Atwater homeless ordinance starts in October

Cleaning up human waste or other messes left near his trash bins or against his building by homeless people has gotten old for a longtime business owner.

Steven Passadori, who co-owns Passadori’s on Broadway Avenue, said many mornings he has to ask people sleeping in the bushes to move along. Then, he said, he has to clean up whatever was left behind the trash bin the previous night.

“It’s gone from bad to worse,” the 58-year-old said.

Many business owners in downtown Atwater are looking forward to the new ordinance that prohibits people sleeping or camping within the city limits, which will go into effect soon, but not everyone is on board.

Passadori said whenever homeless people are hanging around, it’s bad for business. He said he’s heard fights outside his store.

“It affects business, definitely,” he said. “Who would want to come into a hostile environment?”

The City Council adopted the ordinance that governs sleeping, camping and the storage of personal property outdoors within the city limits with a 4-0 vote in August. Mayor Pro Tem Larry Bergman was absent from that meeting.

Juan Hernandez, an employee at Stage Stop Gun Shop, said he often sees a few homeless men milling around the trash bins in the alley behind the store, which is also on Broadway.

He said he hasn’t seen them doing anything illegal, but sometimes has to pick up trash left behind.

Not all downtown workers see a homeless problem. Soozie Mickley, 65, of Winton rents space in the Castle Antiques building on Broadway. There are signs someone has gone through the trash in the alley, she said, but it hasn’t become a nuisance.

The city’s new ordinance can punish violators with a $100 fine on the first offense, $250 on the second and $500 on the third.

Subsequent violations could result in a misdemeanor charge, including a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

City Manager and police Chief Frank Pietro said the ordinance was designed to benefit downtown businesses. The owners call and complain that they have people sleeping in doorways and making a mess, he said.

“We’ve had nothing but a major issue in the last few months,” he said.

The city is working on bringing services to town to assist the homeless, he said, but needs to do something in the meantime to help out business owners.

Atwater does not have a homeless shelter.

The annual homeless count has not been done regularly in Atwater, so it’s unclear how the population has changed in recent years – but there is at least a perception among local police and business owners that it has grown. There are roughly 85 homeless people in Atwater, according to the count reported by Merced County Continuum of Care in February.

Even as the City Council adopted the new ordinance in August, some of its members questioned the logic of fining someone who has no home, few belongings and little money. Pietro said police need an ordinance “with more teeth” to be able to get homeless people to leave the area if they were refusing requests to do so.

“We’re not out there to put homeless in jail,” he said.

This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Atwater homeless ordinance starts in October."