Most of Merced’s homeless originated from county, report says

About 80 percent of the homeless people in Merced County first became homeless while living within the county, and about the same portion still think of it as home, according to a recently completed survey.

The survey of 104 homeless people followed a census of homeless conducted earlier this year by Continuum of Care, a coalition of advocates and service providers. Results were released Monday by leaders of Urban Initiatives, a Pasadena-based nonprofit that organizes the Continuum.

Urban Initiatives Executive Director Joe Colletti and Associate Director Sofia Herrera found that the survey, coupled with a ZIP code study from 2013 to 2015, indicate that most of the county’s homeless are not newcomers, but people with local roots.

“Both of these reports make it increasingly clear that a large majority of homeless persons in Merced County have geographical and relational ties to cities in Merced County,” the report said.

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.

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.

Merced City Manager Steve Carrigan, who is also chairman of the Continuum, said the numbers are clear that the overwhelming majority of Merced County’s homeless are from the area.

“It’s part of the education process,” he said. “I hope people ... at least stop saying the majority of homeless people on the streets of Merced are from somewhere else. They’re not. They’re from Merced County.”

There is at least a portion of the community that believes other cities bus their homeless this way to shirk the services provided to homeless people, an method that was been put into action elsewhere.

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

The city-of-origin report came as no surprise to Phil Schmauss, a member of the Continuum and marketing director for the Merced County Rescue Mission. He said he occasionally meets homeless people living in Merced County who say they’re from Fresno, Los Angeles or Modesto.

“This a problem that’s within the county,” he said. “It’s not based on an influx of outsiders coming into the county.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Most of Merced’s homeless originated from county, report says."