Los Banos sets up tent city as transition to permanent housing

LOS BANOS, Calif. (KFSN) -- The encampment adjacent Los Banos constabulary office has been transformed into what astir looks similar a mini subdivision, with neat rows of tents.

"Yeah they cleaned everything each up," said Robert Anthony.

Robert Anthony has been surviving successful the encampment that utilized to beryllium plagued by piles of trash, fires, and crime.

"But we had excessively overmuch worldly present anyway, needed to beryllium gone," said Robert Anthony. "They hooked america up with immoderate bully tents. Everything's been going alright."

Like galore cities crossed the state, Los Banos precocious passed a no-camping ordinance, but alternatively of chasing radical away, they're bringing them unneurotic and surrounding them with resources, on with essentials for cleanable living, similar toilets and dumpsters

"The metropolis has the mindset present to where, since it's each centrally located and everything there, they wanna bring services to them," said Pastor Stephen Hammond, Bethel Community Church. "I deliberation it's a batch easier than to effort to bring them out... In fact, we person a ablution trailer that we're successful the process of donating to the city. So it tin beryllium determination onsite."

Each idiosyncratic has their ain structure connected their ain lot.

To stay, the Police Chief says they request to support their plots cleanable and travel the law.

With office close adjacent door, they're keeping a adjacent eye.

"We bash a batch of fundamentally ft patrol successful the encampment betwixt nationalist works, police, and codification enforcement, and the thought determination is to reenforce the rules, which again are precise elemental and accordant with the remainder of the community," Chief Ray Reyna, Los Banos Police Department

City leaders are speedy to admit, this isn't a solution, it's a stepping stone. It gives them clip to physique imperishable housing, but besides prepares radical to judge that assistance erstwhile it's ready.

"Probably wrong the adjacent 3 months we'll person span homes, the metropolis councils looking astatine that and unit and we'll marque decisions connected that and past similar I said a small implicit a twelvemonth we'll person our One Tree Housing development, with tiny small homes with 58 units volition beryllium successful Los Banos," Michael Amabile, Los Banos Mayor.

Those projects are being funded with astir 12 cardinal dollars, the metropolis received from the authorities successful 2024.

For quality updates, travel Kate Nemarich connected Facebook, X and Instagram.