Illegal camping tickets surge in Merced under new rules. Is it helping or hurting the unhoused?

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Gena Mercer was asleep in an Applegate Park restroom when she was awakened around 3 a.m. by a Merced police officer.

Thinking it was her ex-husband, she yelled out, “I’m sleeping, what do you think I’m doing? 

“If I had known it was a cop, I wouldn’t have answered,” she told The Merced FOCUS, describing that night back in 2016.

Mercer and her ex-husband had been unhoused for several years. The officer who found her asleep then issued her a ticket – just another to add to her growing list of offenses that ranged from storing personal property in public to failing to appear in court.

Fast forward almost 10 years later, and government jurisdictions now have even more authority to issue tickets against people like Mercer who are sleeping in public places. 

Local jurisdictions nationwide, including the city of Merced, adopted new policies allowing local police to arrest and cite people for unlawful public camping after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson in June 2024.

Since Merced’s amended ordinance took effect in December, unlawful public camping has become the most common citation issued to unhoused people, according to the city’s Transparency Hub, an interactive online tool detailing crime data. 

Before the ordinance, officers could only cite unhoused residents for storing personal property in public places, which is prohibited under the city’s municipal code. Additional offenses – past and present – include drug possession, trespassing, and failing to appear in court for past tickets.

Mercer, who now has housing, says the new ordinance will create longer rap sheets for the unhoused – ultimately adding another barrier for getting into housing.

“…Whether they’re doing anything wrong other than being homeless, they’re gonna have that criminal record,” Mercer said. “That’s going to hurt them down the road.”

But city leaders say the new ability to cite for public camping is key to eradicating homelessness in a compassionate manner.

“It’s a tough-love approach,” Mayor Matthew Serratto said. “You can’t be lenient and soft, because if you do that, people take advantage…You can’t enable street life, but you have to also provide resources to get people into better situations.”

By the numbers

According to data obtained by The Merced FOCUS, Merced police officers cited and arrested people for illegal camping 359 times since the new policy was enacted in December. 

The total annual number of citations issued to unhoused people in Merced has declined each year since 2019, when the total peaked at 862. In that same time frame, the number of unhoused people in Merced has fluctuated, according to the county’s Point-In-Time (PIT) Count, a federally-mandated annual survey identifying the number of unhoused people on a single night in January. 

The figures include both citations and arrests of transient people booked into jail. Because they lack a permanent address, officers with the Merced Police Department use the “transient” designation when citing someone experiencing homelessness, according to the city’s crime analyst, Lance Eber.

The number of people experiencing homelessness decreased this year. Under the new policy, only time will tell whether the total number of citations issued to unhoused people will continue the downward trend.

Merced’s amended ordinance

Merced’s “tough-love” approach to tackling homelessness resulted in fewer unhoused people counted in the city this year, Serratto opined following the release of this year’s PIT Count report.

The Supreme Court’s ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson last summer granted local governments across the country increased authority to regulate camping on public property. The Merced City Council’s ordinance further restricted public camping with increased fines and jail time.

Previously, authorities were barred from citing people for unlawful camping if there weren’t enough shelter beds to accommodate unhoused people.

Merced Police Department’s approach to tackling encampments

Officer Brian Dennis drove along North Bear Creek Drive one August morning as he responded to a citizen’s call about a growing public encampment nearby.

Along the route, he passed the remains of a charred field after a fire traced to a public encampment broke out in June. 

“The biggest threat to those areas is fire,” Dennis said, adding the abundant bamboo along the creek can rapidly ignite. “We’ve had countless fires along the creek. It threatens homes. It threatens the people who are camping.”

A typical day for Dennis and officers with the Disruptive Area Response Team (DART) involves patrolling the city, focusing on “quality-of-life” issues, such as responding to calls about public encampments. 

As Merced City Council members moved to ban public camping in November, Merced Police Chief Steven Stanfield said the ordinance would not change law enforcement’s proactive approach to the issue of homelessness.

“Our staffing numbers are extremely high,” Stanfield said. “So when our staffing numbers are up, we can be more proactive with keeping our streets clean and (be) proactive with crime…”

When Stanfield arrived at the Merced Police Department in 2023, there was one DART officer on staff. Three full-time officers now are assigned to the specialty unit, and they work daily with homeless outreach services to help unhoused people transition into permanent housing.

“When you can be effective with getting people the assistance they need, there’s no need for the citation,” Stanfield said. “When we offer resources, we don’t need to offer a citation on top of resources.”

When officers contact an unhoused person, the response is often complaint-driven, according to Stanfield, meaning a community member is calling for assistance to remove someone from the premises. 

“It could be as simple as a business owner calling and (reporting), ‘… There’s somebody camping in front of my business, and I’m trying to open the door, and they’re not leaving,’” Stanfield said.

More fear and longer rap sheets

Mercer said she believes the unlawful camping ordinances will add barriers to housing and amplify fear for unhoused people in Merced. 

“A homeless person – from the time they wake up in the morning ‘til the time they go to bed – they’re in survival mode,” she said. Mercer experienced homelessness in Merced from 2014 to 2018. 

Mercer and her ex-husband moved to Merced in 2014 from Reno, Nevada, where they were staying at a friend’s place. When the friend lost the apartment, Mercer and her ex-husband found themselves stranded and unhoused. 

They were homeless for six years in Reno, where Mercer said they lost several friends to hypothermia during the frigid winter nights.

For the 65-year-old grandmother, survival strategies – such as figuring out where to sleep or how to eat – became more complicated when factoring in how to avoid citations from law enforcement.

Mercer learned the most effective habits for going undetected were keeping her immediate area clear and camouflaging her personal items, such as her makeshift bed, in street environments.

“The cops don’t want to walk up and smell pee. They don’t want toilet paper everywhere, trash everywhere,” she said. “As long as you’re doing that, the cops will leave you alone – at least, that’s how it worked for me.”

Mercer remained under the radar for more than a year before Merced police cited her, along with her husband, one night along Bear Creek Drive.

During her four years as an unhoused resident in Merced, Mercer was cited twice for storage of personal property in a public place. Both citations led to bench warrants for failing to appear in court, which presented obstacles when she later applied for and was denied rental housing.

“But that’s what’s happening with all the citations, and (homeless people) don’t go to court. That’s what’s happening, and it will stop them from getting their housing,” said Mercer, who appealed the warrants and won.

By the time Mercer’s husband died in 2018, he racked up more than 20 citations, mostly for failing to appear in court.

After her husband’s death, Mercer decided she didn’t want her life to end in the same manner. 

“I don’t want to be the next one dying on the street. ‘Get me out of here,’ you know?” Mercer had told providers at Sierra Saving Grace Homeless Project. 

The faith-based nonprofit organization, which assists Merced’s unhoused population transition into permanent housing, helped Mercer secure an apartment in Atwater, where she currently resides.

Merced Rescue Mission identifies service gaps

For about 15 years, Bruce Metcalf has led the Merced County Rescue Mission, a countywide homeless outreach nonprofit. 

The organization has helped hundreds of people experiencing homelessness transition into independent living through various sober-living and faith-based programs. 

But the Mission wasn’t always as successful. 

When Metcalf took the organization’s reins in 2011, there were approximately five employees helping 20 unhoused people through its faith-based program.  

“Gradually we grew, and we added programs,” Metcalf said. “Over the years, we’ve kind of looked to see where there are gaps in services for people.”

Providing unhoused people with living spaces that accommodate pets and families, for example, motivates people to stay on the path toward independent living, Metcalf said. 

In past years, the Mission staff secured additional funding to expand its shelter capacity and meet the needs of the most vulnerable, including veterans and those experiencing mental illness and substance use. 

The Merced County Navigation Center, which is managed by the Mission, opened in 2021 and provides 75 emergency shelter beds. 

In 2022, the first phase of Village of Hope, a transitional housing program, opened in Merced. Phase two is expected to open in the next two years, according to Metcalf. 

He added that more than 90% of Mission employees are formerly unhoused, which makes it easier for the organization to identify and address gaps in services for unhoused residents.

Los Banos gets creative

Merced County’s city with the second-largest homeless population is trying something new to help its unhoused residents. 

Officials call it a city-sanctioned public encampment. 

On June 11, city officials in Los Banos transformed an unlawful public encampment located next to the Los Banos Police Department headquarters.

Where several dozen makeshift shelters were previously set up, 85 all-weather canvas tents now stand. The city-sanctioned encampment houses 92 unsheltered residents, according to Commander Justin Melden with the Los Banos Police Department. 

Los Banos counted 114 unhoused residents this year, down from 149 last year, according to the county’s PIT report.

Melden said city officials will continue to add tents according to community need, but nonetheless emphasized the encampment is a temporary solution to addressing homelessness in the county’s second largest city.

“The city-sanctioned encampment is the result of a community need,” said Melden, who was on site when the legal encampment was erected. “We needed a location for unhoused individuals to camp that is safe and not in violation of any local ordinances. We’re trying to balance some level of accountability with compassion.”