San Joaquin County increases effort to give homeless ride anywhere outside county lines
SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY – San Joaquin County is now increasing its effort to give the homeless a ride to wherever they want outside county lines.
County supervisors say it's not about homeless dumping. It comes as the county has seen its homeless numbers skyrocket in recent years.
Now even if it's one tool, giving the homeless an option to go somewhere else for help, is part of San Joaquin County's plan.
Leandre Nelson is one of the thousands of Stockton homeless living on the streets.
"It's been like 5 or 6 years," Nelson said.
San Joaquin County will help move him and anyone else experiencing homelessness outside the county if loved ones are willing to take them in.
"I think that would be a great solution to find our people and our plans," Nelson said.
San Joaquin County Supervisor Paul Canepa and all the supervisors voted unanimously to prioritize moving homeless who want help out of the county if they identify a place to receive them.
"Because with our numbers up so high we're trying to get people back into services that they need any way we can do it," Canepa said. "So I mean we're not going to be loading up busses, and sending folks which I would consider dumping. So that's not a goal of ours."
The supervisor's decision to support a "return to home" program comes as San Joaquin County's homelessness count has increased 100 percent over a two-year span.
That same count also shows that 90 percent of San Joaquin County's homeless were living here when they became homeless.
Nine percent were living in another California county and one percent arrived from out of state since becoming homeless.
Jon Mendelson is a San Joaquin County homeless advocate and executive director of Central Valley Low Income Housing Corporation.
He says connecting the homeless to loved ones outside the area is challenging.
"It can certainly help some people and for the people it can help, it can be really effective and it can be cost-effective," Mendelson said. "It's not going to be a large-scale change to what we see on the streets."
Nelson said he played basketball at Stockton's Edison High School. He has family in Los Angeles he doesn't know. His shot at a home will have to be here.
So far supervisor Canepa has identified 20 people who want to be part of this "return to home" policy and he says the county has helped four people move.
