Over the weekend, eight furnished caves located along the Tuolumne River in Modesto, California were emptied of their inhabitants – rough sleepers.
These caves dug 20 feet below street level, were found to have been home to a community of homeless individuals. The Modesto Police Department deemed the area a concern due to the potential safety hazards presented by the illegal camps, which included decorated murals, broken tiles, and even a makeshift fireplace.
Local resident Tracy Rojas expressed her concerns about the dangers of these caves collapsing, not only for the residents but also for those walking in the area. She also revealed that the caves were fully furnished with bedding, belongings, and even drugs and weapons. Rojas believes that there needs to be more focus on the homeless population and their needs, as they are clearly desperate and resorting to extreme measures to find shelter.
This is not the first time that the caves have been inhabited and police have had to remove the residents. According to volunteer Chris Guptill, filling in the caves with material is not a viable solution as people have proven they are willing to dig them out again. Therefore, there is no clear solution on how to deal with this issue.
Meanwhile, the city of Los Angeles is currently conducting its annual homeless count to get an accurate estimate of the rough sleeper population in the county. According to last year’s count, there were over 75,500 homeless individuals in the county on any given night, a nine percent increase from the year before.
This three-day count involves over 6,000 volunteers from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority who are trying to establish the number of homeless individuals and identify any health or physical health services they may need.
California is facing a state of emergency when it comes to homelessness, as crime rates surge and businesses are leaving the state’s city centers. The number of homeless individuals in the state has risen by 70 percent since 2015, with an 80 percent increase in Los Angeles city alone.
This makes California home to about a third of the country’s homeless population. Additionally, cities like San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and Sacramento feature in the top 10 of America’s worst-hit cities in terms of homelessness, each with roughly 10,000 homeless individuals.
A survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 70 percent of Californians view homelessness and the high cost of housing as major problems for the state. This issue has been brought to the forefront as the state grapples with finding effective solutions to the rising number of homeless individuals.
The efforts of communities, volunteers, and government agencies in conducting annual counts and addressing the needs of the homeless population are a step in the right direction toward finding a lasting solution to this crisis.