Merced Mysteries & Minutiae: Out-of-town homeless not stranded in Merced

Homelessness is a hot topic in Merced.

And last week homelessness was in the news a lot.

Merced hosted its annual Homeless Connect on Friday, an event that gathers service providers and advocates at one place and time to help people obtain, for example, identification, supplies and even haircuts.

The Merced County Rescue Mission also was in the news last week because leaders plan to move the hot meal service to a new location. While organizers have yet to pick a new spot, they will stop handing out meals at their Canal Street location as of Oct. 1.

When you talk about the homeless, there’s a “myth” that often comes up in conversation. Rumor has it that other cities in the state give vagrants and transients one-way tickets to places like Merced in an effort to rid their cities of the homeless.

That’s a pretty bold thing to do.

Q: Is it true that other cities bus in out-of-town homeless or mentally ill persons?

A: Not quite.

Steve Carrigan, Merced’s city manager and a chair on the Merced County Continuum of Care, says it’s an “absolute urban legend.”

What happens is this: Groups provide tickets or transportation for the homeless and make sure there’s family or relatives to receive them at their destination. But sometimes, that bus ride could take two days, and people might stop in Merced on the way, Carrigan said.

“People see homeless get off the bus, and that’s how it starts,” he said. “It’s an urban legend that’s gotten way too much airtime, and it’s time to stop it.”

Carrigan actually issued a challenge to those who spread the myth: Prove him wrong.

“There’s a homeless problem in every single city in California,” he said. “That adds fuel to the fire.”

Merced County’s annual homeless count and survey also found the myth to be untrue. According to the survey, nearly 80 percent of Merced’s homeless became homeless while living in Merced County.

Of the 104 people who participated in the survey, 53 said they first became homeless in Merced; Atwater tallied 15; and Los Banos recorded 13. One person originated from Dos Palos, and the rest came from cities outside of the county, according to Merced Sun-Star archives.

About 68 percent reported having family in Merced County, 86 percent said they had friends in the county and 65 percent said they once worked here.

It’s possible the myth started from a problem San Francisco experienced.

A Sacramento Bee investigative report found that the state of Nevada shipped at least 1,500 patients from a psychiatric hospital to cities around the country. About a third of them came to California.

Last year, the state of Nevada reached an out-of-court settlement with the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors, which had claimed that state officials sent more than 1,500 homeless former mental patients out of Nevada in the five years before 2013.

In Merced, part of the renovation for the old county hospital will include a crisis residential unit, which can house 16 patients for up to 30 days for individuals experiencing decompensation – deterioration of mental health – or who need stabilization instead of being hospitalized.

The CRU was made possible by state funding and is a collaborative effort of six counties: Calaveras, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Stanislaus and Tuolumne. Patients will be transported from those counties to Merced for treatment.

But Yvonnia Brown, the county’s Behavioral Health director, specifically noted that funding for transportation was a major part of the facility. Other counties will not be abandoning their clients in Merced after treatment, she said. (The Mental Health Department recently was renamed to Behavioral Health, by the way.)

“The (CRUs) will eliminate barriers for the client to transition,” Brown said in a previous interview with the Sun-Star. “Clients thrive more in their own community. This (the crisis residential unit) is a short, temporary stay. The clients want to go back home.”

So there you have it, folks. Most of the homeless in Merced were already here. They’re not purposely being bused here, and they won’t be abandoned here in the future.

This story was originally published September 25, 2016 at 2:08 PM with the headline "Merced Mysteries & Minutiae: Out-of-town homeless not stranded in Merced."