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The number of people living in encampments near the Bay in Menlo Park has dropped to around 10 from a high of around 60 people in the summer, thanks to efforts by a number of agencies to connect unhoused people with services, according to city officials.
“I say progress has been made,” Cecilia Taylor said, reporting the decrease in the number of people living in the triangle in her Dec. 15 “State of the City” remarks as mayor.
The Ravenswood Triangle – a marshy, 60-acre area bordered by Willow and University avenues and Bayfront Expressway and owned mainly by Caltrans – has long been the home of a small number of people who have made their homes outdoors in the isolated area.
About a year ago, the City Council announced its goals to increase the city’s homeless outreach and created a task force to bring together a group of stakeholders, said Rhonda Coffman, Menlo Park’s deputy community development director. Taylor convened a subcommittee with Councilman Ray Mueller to represent the council on the task force.
Members of the task force included city staff, Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, the Menlo Park Fire Protection District and nonprofit service providers, including the county public health department, Ravenswood Family Clinic, Project WeHope, LifeMoves and pastors from local churches.
The area had become a public safety hazard, with fire district staff responding to a significant number of both fire and medical emergency-related calls. As of last July, Menlo Park Fire had responded to 77 blazes in the area since 2017. The area lacks restroom facilities, creating sanitation problems, and some residents had rigged booby traps near their encampments that posed additional hazards to first responders, something fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman has raised concerns about for years.
The pollution was also in violation of the federal Clean Water Act, The Almanac reported in July.
But encouraging unhoused people to relocate isn’t easy. Normally, San Mateo County’s Human Services Agency and its Center on Homelessness work with Samaritan House to coordinate assistance for the unhoused. Generally, at least in Menlo Park, outreach staff from LifeMoves ask unhoused people if they are willing to be assessed to figure out what resources they may be eligible to receive, such as health care, financial assistance or a housing voucher, said Coffman.
For those who refuse assessment, it cannot be forced on them, she said. And in Menlo Park, the “vast majority” of homeless people generally refuse to be assessed, she said.
“It’s presented a number of logistical difficulties,” Mueller said. “All those things we’ve been trying to navigate to try and figure out how to move people there into transitional housing.”
During the pandemic, the outreach team continued to visit individuals two or three times a week to check in, bring them cards to purchase food or groceries and hygiene items, and see if they needed medical assistance.
In many cases, Coffman said, they also call out the street medicine team, which provides both physical and mental health assistance.
There have been two concerted cleanup efforts, in October and January, to reduce the environmental hazards in the area.
While it’s not completely clear where everyone who had been living in the triangle has gone – it’s likely a combination of people moving into shelters, in with family or to other locations – Coffman said, one takeaway from the effort is that the collaborative approach proved useful.
“We’ve really strengthened our relationship with the county,” she said. “We’ve been working really hard.”
From the Fire Chief
A contractor hired by Caltrans and under the supervision and direction of Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol conducted encampment removal and mitigation in this 60 acre area all week.
Known as the “Triangle”, this area has been the source of concern and frustration for the Fire District for many, many years. I want to commend all of the partners that eventually joined the City of Menlo Park’s Task Force.
Although extremely difficult at times, this diverse group of stakeholders was able to successfully navigate through some of the most controversial issues of our time during a worldwide pandemic.
Deemed simply as “homelessness” this title only begins to scratch the surface of the human condition, societal, environmental and system dysfunction, actual risk to these individuals themselves, others, emergency responders and the community itself, that tolerance and our ability to just look away, or do nothing, has sadly become an accepted norm.
Have we fully solved the problem, absolutely not, but those who would accept help and who were repeatedly offered it have voluntarily left the area. Others have left for other encampments. Mental health, anti-social behavior, drug and alcohol dependency and criminality often get in the way of someone voluntarily being able rejoin society.
Compassion was both our friend and enemy at times! The contradictions in policy, practice, governance, the struggle for the common good and best interests of each person was rewarding but equally painful and difficult at times.
The decision to truly do nothing for years, that was only to be reinforced by the pandemic and that failed to calculate that first responders would be needed to suppress fires and respond to medical emergencies like drug overdoses, assaults, stabbings, shootings and threats to the broader community became more and more unacceptable and unreasonable, as emergency calls for service increased and the area deteriorated.
What a relief to read that the majority of people in the Triangle are no longer there. Was this the scene of a shooting earlier today?
Sounds as though some folks might be moving back. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-04/silicon-valley-homeless-camp-near-facebook-returns
I truly appreciate those who have tried to find housing for those living in “the triangle.”
But homeless advocates need to understand that not every homeless person wants help. Please read the article and especially the response from the Fire Chief that notes how many of the people REFUSED assessment. For some – and I don’t know the percentage – living on the street is a choice and a lifestyle. It is difficult for some of us to understand, but I don’t understand why people do lots of things!
It may be simplistic, but I have come to believe that the homeless generally fall into three categories: those with mental and dependency issues, those who have truly fallen on bad economic times, and those who are there by choice. The first group needs professional help which, because they can pose serious threats to society in terms of safety, peaceful enjoyment and commerce, may require legal intervention. The second group that has temporary financial issues, I would help with FAR MORE than we already do. I have no answer for that third group – they’re going to do what they do.
Again, my thanks to the groups who work on this perplexing issue.
pogo:
During my time in law enforcement and dealing with homeless at the time I found you categories to be mostly correct. At least half of the homeless we dealt with were mentally ill. Of those many were also substance abusers. Another large percentage were substance abusers only and hadn’t hit their “bottom” yet in order to be ready to ask for help. I didn’t understand how they couldn’t have hit bottom, but that’s me. A small percentage were there by choice. There was some overlap with substance abusers here as well. They didn’t want help and in many cases were quite adamant about it. The smallest percentage were those that had fallen on hard times. They would take whatever help they could get.
Until we change the laws and start institutionalizing our incurably mentally ill we will forever have that segment of the homeless population. It is really cruel that we seem to think letting them live on the street is better than in an institution where they are cared for. We could do something about the substance abusers by forcing them into treatment, but that is unlikely to work as one will never truly work to be sober until they hit their “bottom” whatever that looks like to them.
Given the above, in my opinion, we could eliminate half the homeless by putting them into institutions where they can be cared for.