In their own words: City Council and Mayor candidates on the homeless
During the next week, the Desert Dispatch will run responses to several questions put to candidates running for the City Council and mayor. Each day, answers to a different question will run.
MONDAY • CRIME
TUESDAY • DEVELOPMENT
WEDNESDAY • THE HOMELESS
THURSDAY • EDUCATION
FRIDAY • CANDIDATES ASK AND ANSWER THEIR OWN QUESTION
SATURDAY • HEROES
How will you decrease the number of homeless people in Barstow?
CITY COUNCIL
Herchel “Gene” Deaton
Plant Operations Supervisor, Barstow Community Hospital
At least two schools of though exist on handling the homeless in cities across the nation. One school of thought favors forceful police action; writing citations and generally keeping pressure on the homeless to leave the area. The other school of thought favors developing a long term plan on reducing the homeless by providing intervention, transitional housing, addiction and abuse counseling, and skills training, etc. I fall somewhere between the two schools. I feel we need trained intervention specialists to help those with addictions, temporary financial problems or domestic abuse, etc, find existing programs provided by the city, county, state or faith-based organizations. And then, if they don’t want to accept help or assistance, ask them to move on.
Timothy Saenz
Southern California Regional Manager of Technical Services, Vulcan Materials Company
We have no control over the number of homeless that pass through our community. The organizations, which deal with the homeless, are doing a great job.
We are the community with a big heart. We need to continue to help those in need, so they can continue on their way. We do this by supporting and working with organizations like Desert Manna as well as the many churches and non-profit organizations in our community.
Marvin Ellis
Program Analyst, Fort Irwin
The homeless problem in Barstow has only gotten worse over the past couple of years. We must address the problem by identifying the homeless individuals and determine who they are, where they came from, and where they are trying to get to. If they are citizens of Barstow then I believe that we as a community have a responsibility to provide assistance through counseling, job placement, living assistance, and in some instances screening to determine if they are mentally ill. For those who are not Barstow residents and may have become stranded in Barstow, we should assist them in continuing their journey and help them get to their destination. If they do not wish to leave, then we request that county or state agencies provide funds to pay for the same services we provide our homeless citizens. If the homeless do not want help and do not want to leave, then we enforce our loitering laws to keep them form sleeping in our parks and under our interstate bridges. We should also look at establishing city ordinances that fully address this problem.
Richard Villegas
Law enforcement officer
I have a long history of working with the homeless, starting with volunteering in high school to serve meals at Desert Manna on Thanksgiving Day and continuing today by donating items to the local shelters. I have worked with the San Bernardino Country Homeless Coalition and local groups to address the homeless problem in Barstow. During my time on the local police force, I have encountered many people who pretend to be homeless and pan-handle money through town. I have also encountered many homeless who told me that they travel across the country to come to Barstow's Desert Manna because they heard about how good it is. While, I do like helping out those who really need the help to get on their feet and become productive citizens; I do want Barstow to be a homing beacon to homeless people through the country. We need to help ourselves first before we can help others.
I would like to see the homeless shelter moved to another location so that it does not interfere with Route 66 Projects or Main Street commerce. Also in the past the police were allowed to enforce panhandling and loitering laws. If we allow the police to enforce these laws, I believe we can see an extremely large and rapid decrease to our current homeless situation. However, the police must be allowed to do their job without worrying that they will be chastised by the citizens and by the Barstow city government.
Manuel Gilbert Gurule
As a former founder of the Shelter of the Desert D.B.A. Desert Manna, I am proud to have been able to help those in need and would do so again. I know that the shelter is a thorny subject with some of our local downtown businesses, but I have to disagree with them when it comes to problems they volley against it. It is not the homeless that cause the problems. It is the local drunks and local riff raff that plague all cities in America.
When we allow rundown motels to rent by the month at five to six hundred dollars per month for a one room dump, when these poor souls only get $700 to $800 per month income on SSI, what do you think is going to happen to the downtown area. I have been fighting this for years, but no one at city hall will listen or take up the problem. Let's uphold our building codes. Motels are not apartments and should not be allowed to become apartments without proper upgrades. Let's use our low income housing set aside to provide adequate housing for these poor souls.
Carmen Hernandez
Planning Commissioner
I am a Desert Manna Board Member, and we are constantly looking for resources to serve the homeless. The issue is not simple. People become homeless for different reasons such as addiction, mental health issues, and lack of employment. Each individual’s needs have to be assessed to be able to direct them to the right resource. Those with addiction have to be with rehabilitation programs. The person with a mental health problem has to be referred to Behavioral Health Services from San Bernardino County and Adult Services. The individuals who have lost employment need to be retrained through perhaps the State of California Rehabilitation Services and Employment Workforce. Transitional housing with training programs are needed. We at Desert Manna are working diligently to obtain funding and services to reduce the homeless in Barstow.
Willie Hailey Sr.
Retired California Highway Patrolman
I see the denizens of other cities being dumped into our local economy bringing with them the kind of habitual criminal behavior that means life or death in the big cities.
Barstow is no longer the town that I grew up in as a child with this new population of people is what I see.
The homeless problem in Barstow has two three major contributing factors Interstate 40, Interstate 15 and State Route 58 millions of people travel through Barstow each year and some of them just remained here.
Desert Manna does the best job that they can surviving on the good will of this community helping homeless adults return to the mainstream of life. But now the number of children has increased and those numbers also have to be considered.
We also must remember the mental illness that homeless people suffer from and the assistance they require from the city of Barstow for public services.
The best solution for the city of Barstow is to assist Desert Manna in obtaining new facilities which means building a new homeless shelter at Waterman Park and helping Desert Manna obtain the funds to do so through the state, federal and the private sector.
Waterman Park and the discussion of the moving of Desert Manna needs to end. Waterman Park is the best place for the new location period. Once that occurs Desert Manna will have the facilities to offer a wide variety of services to the homeless population of Barstow.
MAYOR
Joe Gomez
Barstow City Council member
There is no quick and easy answer to solve this difficult problem. But it is growing and we must bring together our collective resources to fight the problem.
Together as a community, we have to implement a comprehensive plan which includes homeless prevention, outreach, assessment, placement and relocation services.
Desert Manna provides temporary accommodations for 30 days. Once we identify why they are homeless, we can then work to find a solution. We have to identify homeless people with untreated psychiatric illnesses, former alcoholics or drug users and misplaced people looking for a way to get home.
We unfortunately have homeless living in parks, in front of businesses and in empty buildings. That is not acceptable. New businesses and residents who can make positive contributions in our community will not relocate to Barstow if we can't stop the rising tide of homeless living in our community.
We have to educate public agencies such as law enforcement to deal with homeless who have mental disorders. We must collaborate with other agencies and immediately research successful programs in other communities similar to Barstow.
Lawrence Dale
Mayor of Barstow
The homeless population in Barstow continues to grow, and I would suggest in these economic times that will not change. I am open for any suggestions which will help this situation.
Nathaniel Pickett
Retired Lieutenant Colonel/Transportation Consultant
The homeless rate will remain high if we continue to employ the 1960 strategy. It is said that the poor will always be among us, but they do not have be homeless. If we can give $700 billion to the wealthy, why can't we give a grant to the homeless? In the history of this nation, work has never killed a man. It is acknowledged that many of us walk the other way when we perceive someone is less desirable. Under the Pickett administration, and if it is the desire of the community, we will give the homeless meaningful work and ensure that they have a roof over their heads. A fund will be created using donations and government grants to meet the need of this program.
Members of our finest organization, Barstow Police Department would establish control at strategic points of entrance to discourage soliciting and permanent stops that may adversely affect businesses. Agreements/communications with our neighboring cities, BNSF and our transportation agencies/businesses are required to control vagrancy.
Compiled by Aaron Aupperlee, City Editor
