Stockton Mayor Leads Cleanup Of Homeless Camp Garbage
STOCKTON (CBS13) — Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva is planning on dealing with the overwhelming amount of garbage piling up and around the city's homeless camp.
Volunteers and some of the homeless helped on Tuesday by cleaning up the area.
Silva says he hopes to help the trash issue by placing dumpsters and porta potties near the camps.
"I'm coming out here, I'm encouraging the local residents who live here to clean up after themselves and the ones that help out I'm going to give them a tip you know at the end of the day," he said.
Alissa Henser says the mess for this year's cleanup is far worse than her last one.
"It's 10 times the people and it's 10 times the garbage," she said. "I think if the people just had a place to put the garbage it wouldn't be so bad."
Henry Cross, a homeless man camping in the area, says while this helps, it doesn't solve the problem.
"When you come out here and clean up behind people, clean up behind people, clean up behind people, nobody appreciates and you figure someone would see you out there cleaning up their mess they would go in and pitch in and try to clean up themselves," he said.
Silva agrees this doesn't solve the problem, but it's a start.
"At least getting some dumpsters out here gives them a place to throw their waste. That's a start. This is not a long-term solution; it's just a short-term solution, but it gives the homeless folks a little bit of hope and it makes the city a little more clean and safe for the rest of the residents," he said.
Silva says he'll be tipping the homeless volunteers $10 to $11 an hour for help.
