ignoring the rules are being dealt with.
No one is kidding themselves. The homeless problem is never going to disappear. Manteca’s strategy, however, will go a long way toward reducing  the ranks of homeless and reducing quality of life crimes that are now plaguing the community.
It needs to be made clear that Manteca Police are effectively building on community-based efforts to assist the homeless as well as connect available services to those that need them.
Manteca already has church groups, non-profits and a resource center reaching out to the hardcore homeless, the couch surfing homeless, and those trying to avoid becoming homeless.
The city is augmenting those mostly volunteer efforts with two paid CROs that provide the added bonus of being able to deal with the hardcore lawbreakers just as police do with the community as a whole. The big difference is such enforcement is one of the primary duties of the CROs.
Mike Kelly, Manteca’s first CRO that accomplished the little victories within his first 30 days, offered five words that best describe his mission and the city’s goal when it comes to dealing with the homeless: “They’re human and I’m human.”