COUNTY COMMISSION REPORT
The homeless are taking control of public restrooms and beach facilities, driving families out. Must buildings be destroyed in order to save the parks? Is this "poison pill" approach the only way for local residents to take back a recreational site?
The County Commission on Tuesday heard arguments for the demolition of various Higgs Beach public structures. They also learned that their otherwise mild-mannered County Attorney, Jim Hendrick, may join the band of vigilante residents who want to patrol the beaches by night.
Commissioners discussed with the Sheriff's Office a series of problems which have plagued the County beach which lies between the Casa Marina and White Street Pier.
It has become a hangout for the homeless who live there in cars or camp out in picnic shelters. They lay siege to the public restrooms, get drunk, become lewd and belligerent, and sometimes allegedly extort $5 to $10 for access to a barbecue spot. Moreover, they are being fed there by nonprofit outreach agencies and groups. Hendrick likens it to feeding pigeons or seagulls. "You feed them, they keep coming."
The Clarence Higgs Beachfront Park is closed to the public at night. But homeless people often disregard the rules, and carouse or sleep there. Hendrick, who is moving into the neighborhood, says his crime watch group wants to permission to patrol the beaches at night with flashlights and cell phones, if necessary, to enforce the curfew.
The Sheriff's Department provides a beach security guard— usually an older person— who is unable to deal with the offensive activities because he lacks arrest powers. He can call police but the response is often too late to do any good. The guard is paid about $25,000 a year. A deputy with arrest powers would cost the County about $60,000, according to Hendrick.
"It's more than the County can afford," he said.
The law does not allow Security to run anyone off because they are homeless. Casa Marina Court residents had problems with indigent people who took possession of some picnic shelters near them, and the problems were resolved when the County struck down the roofs of those shelters, Hendrick told KWTN Wednesday. Also all food could be banned from the beach.
"It seems to be the most effective, non-discriminatory way of dealing with the problem," he said.
On the downside, locals would be also deprived of showers, picnic shelters and public bathrooms (which are currently locked, to the dismay of tourists)— facilities they, as taxpayers, had bought in the first place.
Hendrick says the homeless would inevitably have to go somewhere. He would like to see them relocated to the Hawk Missile Site area of the Salt Ponds, to the northwest of the airport.