The bucolic bedroom community of Fremont seems like an unlikely backdrop for California’s latest skirmish over what to do with its burgeoning homeless population. But the city of 237,000 residents, wedged between bustling Silicon Valley and the green open spaces of the Sunol Regional Wilderness, has taken center-stage for a deafening civic debate.
Taking a page from residents across the state who have rallied to stop city officials from setting up large-scale processing centers for the homeless, several hundred people swarmed into the Fremont City Council meeting Tuesday night to raise their concerns about the center being planned for one of two locations. As scores of protesters gathered outside, hundreds more crowded into the council chambers in a highly emotional demonstration, the Mercury News’ Joseph Geha reported.
Fremont, like many cities around the Bay Area, is grappling with a growing homeless population. The number of people experiencing homelessness in the city climbed to 608 in a bi-annual homeless count released this January, up from 479 in the early 2017 count. By comparison, San Jose’s population jumped 41 percent from 4,350 in 2017 to 6,097 in 2019, while Sunnyvale and Mountain View also showed a dramatic rise in the number of residents without homes.
Like other California cities, Fremont leaders are now partnering with the state on proposed solutions to the growing homeless crisis — and dealing with the fallout to those plans. At the same time, the debate is raging on social media, on Twitter and Facebook and countless smaller online forums like Greenbelt Alliance, with people actively voicing concerns either for or against these controversial fixes to a problem many believe is simply not fixable.
Here’s a sampling of those voices:
”I am witnessing a lot of new people here,” Gemina Marin wrote in a letter to this news organization, describing herself as a homeless 56-year-old native of Fremont who supports the proposed center. “I also know a lot of folks who have been out here on the streets. Too many are involved in drug activity, some drink. I remember a time, when I was a kid, and didn’t have a care in the world. But for the past 10 years, I have had much concern for the homeless here in Fremont as well as myself.”
What happens when you have two groups of anti-homeless NIMBYs face off? I'm watching the livestream of the Fremont, CA city council meeting, agog. https://t.co/cMiahbzxR6
— Anirvan Chatterjee (@anirvan) July 17, 2019
Creating fear only shows your true colors. The #homeless population is part of our community. Love will take us all further. End the hate. I am in support of a navigaton center anywhere in #Fremont.
— ᴅɪᴀɴᴀ ʀᴏʜɪɴɪ ˢʰᵉ/ʰᵉʳ/ᵉˡˡᵃ (@DianaRohini) July 17, 2019
On Change.org, activist Hiu Ng rallied more than 8,000 supporters to sign a petition to “Keep Fremont Homeless Navigation Center Away from Homes and Schools.”
“While it is important to find ways to help homeless people, it is also important to ensure safety,” Ng wrote on the site. “Some of these proposed locations are next to roads with high speed traffic or railroad tracks. Many are also close to homes and schools. These factors represent significant safety concerns. Furthermore, there are still many open questions regarding the efficacy of the center, and additional time is needed to inform and get feedback from Fremont citizens.”
Announcing that earlier this month protesters “successfully kept the Fremont Homeless Navigation Center from most Fremont residential neighborhoods,” Ng added that “the job is not yet complete. Our campaign continues. We still have 1 residential neighborhood to go: Decoto.” The petition is asking the city council to conduct “more extensive studies and seeks more community feedback before deciding on such a center.”
Ng’s petition drive, in turn, has spawned a lively discussion online. One signer, identified as Sandy Ouyang, said that she supported the push because “building navigation centers around school and residential areas will only create more problems for the city in the long run. Kids will no longer feel free and safe going outside of their comfort zone such as walking and bikes to school, going to cvs along or even with friends, to Safeway, after school activities, or going to get their favorite drinks at Starbucks or share tea and even to McDonald’s. Residents will have to think twice before taking a walk after dinner with family members.”
Ouyang and others beseeched local leaders to work more closely with state officials to address the issue of homelessness.
“I feel that the homelessness problem is a state problem that needs to be addressed by the state of California,” she wrote. “Decisions should not be made by a few city councils or even the major alone. It involves the health of every citizen living in those cities with every navigation center built around it. It will create more mental health problems and stress for both the homeless and regular residents because homeless problem is around the corner your house and it automatically become everyone’s problem.”
I'm all for helping the homeless at least get their foot in the door somehow with a HNC in Fremont..
But I think the focus should be more on overcrowded elementary schools in the city. We NEED more schools if you're ganna continue this development.
So yes, I will vote against
— DubNation 🏆 MUFC (@DORHA17) July 15, 2019
Yay! #Fremont is moving forward on possible sites for a Homeless Navigation Center! Thanks @aceckhouse for keeping us updated! https://t.co/mq0A7rzRD6
— Emily Ann Ramos (@EngineerEmily) July 10, 2019
Over at Greenbelt Alliance, a local smart-growth and open-space advocacy group that supports Fremont’s plan, people have laid out their concerns about the city’s homeless problem in various forms. A user named Larry Barrios shared a personal take on the growing number of people living on the street he sees performing charity work in Fremont. “Some are families who go from one parking lot to another for safety and to spend the night. If our community can provide them with some temporary housing to get them settled, they get back on their feet and off the streets.”
Barrios added that part of the reason the navigation center has roused such emotion on both sides of the issue is because many residents have misconceptions about the homeless. “They think that all homeless are dirty, addicts, criminals, lazy, and other things,” he wrote. “But they don’t see the whole picture and their fears are based on stereotypes. We need this navigation center. We cannot be a community that looks down on the poor and unfortunate but a community that comes together and help them.”
Fremont rejected nav center sites in residential areas in favor of a site next to a plant nursery and one behind city hall. Meanwhile, Mayor Breed continues to insist that a densely-populated residential area is the best place for SF's newest nav center. https://t.co/fJt0plCTQ4
— Wallace Lee (@sf_wallace) July 11, 2019
After Fremont City Council member Teresa Keng reached out on Facebook for input from residents on the proposed center, she received a wide range of opinions that reflect the bedeviling nature of the homelessness problem facing cities around the world.
“Should be looking at more than two” sites for consideration, one user wrote, after the city narrowed their choices down to two. “It means none of the others were truly examined carefully enough. Short shrift for a really important decision.”
Another user said she was “100% in support of a navigation center anywhere in Fremont, including near my home or near my children’s school. There will be challenges no matter where it goes but instead of nixing every suggestion, let’s try something and come together on the solutions. Being afraid of drug users and homeless people is almost laughable. I rather leave my children unsupervised with a room filled with homeless people than a room filled with white men over 40 with high profile jobs.”
And William Bill Spicer wrote in response to some of the anti-center comments, “I am ashamed of a lot of the above statements. Shame, Shame on you, and I suppose you call yourselves Christians.”
