Friday morning’s growing daylight roused some of the homeless persons out of their sleeping bags in a tucked away section of the Hatch Road shopping center – just as a Ceres Police Officer Christian Izquierdo rolled up and made contact with them.

Police know all too well that the commercial strip, immediately west of Cost Less Foods where small businesses include the Senju Massage parlor, a smoke store and cell phone repair shop, is a hangout for homeless person and a hideout for those with warrants.

“I’m pretty familiar with them,” said Officer Izquierdo, who was on the search for a shoplifting suspect. “A lot of them know me on a first-name basis. I know where they might be hiding.”

Officer Izquierdo was investigating a report about shoplifting at Home Depot across the street and had a hunch where to search for the suspect. He did consensual searches on two vagrants and sent them on their way with their belongings and bicycles to another part of the shopping center. The officer then spotted a bag in the possession of 42-year-old Jeremy Casaus with a stolen power converter – still in its box from the store shelf – protruding. Casaus had allegedly stolen the item and planned to sell it to support his fentanyl habit.

According to Izquierdo, meth is the drug of choice of many of those he deals because it’s inexpensive and readily available. But he notes that dangerous fentanyl is also supplementing heroin use.

As he was being arrested for shoplifting, Casaus admitted his drug addiction to the officer and said he wants to seek treatment at Stanislaus Recovery Center located at the former Memorial Hospital Ceres site. But Casaus was told he wasn’t avoiding jail first to “send a message that we don’t stand for (theft).”

According to police, Casaus and others roam back and forth between Modesto and Ceres, often landing south of the river after buying their narcotics like fentanyl in south Modesto, just a short walk from the Hatch Road overpass.

Izquierdo told Casaus that if he’s serious about seeking recovery to flag him down the next time he spots the patrol car up and down the Hatch corridor – and that he will help him into recovery.

“They do have beds available but have to be pre-planned,” said the officer. “I have known people who have gone through and recovered and turned their life around. That’s the goal, to get them help because they are people.”

Normally when an officer arrests a homeless person they stay on scene until Code Enforcement responds to collect the belongings; or the officer lets them know where to come to clean up. But in this case, Casaus wanted a street acquaintance to take possession of his dog and bicycle as he went to jail.

On the other side of the parking lot another homeless man was sprawled over the hard concrete, using a duffel bag for a pillow, his bicycle propped against a column. The businesses weren’t open yet. Typically an officer will make contact and encourage the homeless person to clean up and get out with their belongings before the business open.

“I try to get them to care a little bit,” said Officer Izquierdo. “Sometime I’ll run names. A lot of them are on searchable probation or are on parole. It’s about letting them know our presence there. Most of them know to move on.”

At times he finds instances of feces in front of a business and calls on Code Enforcement to deal with it or encourage the business to “get out of the way before your customers see it.”

The ones he chased out of the shopping center Friday morning were clustered back in the same location by noon. The presence of unsavory characters doesn’t exactly help the struggling businesses in the center. Ceres’ dilemma is not unlike that of just about every community in California which is plagued with a severe homeless problem rooted in substance abuse and mental illness. 

The January Point-in-Time count showed 2,091 homeless persons in Stanislaus County representing 1,790 families.

While there is room in shelters to take in the homeless, Lynnell Fuller, administrator of the Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) for Stanislaus County, many of the unhoused refuse services. Those who decline shelter services cited how they don’t like shelter rules (32 percent), how shelters don’t allow pets (20 percent) and how a shelter expects a person to give up drugs or alcohol to enter a facility (14 percent).

Despite billions spent on solutions, the state has not made a dent in the problem, leaving cities with little choice but to engage in a never-ending of chasing homeless out only to see them pop up somewhere else. It’s like playing a game of Whack-a-Mole in the words of former Ceres city manager Toby Wells.

Not far away in the residential neighborhood to the south, a number of homeless persons were still lying in their makeshift beds before 9 a.m. in a less visible section of Independence Park. This is a principal area of concern for Ceres City Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra, who, on a September police ride along, became aware that the park is Ground Zero for the homeless in Ceres – and the associated criminal activity and drug use.

“Independence Park has been creating an increase in police response,” said Vierra, who has asked the City Council to consider installing surveillance cameras in the park. “When I did my recent ride-along I was just surprised by the number of people that are currently living or residing in the park.”

The park is convenient because of its close proximity to the Hatch Road shopping district – where shoplifting and panhandling occurs with regularity. The park’s configuration is also problematic. It is mostly obscure from Paramount Avenue street view, hidden behind a housing tract hugging the cul-de-sac of Stephanie Way. Vierra is concerned about the criminal element in Independence Park which is in plain view of families living in an apartment building shouldering the east side of the park.

“Our patrol has been going out there to address some of this,” said Vierra at a recent council meeting. “When I did my ride-along, there were four officers that responded due to the number of individuals that were there in the park that evening.”

She said that Turning Point had to also call police due to illegal activity when making contact with the campers.

Earlier this year the city installed a number of surveillance cameras in several parks with ARPA funds but didn’t think they were needed in Independence Park. But that’s changed. Ceres Police Captain Chris Perry theorized that the presence of cameras in other parks have caused the homeless to gravitate to areas not being surveilled like Independence Park.

Vierra, who remains sympathetic to the plight of the homeless, appreciates the police’s firm and yet gentle approach to the homeless.

“I was really surprised with the amount of the unhoused that we have in town which is very relevant when you’re out at 2:30 o’clock in the morning because those are the only ones you see moving and walking and driving or parked in a parking lot in there sleeping. I was really surprised and impressed with the intuition and the instinct of the officer …and just his ability to kind of see when someone was out of place and say, ‘Hey, are you safe, are you okay, do you need anything?’ A lot of them said they didn’t need anything and they felt okay, they felt safe. He wasn’t out trying to cite them or force them into a location but just trying to make sure they were safe and they were okay for the evening.”

Police have been teaming up with the county’s  Community Assessment Response and Engagement (CARE) team which seeks out the homeless to provide services like substance treatment and housing. Izquierdo said the city’s investment in beefing up the Code Enforcement Unit is paying off big dividends.

“Code enforcement is doing a real good job so I give them credit in cleaning out homeless camps and returning shopping carts and dealing with the shameless drug use out in the open. They help us with infractions so we can go out and tend to (bigger) crimes. The key player is our Code Enforcement team. It’s is a weight off our shoulders.”

During September, Code Enforcement removed 64 homeless encampments.

While camping in public places is a violation of the Ceres Municipal Code, officers approach it from a case-by-case situation and rely on consensual encounters to make arrests if warrants or criminal activity are involved.

Vierra also wants Ceres Police to reinstate a Street Crimes unit, noting that she came across a gang that “was stopping everyone coming down the street.”

“I think that brings the importance of bring the Streets team in again because if our gangs are currently in bubbles or pocket areas I want to make sure we address that before they move outside of the areas that right now our police department has been doing an amazing job keeping them in those bubbles.”