Amid the rancor and mudslinging, let’s not forget there are issues in the 2022 Manteca mayor’s race.

And thanks to Lei Ann Larson, who has pretty much set the agenda, the No. 1 issue is the homeless.

Or more precisely, what direction should the City of Manteca take in addressing problems they create.

Let’s muddy the waters a bit with snippets of homeless issues and behavior over the past two decades.

It will provide a picture that shows the homeless issue isn’t a new phenomenon in Manteca.

*Back in the mid-2000s, Manteca Police had to get the assistance of Manteca Fire crews to access rooftops — the original Kmart that is now Big Lots and the library are two examples — to roust homeless that had taken up residence. In the old-Kmart case they had chairs and even plugged in a microwave on the rooftop. The library had issues with the homeless urinating and defecating on the roof where they had staked out a place to sleep.

*Young people — either aged out of the foster care system or thrown out of their homes for whatever reason — have ended up on the streets and many, thanks to observant individuals and available services, have been saved from going down the rabbit’s hole.

*The homeless gutted the original Indy Electronics building of more than $500,000 worth of copper wiring — as they did air conditioning units and such around town — to recycle for cash. One homeless man fell to his death through the skylight while roaming the roof looking for copper wire. That ended when recycling options in Manteca closed.

*Single moms — many who were working minimum wage jobs — with kids have been unable to pay the rent and ended up sleeping in their cars with the kids between stretches they were able to afford a cheap motel room for a week or so.

*Over the years at last two homeless have been killed after being struck by vehicles when they walked into traffic without looking.

 *Homeless individuals until the recent closing of Garfield Avenue and further securing of the campus, used to walk into school grounds during the school day and even slept on the campus overnight. On more than one occasion police had to be summoned when homeless persons were seen with a large knife in a sheath secured to their sides using the school grounds as a short cut.

*Time and time again over the years there have been instances of mentally ill homeless screaming in the street such as in front of Lincoln School during afternoon release time.

The preceding isn’t even the tip of the iceberg.

It, does, however, illustrate three things.

*Some of the homeless cause a lot of damage and safety issues.

*Some of the homeless are just trying to survive and make the best of bad situations.

*Some of the homeless are mentally ill, abuse substances, or both.

*Some of the homeless are literally thrown on the streets unceremoniously when they become adults.

This is not a black and white — or various other shades — problem. However, if you look at the stats for Manteca and San Joaquin County the homeless are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male while that is not the case with the general population that happens to be housed.

There are three general homeless populations.

*The homeless with issues that are surmountable that impede their return to being able to house themselves.

*The homeless with issues that at first glance seem insurmountable to conquer to get them off the street.

*The homeless that might fall into both broad categories but have decided they like the homeless lifestyle.

Each broad category has subgroups of more defined hurdles and problems that must be dealt with.

And whatever steps are taken has to be done in accordance with the law and not steamrolling basic rights or basic needs a person requires in order to simply live. Unless, of course, you want to hand a bunch of homeless and a gaggle of lawyers the key to the city treasury.

No one can ever accuse the City of Manteca of setting records in the time it takes to move endeavors forward.

Some of it is bureaucratic red tape, some of it is dealing with public opinion. And some of it quite frankly over the years has been mixed and fuzzy messages from elected leaders and disarray at upper levels of management.

Those that indicate the homeless problem happened overnight or that they had no knowledge of city efforts to address the issue were oblivious at best, and uncaring at worst.

Uncaring not in the context of not caring about the problem but in not caring as long as the solutions weren’t within a couple miles of their home.

Manteca can ill-afford to start from scratch.

The city is going to have a homeless navigation center that is not a drop-in shelter. And it is going to be built on the back portion of the 8 acre parcel at 682 South Main Street.

That’s because the $16 million from the state, like it or not, is a one-time deal tied directly into the navigation enter at that location.

And unless you have just arrived in California’s the odds are the state is moving in the direction when they may require jurisdictions with 100,000 or more people to have homeless centers of some sort. Say what you want, but to build the facility — although operating may still be another question — will not take away from the city’s ability to fund police, fire or street maintenance. Others cities may not be so lucky.

Do not misunderstand. Would someone living in Del Webb be happy if the navigation center was proposed for property across Airport Way where the cheese plant is?

No.

But then again there weren’t too many people in the neighborhood west of the South Main Street site that have rallied community outage against Airport Way and Lathrop Road being turned into de facto truck routes from hell.

The site picked is the best given close to a dozen options vetted in two separate looks over the course of three years.

What is needed now is the commitment and follow through to do it right.

That means securing it and operating it in such a manner that no one even knows  in a 10 block radius or so there are homeless housed there.

It also means doing what can be done to reduce homeless numbers from growing in the first place.

That means the homeless and affordable housing coordinator the city has just hired has to look at un-conventional ways of expanding the city’s affordable housing stock to prevent people from becoming homeless not due to a drug or mental issue but due to affordability concerns.

That means the city looking at programs encouraging aggressive granny flat, garage conversion and other options to expand the affordable housing stock instead of relying on a once-every 15-year costing $60 million endeavor to create 50 apartments.

So, when it comes to the No. 1 issue of this campaign which of the three people running have a vision and can contribute effectively to a solution that reduces homeless issues  in Manteca — Lei Ann Larson, Ben Cantu or Gary Singh?

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com