On the streets; no place to go

It was just another Saturday in the park when the homeless woman sleeping at the picnic table, or passed out, woke up and began screaming at the sheriff’s deputies surrounding her: “Why are you taking me?”

She was clearly agitated and not cooperative.

“You’re hurting me,” she hollered as the deputies tried to carefully get her into the back of a squad car. The woman’s poodle was barking at its owner’s distress, as a deputy gently picked up the dog and took it to Animal Control.

The 72-year-old woman, Linda Evans, was heading to the Mariposa County Jail, where she was booked for disorderly conduct and public intoxication.

A man with her, Robert Owen, 61, was arrested for shoplifting, disorderly conduct and public intoxication.

Both were released by the next day.

The small park, behind the Mariposa Museum and History Center, has become the target of law enforcement efforts in recent weeks to crack down on problems connected with homelessness.

Another homeless woman, who said her name was Katmandu, watched the unsettling scene play out in the park, but seemed resigned to the situation.

“Word on the street,” she said is that security has been stepped up for the town’s Fourth of July celebration. “So, some of the guys have gone back to the woods, and are bouncing back and forth.”

The vignette is similar to others that have played out recently along Mariposa Creek and nearby homeless encampments.

Sheriff Jeremy Briese has promised increased enforcement of public intoxication, illegal camping, trespassing and other nuisance ordinances in an effort to get a handle on the homeless situation.

But many of those with misdemeanor citations are simply ending up in the court system.

On Monday, Christopher Lutz appeared on a citation for illegal camping, which has a $150 fine he can’t afford. He wasn’t sure what to do, so Mariposa County Superior Court Judge Michael Fagalde entered a plea of not guilty and suggested Lutz may want to file a motion to dismiss.

Rebecca Eubanks, who lives at an encampment along Mariposa Creek, appeared on misdemeanor charges of petty theft and trespassing. She insisted she did nothing wrong and was ordered to stay away from Pioneer Market.

Briese said his deputies are working with Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) to provide the unhoused with services, if services are available.

The county’s only emergency homeless shelter, Connections, is slated to close at the end of the month and officials have been scrambling to find shelter for more than 20 people.

The problem has taken on extra urgency since May 23, when a local transient, Jonathan Bays, attacked Andrew Cooper with a long sword at the Creekside Terrace apartments.

Bays, 41, is charged with attempted murder.

County elected leaders have begun openly questioning whether the current approach, generally known as “harm reduction,” is actually working.

The issue came up last week when the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors approved the application to apply for another round of Encampment Resolution Funding (ERF) for $1.2 million.

The money is intended to move the unsheltered living in encampments into permanent or temporary housing.

The grant application said the county will be “using data-informed non-punitive, low-barrier, person-centered, Housing First, and coordinated approaches.”

Supervisor Shannon Poe asked a fairly loaded question: “How many millions of dollars have we spent on homelessness in the county and have we gotten a benefit out of it? Just asking.”

“We keep chucking all this money, getting grants and stuff, and it’s all our tax dollars,” he continued.

“Are we making any headway, are we getting any benefit out of this? Curious.”

Poe apologized in advance to Interim HHSA Director Mandy Brum for figuratively “dropping a grenade in your lap.”

Brum replied, “Yes, we are making progress.”

But each grant is different in terms of the target population served and the reporting criteria. Brum promised to get back to Poe with a more detailed analysis.

County Administrative Officer Joe Lynch relayed that the county has received about $5.5 million in state grants to combat homelessness since 2018.

An initial $675,000 the county received was used to find housing for those living at a large homeless encampment on Frank Wilson Road near HHSA headquarters.

Supervisor Rosemarie Smallcombe complimented HHSA staff in the progress that’s been made since 2014, when she said many local residents were in denial.

“People were sleeping in doorways, tourists were upset crawling around them and they left things on the sidewalk that were not very appealing,” she said.

Smallcombe said social workers were successful in getting many people enrolled in treatment.

“Our folks reach out to the remaining folks on a regular basis, so that someday, when someone says I’ve had enough living on the street, they’re ready to be part of a program to turn my life around,” Smallcombe said.

But it seems the patience for such an approach may be dwindling.

Back at the park, a clerk from Pioneer Market walked up wondering what the commotion was about.

When told it involved the homeless hanging out in the park, she bowed her head.

“It’s sad, but it’s really become a problem, I guess,” she said.