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Homeless who live in the hills might be called 'invisible people'
A broken man wept uncontrollably when he realized his backpack, containing everything he owned, was gone. "We'll figure out who took it when we see someone wearing your coat," said another man as he tried to comfort the first. "I can get another coat. I don't have another photo of my daughter. My daughter. My daughter's photo is gone. It's gone," the crying man said. He'd hidden it under a bush and another homeless person had probably stolen it, said Diana Ortuno, winter shelter manager. "It happens every day. They have so little, but they don't have anywhere to put their things, and so they try and hide it. Other homeless people know where it is, and they take from each other. It's very sad," Ortuno said. Ortuno sat in her rentfree office at Lutheran Social Services in the Under One Roof building on Hillcrest Road, where she and others do what they can to help the homeless. She began wishing. "I wish we had lockers so they would have a safe place to put their stuff," she said. The services they already offer have surrounding businesses blaming them for homeless encampments near the facility. Lutheran Social Services provides showers, laundry, a mailing address and a microwave and ready-to-eat lunches to those who have, well, pretty much nothing. The office is full of black plastic bags stuffed with donated Christmas presents no one has taken away--possibly because they have no home to take them to. Among the gifts stacked up are puzzles. Those who come for help live on the streets and sleep outside, in the winter shelter or in their cars. They have no place to work a 1,000-piece puzzle. Ortuno also wished for a van. As she talked about one, her eyes lit up like she was telling a story of a magical bus that could take people to wonderful places. Her van would be used to transport the tired and hungry to the winter shelter that moves around town to a different place each night of the week. At the shelter they would have good food to eat and a clean, safe place to sleep during the coldest months--if they could only get there. On Jan. 1, the state mandated that cities provide zoning for a permanent shelter for the homeless. Areas can combine their resources, and one shelter can be built to serve a region, explained Rick Schroeder, Many Mansions' executive director. Many Mansions is a nonprofit low-income housing source. For example, one homeless shelter could serve Simi Valley, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks and still follow the law, Schroeder said. Even with a permanent homeless shelter or more transitional housing there are some who won't be served. People who work with the homeless call them "the invisible ones," but they can be seen living in illegal encampments in parks and open space. "They can't go to homeless shelters because of their alcoholism and substance abuse problems," Ortuno said. "To move into low-income transitional housing, they have to have gone through drug rehab first and be clean and sober," Schroeder said. According to Conejo Recreation and Park District ranger Glen Kinney, there are about 10 or 12 encampments where homeless people live in open space inside or surrounding the city. A new city ordinance spelling out how officers could collect and dispose of what's not claimed has helped law enforcement deal with the personal items homeless people leave on the hillsides. A recent encampment at the Botanic Garden in Thousand Oaks was visited by Park Superintendent Matt Kouba, Parks and Planning Administrator Tom Hare and Kinney. Through a locked fence, down a trail and near a creek not far from where schoolchildren go, abandoned items soaking wet from recent rains were found. The illegal camp had eight easily seen empty vodka bottles scattered on the ground. There was also a full plastic trash bin about the size of those put out weekly along the city streets. If it were spring and the trees were fully loaded with leaves, the encampment would have been harder to find, Kouba said. People call the park district and let them know when they find drunken, homeless people camping in the parks, Hare said. "We don't have any record of a bad encounter between homeless people and park patrons," Hare said. "We recommend people stay on trails." Thousand Oaks Police Department Sgt. Mike De Los Santos warned that people should be cautious when hiking. "Children shouldn't go out hiking by themselves," he said. He noted that mental illness and substance abuse often associated with homeless illegal campers can make them unpredictable. "We deal with the homeless on a complaint basis. We don't go looking for them," De Los Santos said. Sometimes they're not that hard to find. During the recent rains, Ortuno said, the homeless who live around Lutheran Social Services found an overhang of a building to protect them from the storm and slept there. Those who spent the night inside the winter shelter didn't increase; the number stayed at around 15, she said. Then Ortuno went back to wishing. "I wish we had more rehab places we could send them to for help," she said. | |||||
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