Fresno takes aggressive stance and will begin arresting and incarcerating its homeless population

Mike Jones has been homeless for 20 of his 59 years of life, and as he watched a team of police and street cleaners throw away his pile of soggy tarps and trash last week, he shrugged.

“I have eight dogs, and I just don’t like shelters,” he said. “Too much like jail, and I’ve had a lot of experience with jail. I’m just fine out here in my tent.”

Jones’ ability to remain outside this city’s shelter system is about to get a lot harder. The same goes for every other homeless person in this rapidly growing town and virtually every other locality in the sprawling farmlands of the Central Valley.

Spurred by June’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing governments to sweep out homeless encampments without having to first offer shelter, Central Valley jurisdictions from tiny Turlock to the wide San Joaquin County are passing and enforcing stringent bans on any type of camping or loitering on public land. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order in July urging local leaders to vigorously break down camps if they were big or disruptive enough to be deemed “dangerous” seemed to add his blessing to the efforts.