Residents of Manteca housed in dorms in the temporary homeless shelter will join efforts to clean up debris and garbage around the community.

They will be part of the His Way Triple Nickle City-Wide Clean-Up event on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Other community residents are being invited to join the effort that will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end around noon.

Volunteers are gathering at 8 a.m. at the Calvary Church parking lot on Lathrop Road.

The city contracts with His Way  to operate the emergency homeless center at 555 Industrial Park Drive where a pair of 25-bed dorms opened in April.

His Way provides basic needs as well for the homeless. They also work with them to get off the street.

“Other cities have had the homeless help with cleaning up the community,” noted City Manager Toni Lundgren. “We thought we would try it here.”

The community participation event Tuesday is part of an ongoing city effort to tackle trash around Manteca.

The effort has resulted in abandoned homeless trash along city streets and property — along with other illegal dumping — being greatly reduced over the past year.

It’s because Manteca leaders opted to augment city crews already stretched thin with daily tasks such as park and street maintenance by contracting with Manteca Property Services.

On any given day Manteca Property Services removes from city streets:

*80 to 150 large garbage bags of trash.

*an average of 10 shopping carts with the peak being 37 carts in one day.

*assorted appliances, mattresses, couches, and larger items.
It is a service Manteca may have to forgo due to revenues not keeping pace with municipal expenses.

The clean-up effort is citywide with a heavier emphasis on downtown, Library Park, alleys, and other public settings.
The city has worked with the property services firm since July 2023.

The firm also assists with Caltrans efforts to clean up areas along the freeways.
The contracted service is in addition to efforts by the city’s parks and solid waste crews as well as community resource officers to remove trash.

Team efforts are conducted  to clean up homeless trash from encampments take place on a weekly basis.

The city meets weekly with Caltrans District 10 to target homeless encampments on Moffat Boulevard as well as the Highway 99 and 120 Bypass corridors.

Citizens can report garbage, junk and debris issues to the city of Manteca’s government outreach via app or the web site, calling the non-emergency Manteca Police line at 209-456-8101, or submit a customer service request to Caltrans District 10 at Csr.dot.ca.gov

If you are interested in assisting Tuesday, you can obtain more information by contacting His Way Refuge at (209) 923-3968 or Weill Drahos at (209) 704-7400.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com