Deputies try to handle El Paseo panhandling

It’s the Coachella Valley’s Rodeo Drive…our Fifth Avenue — high-end shops, restaurants, a playground for the well-heeled — El Paseo in Palm Desert. But that popular, upscale street, and other nearby streets, has another group of folks much less well-heeled; the homeless.

Police are on regular patrol there to make sure shoppers and workers aren’t harassed or bothered, while still safeguarding the rights of people down on their luck.

Officers said panhandling isn’t frequently seen in the area, but the homeless epidemic is still felt.

Riverside County sheriff’s deputy Christin Rogers has been working for the department for five years and spends much of her ten-hour day, four days a week, patrolling the Palm Desert area, including El Paseo. Deputy Rogers said it’s difficult coming up with a number of homeless in the area, it can vary given the time of year.

She has about 20 regulars; homeless individuals she meets time and time again.

A big part of her job is to make sure the homeless don’t cause problems for businesses.

“Some of the retail is higher end, and they [store owners] are afraid that maybe customers might be bothered by being asked for money or any other kind of goods,” Deputy Rogers said.

But she spends much of her time educating both the homeless, and store owners.

“What really is considered loitering or trespassing?” Rogers said, “If the person no longer has any lawful business to conduct, and the business has a no loitering sign posted or there’s a letter on file with the police department for trespassing, if there is not any business to be conducted, they’re supposed to leave the property.”

The merchants CBS Local 2 spoke with seem pleased with the patrol efforts. Bert Bruning owns Palm Desert Tobacco. He said police do a great job, but there have been issues.

“We’ve had problems in the past back by the dumpsters, they’re taking care of bodily functions back there, but you know you have to do something but we’ve never been in that situation and you don’t know what you would do until you’ve been there yourself,” said Bruning.

Geral Plough, 52, has been on the streets since 1996. He like this area and said it’s a good place to collect cans for recycling money. He admits his problems begin, and end with alcohol.

El Paseo Jewelers owner Raju Mehta seems sympathetic towards the homeless, like Plough. “They don’t bother anybody here, they are not harassing people.

A native of India, Mehta said homelessness is much worse in his heavily populated homeland.

“In India it’s a worse scenario than this, you can go on sidewalks and people will sleep overnight and the next morning they will get up and go to work, but in the evening they will come and sleep on the sidewalks,” Mehta added.

For Gerald Plough, a little money from recyclables means a reasonable meal.

“[The] 99 cent store you can get a loaf of break, bologna, condiments, ketchup, mustard, pickles…dynamite for $5,” Plough said.

Deputy Rogers doesn’t seem the least hardened by her job. In fact, she admits to being saddened by the plight of the homeless. She often suggests shelters for them to go for the night. But man, suffering from addictions, have a hard time with shelter life.

“Because of problems of addiction they might have it disqualify them from certain programs,” Rogers said. “A lot of programs ask them to stay clean and a lot of them have addictions that are hard to get away from.”

She knows many of the homeless in her patrol area by name and she seems very honest in admitting to no real success stories when it comes to getting the homeless into more permanent housing.

“Do they become in some way friends? I don’t know that I would say friends, but acquaintances. I don’t mind stopping and seeing how their day is going, if anything is new, making sure they have enough water is important out here in the desert,” Rogers said.

She also said the homeless individuals in her area all show her respect.