Page 7 - Sanger Herald 8-23-18 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 7A THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 2018 Homeless in Sanger Park
Dick Sheppard/Sanger Herald
Officers confer after a morning walk through Sanger Park. "We are making one or two arrests a day in the park," said police chief Silver Rodriguez.
HOMELESS: "Comments made at the Aug. 16 council meeting are not factual ..." - Julie Mendoza
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situation at the park.
Knight
"I have never heard or have known that serving a meal contributes to homelessness," wrote HOPE Sanger CE0/di- rector Mendoza in an email response to questions asked by the Herald about com- ments at the council meeting suggesting that meals served at HOPE Sanger contribute to the problem at Sanger Park.
"In fact providing a meal to someone in need is a work of mercy, it is an expression of unconditional love for one another," wrote Mendoza who then quoted scripture, "I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters; you were doing it to me!' Matthew 25:40."
Sanger resident Kevin Carter, who will be sworn in as a new planning commis- sioner this evening, told coun- cilmembers they need to get to the root of the problem, "This may sound unkind to say about our homeless prob- lem – but you’ve got one group over here trying to help them and bringing them to town and you’ve got another group over here trying to run them out of town. Those are the hard facts and I’m sorry to put it that way.
"What we really need to do is figure out what we're going to do about the homeless prob- lem."
One of the first steps to figuring that out is to find out how many and what kind of homeless people we have in Sanger, said mayor Frank Gonzalez. "The police chief and I are forming a home- less task force and at our first meeting we were talking with Julie Mendoza from HOPE
Sanger and were asking about what’s the biggest hurdle to doing a homeless survey and she said it's manpower. So I thought I would talk to pastor Sam Estes who oversees the Sanger Task Force and see if we could have a portion of that task force incorporated into the homeless task force – if we need manpower, there sit 40 people every other Tues- day morning."
The council agreed the survey might lead to a long term solution, but dealing with the immediate problem was still on mayor pro tem Eli Ontiveros's mind, "We need a substation there [Sanger Park] because it is a problem and I think this council needs to act. We delayed our actions in the traffic situation where some- one got hit recently [at the 5th and Bethel avenues inter- section] and if we delay here something similar is going to happen. The funding is there, the funding is available and I think we should act now."
Trees and structures pre- vent the closed circuit cam- era in Sanger Park from be- ing effective, said Rodriguez in response to a question from councilmember Humberto Garza.
"We are taking a zero toler- ance approach," said Rodri- guez. "Believe it or not there is a municipal code that says you cannot park a bicycle by just laying it on the ground, you have to use a bike rack and we’ve actually cited two of the people for that violation. But it is a difficult challenge primar- ily because food is just about a block away – we don’t know where they go for their drugs – but we have had undercover investigators in there and we
SpecialS
have made arrests – some peo- ple for warrants and some for possession of a meth pipe and some for possession of meth."
Nearly all of them have meth pipes, said Rodriguez.
"Comments made at the Aug. 16 council meeting are not factual, only interpre- tations by individuals who misunderstand and lack knowledge of all our services at HOPE Sanger," Mendoza wrote in her email to the Herald. "We offer so much at HOPE Sanger especially when a family is struggling and on the brink of homelessness, we offer PG&E, water, rental assistance, showers and hy- giene, meals, food bags, case management, rehabilitative resources and it is saddening that our service is so misun- derstood.
"HOPE Sanger is the only organization in the rural com- munities that offers these nu- merous services; we do not bring in homeless from other towns! In fact we screen in- dividuals and refer them to other resources if they are not from Sanger.
"What happens at the city park is the business of the city and I encourage them to try to clean it up just the way HOPE Sanger has cleaned up its own building. But to say that because we are a block away from the park and we contribute to the problem is an unfair statement. We con- tribute to humanity!"
The reporter can be con- tacted by email at sangerher- ald@gmail.com.
The Pets of the Week are:
• Knight, an energetic shepherd/malamute mix who is probably not quite a year old and decided to sit on a chair to pose for his picture; and,
• Precious, a young shep- herd mix lady who is new to the shelter. She is very friendly and likes to walk and cuddle.
Still at the shelter waiting to be your new best friend are:
• Bruce is a high energy shepherd mix who is prob- ably not quite a year old and loves to romp and play;
• Isabella is a happy pitbull lady with a perpetual smiley face who gets along with everyone and just wants to cuddle and give you kisses; and,
• Tank, a big friendly pit- bull boy who gets along well with people and other dogs and likes to go on long walks.
Call animal control officer Mario Irazoqui at (559) 618- 9071 or message the Sanger Animal Shelter Facebook page and leave your email address to find out more about the adoption process which will involve home checks. The cost for each adoption will vary.
Let Mario know if you're interested in providing a temporary foster home for any of the shelter dogs.
Precious
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