Probation Homeless Operation Verifies Compliance and Distributes Resources

In a first-time homeless compliance operation carried out Dec. 13, the San Bernardino County probation department worked to verify a number of homeless individuals in the area and provide homeless resource information to those in need. The operation involved contact of homeless probationers in Central San Bernardino and included both residential and street contacts, according to a release issued by the county probation department. The Adult Central Division set out to contact 180 individuals who were reporting as homeless. Of those targets, the release states, probation officers attempted 141 visits. There were 26 arrests, 28 searches, 10 arrest warrants served. Twenty two of the addresses visited were no longer up-to-date. Officers confiscated 10 guns, four grams of Methamphetamine, 12 grams of marijuana and several boxes of ammunition during the compliance check, according to the release. During the compliance check, probation officers examined trends of transient probationers, including where in the city they tend to congregate and also sought the "extent of homelessness with offenders," probation officials said. "The department is aware that some offenders are only partial homeless, finding occasional shelter with family or associates, or only at certain times," the release states. "In some instances, offenders report homelessness to avoid supervision, while other offenders report addresses as full-time residences when they only stay there occasionally." Preliminary findings of the 2013 San Bernardino County Homeless Count and Subpopulation Survey showed 1,182 homeless adults and 65 children in the county. Of those 1,182 homeless adults, 248 - 21 percent - had been released within the last year from a correctional institution, such as a prison or a jail after serving a court-order sentence. Twenty-five percent of these persons were men and 18 percent were women. “Homeless probationers represent a unique and difficult population to supervise,” stated Chief Probation Officer Michelle Scray Brown. “It is exceedingly difficult for the homeless supervised offender population to take advantage of treatment resources that will help them lead crime-free lives when they cannot meet their basic subsistence needs. In these cases we have to provide basic resources in addition to classes, training and treatment services.”