Mayor says homelessness is a national problem; city outlines outreach, clean-streets arrests and services

Mayor Keith James said homelessness is a national issue and outlined city efforts that include outreach workers, a dedicated police position and an anti-dumping program that has produced arrests and cleanups. “You can't just simply arrest your way out of the homeless situation,” James said, adding that court law and the availability of shelter beds constrain some enforcement actions. James said four full-time employees serve as “homeless ambassadors” who interact with people where they are to assess needs and match them to services, and he said the city also has a full-time police officer assisting with homeless outreach. He said the city is trying to “activate” spaces such as Curry Park so that regular park users discourage encampments and that the city is pursuing redesign work for the park. On illegal dumping, the mayor described Operation Clean Streets and said the city has arrested nine people for illegal dumping since February 2019 and removed 178,000 pounds of illegally dumped material; he also characterized that total as “over 8 tons,” a figure that does not match the pound figure stated at the meeting. Residents pressed for more social-worker presence, mental-health beds and services; one attendee said Curry Park needs active social workers and more responsive service providers. The mayor and assistant city administrator Armando Aman said the city is coordinating with police and social-service partners but emphasized the limits of municipal authority and the need for county- and region-wide solutions for shelter capacity and mental health care. What was not decided: The meeting did not announce new shelter openings, a binding service expansion or a county-level agreement to increase bed capacity. No new appropriation or contract to expand shelter or mental-health capacity was presented at the meeting. Next steps: Staff were asked to follow up with residents and to provide contact channels for reporting encampments or problematic sites; the mayor and staff said they will continue outreach and coordination with county and nonprofit partners.