They called it the \u201cTreatment First Program<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n City leaders pledged to Fresno\u2019s unhoused population, virtually the only demographic targeted by the anti-camping ordinance,\u00a0 a way out of their criminal camping arrests if they committed themselves to drug or alcohol treatment provided by a trio of local faith-based service providers.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they choose that approach,\u201d Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said at the Sept. 23, 2024, news conference, \u201cthe police report would be held in advance, and if they completed a program as determined by the treatment provider, that report would be disposed of.\u201d<\/p>\n Now about 16 months later, City Hall can\u2019t say whether anyone has completed any such program.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias, who since 2024 has emerged as the most staunch defender of the law and who was present at the Treatment First Program\u2019s rollout, told Fresnoland that \u201cI wouldn\u2019t call it a \u2018program.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n There are few numbers or success metrics tied to Fresno\u2019s Treatment First Program.\u00a0<\/p>\n And, more than a year later, nobody can agree on what these numbers mean \u2014 if anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n Between September 2024, and the end of January this year, Fresno police say a total of 826 arrests or citations were issued under the city\u2019s anti-camping law.<\/p>\n Of the hundreds of bookings, just 18 alleged campers opted into the city\u2019s Treatment First program.\u00a0<\/p>\n What happened next to those 18 people is unclear, and city leaders gave contradictory answers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Arias told Fresnoland that it was his understanding all 18 people had successfully completed a treatment program and, subsequently, had their arrest records expunged. But, he acknowledged he had no proof.<\/p>\n On Jan. 29, a Dyer spokesperson, in an emailed statement to Fresnoland, said they \u201chave not been advised that any of the 18 individuals referred by (Fresno police) have completed the Treatment First Program.\u201d<\/p>\n Of the treatment providers that spoke to Fresnoland, none could say whether they even received anybody from the city\u2019s new program.<\/p>\n On top of hard-to-spot success stories for the Treatment First Program, the city initiative never led to any specific service agreements between the city and treatment providers.<\/p>\n Kevin Little is a Fresno attorney who has successfully defended homeless individuals against the anti-camping ordinance. He expressed frustration with both the paltry results from the program, and the city\u2019s decision to not seriously implement any metrics for success.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you really are interested in learning how efficacious your solutions are, you would have some tracking,\u201d Little said. \u201cIt sounds like all the city knows is that 18, a desultory number when you\u2019re talking a total of about 850\u202618 people have been referred to for services\u2026we don\u2019t know anything more than that 18 people were dropped off at a location. We don\u2019t know what happened to those folks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I cannot safely, confidently walk into my business\u2019<\/p>\n Cities and counties across the country gained the ability to criminalize camping following the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling in the Grants Pass case in 2024<\/a> \u2014 a trial that the federal judicial branch heard at least in part following pressure from some of the country\u2019s leaders like California Gov. Gavin Newsom.<\/p>\n In 2024, Dyer, Arias and other local politicians and business leaders hailed their new legislative powers as a critical new tool to help the city\u2019s beleaguered shop owners, many of whom faced daily challenges from unhoused or encampment residents interfering with business one way or another.<\/p>\n That, they said<\/a>, was among the problems this ordinance would fix.<\/p>\n Nobody likes arresting the unhoused, city officials and business leaders noted at the time, especially when there\u2019s no place for them to safely go. The Supreme Court, notably, said cities and counties are no longer obligated to provide beds or shelter for the homeless.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are not enough supportive services for local homeless residents nationwide<\/a>.<\/p>\n But too many of the city\u2019s business owners were upset, moving to Clovis or closing up altogether. And, six months after the law passed, business owners told Fresnoland<\/a> that the law, while not popular, was changing things for the better.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have people camped out here in the morning,\u201d one business owner told Fresnoland last spring. \u201cI can go days without cleaning up.\u201d<\/p>\n In a Jan. 29 email, the mayor\u2019s office told Fresnoland that, \u201cBusiness owners have communicated appreciation for the ways the City is responding to their needs. While homelessness, mental illness, and addiction are complex issues, the business community recognizes that the City is supporting them more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n Not everyone agrees.<\/p>\n Cameron Phillips, a 33-year-old tattoo artist and business owner of Line and Shade Tattoo near Herndon and Polk Avenues in northwest Fresno, said he\u2019s so fed up that he\u2019s closing his shop and moving his family to the coast.<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot safely, confidently walk into my business without worrying about being approached by somebody who has a weapon, and then putting myself in a position where I may have to draw my concealed firearm and take someone\u2019s life, potentially,\u201d Phillips said in a Feb. 2 interview with Fresnoland. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be in that position.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillips said that, in no uncertain terms, the anti-encampment law has been useless in protecting his business.<\/p>\n And, he said, he\u2019s even considering suing the city for lost wages for what he described as \u201csevere emotional distress\u201d for its failure to address the public safety issues he reported to authorities repeatedly, when unhoused residents at a nearby encampment clashed with his customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m working with an attorney because of their inadequacy to properly deal with this problem and respond to it.\u201d<\/p>\n The failed attempts to prosecute the unhoused<\/p>\n Fresno also has had little success prosecuting the unhoused residents who refuse treatment.<\/p>\n Its two highest profile attempts at prosecuting the unhoused who refuse treatment have embarrassed Fresno City Hall. In both cases, the unhoused residents walked out of court without accepting either treatment or a criminal conviction.<\/p>\n In the first case, city prosecutors tried to force news reporters to testify<\/a> in court \u2014 aiming to beef up their evidence before a judge ultimately threw it out for violating an unhoused person\u2019s Fourth Amendment right to a speedy trial.<\/p>\n The City Attorney\u2019s Office also lost its first jury trial late last year<\/a>, and, in a statement to The Fresno Bee, blamed \u201cjury nullification,\u201d when jurors refused to enforce a law they say is unjust<\/a>.<\/p>\n City Hall will face another legal challenge to its anti-encampment law from Little, the city rights attorney, who filed federal civil rights lawsuit in December. He was the defense lawyer in the city\u2019s first major defeat<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Little is looking to end the city\u2019s enforcement of the law entirely. He said the city should look to invest money toward the other means of homelessness support, rather than what he calls criminalization.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so when you create this criminalization machine, it comes at a cost,\u201d Little told Fresnoland. \u201cIt comes at a cost where those funds could be diverted to services, could be diverted to shelters, could be diverted to more advocates out there in the field, could be given to nonprofits for people who are already out there dealing with our unhoused community.\u201d<\/p>\n Better than nothing?<\/p>\n Of all the original advocates of the city\u2019s Treatment First approach, only Arias is still willing to discuss it in 2026.<\/p>\n Dyer\u2019s office provided some information, but declined an interview. Councilmember Tyler Maxwell, who co-sponsored the city\u2019s anti-camping law with Arias, refused to respond to numerous requests for comment dating back to late last year.<\/p>\n When Arias was asked how he would respond to people who see the data and come away feeling that the only thing the city and county\u2019s anti-encampment ordinances have done is criminalize homelessness, he didn\u2019t disagree.\u00a0<\/p>\n He said he believed people would come away either thinking the program should be left as is, expanded, or done away with altogether.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re all right,\u201d Arias said, before adding that he believed one of the few things those groups might have in common is that \u201cthey all call us the very next day asking us to clear the encampment in their neighborhood.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But, he said, he stands by the program and says it\u2019s too soon to call it a failure.\u00a0 He said the city does not invest any significant money into it, as it\u2019s just an added task for Fresno police officers interacting with unhoused people.<\/p>\n Arias also argued that 18 unhoused people completing drug and alcohol treatment \u2014 if true \u2014 is not nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Treatment programs still out of reach for many\u00a0<\/p>\n Two of the three local homeless supportive services that partnered with the city for the program \u2014the Fresno Mission and the Salvation Army \u2014 said their programs and services work and they have the receipts to show it. Their services largely operate independent of the city, and are not directly connected to the ordinance or even Treatment First.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing that\u2019s been tailored specifically for the camping ordinance,\u201d Dildine said of the Mission\u2019s treatment options.<\/p>\n The Poverello House, the biggest treatment service provider of the three, did not respond to multiple requests for comment dating back to last year.<\/p>\n Major David Pierce, an administrator of donor development with the Fresno Salvation Army, said the organization offers six-month programs that offer housing, food and other faith-based supportive services.<\/p>\n The Fresno Mission offers even more services to residents \u2014 from warming centers to 12-month programs that include six months of transitional housing.<\/p>\n The Mission\u2019s CEO, Matt Dildine, told Fresnoland the 12-month program, which is the highest tier of recovery they offer, helps people prepare to reintegrate into the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single person that leaves that program, leaves with a job, their GED and a place to live,\u201d Dildine said. \u201cIt\u2019s produced incredible results.\u201d<\/p>\n Pierce told Fresnoland that the success rate for the Salvation Army\u2019s program hovers slightly below 50%. Dildine said that the 12-month program has a success rate \u201cin excess of 80%\u201d for individuals who stay past the first three months.<\/p>\n The only catch?\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s typically no room available in any local programs, with lengthy waiting lists and no additional funding to expand services in the wake of the city\u2019s crackdown on camping.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s office told Fresnoland in an email on Jan. 29 that there was an understanding between City Hall and the three service providers that the latter group had the capacity to take on Treatment First enrollees in spite of no additional funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Fresno Mission held a fundraiser over this winter to help keep their warming centers running<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dildine told Fresnoland on Jan.26 that the Fresno Mission\u2019s crisis housing for families\u00a0 has a waitlist of about 150, down from about 200 he said.<\/p>\n The Salvation Army\u2019s rehabilitative program capacity tops out at a little over 100, Pierce told Fresnoland, though enrollment is on a rolling basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Also, neither group could say whether any of the 18 referrals even made it to one of their programs. There is no indication that they\u2019re tracking that data, either.<\/p>\n \u2018A myopic view of a very complex problem\u2019<\/p>\n What would it take to make it work \u2014 or at least work better \u2014 in Fresno?<\/p>\n Arias, who will term out as a councilmember in just under a year, said complaints about the policy are valid, but he argued that the policy is not the real problem.<\/p>\n Arias suggested that at least part of the problem is the fact that local governments can only incentivize \u2014 not force \u2014 people to accept treatment services.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s voluntary,\u201d Arias said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to force people to do things that are in their interest when it\u2019s voluntary.\u201d<\/p>\n The state passed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act in 1967<\/a>, a landmark policy that established strict guidelines to force people into treatment. Efforts to force individuals into treatment have been met with stiff opposition<\/a> from advocates for patients with disabilities.<\/p>\n California\u2019s CARE Court system<\/a>, launched at the same time as Fresno\u2019s anti-camping law with a similar approach, slightly relaxed some rules for treatment enforcement, but the state\u2019s program hasn\u2019t fared much better than Fresno\u2019s policy.<\/a><\/p>\n Arias said he remains open to suggestions \u2013 either from City Hall or local advocates \u2014 and encouraged more public debate. But he also said he\u2019s not hopeful that a more elegant solution could emerge.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I will tell you is,\u201d Arias said, \u201conce they understand that it\u2019s voluntary, and that we cannot mandate it under state law, it really removes our ability to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Little has long argued that the city\u2019s approach toward unhoused residents is, at best, unsophisticated and indifferent. Focusing only on substance abuse treatment, Little said, addresses just a small fraction of the unhoused community.<\/p>\n \u201cIt reflects a myopic view of a very complex problem,\u201d Little told Fresnoland.<\/p>\n He said the city\u2019s paltry stats and disorganized approach to treatment are only further evidence that the law doesn\u2019t work and the city isn\u2019t interested in making it work. If City Hall wanted the laws to be effective, Little said, \u201cyou would have some tracking.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know anything more than that 18 people were dropped off at a location,\u201d the attorney reiterated. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what happened to those folks.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Phillips, the westside tattoo shop owner, says he can\u2019t wait around any longer just hoping the city might one day make the lives of small business owners easier.<\/p>\n \u201cThose numbers tell the whole story,\u201d said Phillips.<\/p>\n Dildine, the Mission\u2019s CEO, said accepting treatment, ultimately, will always be up to the individual\u2019s frame of mind, regardless of the carrots and sticks government officials try to manufacture to force the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cI think when you have somebody that\u2019s in a tent, they\u2019re not going to move, and their only other option is to be arrested, there\u2019s a good chance that person isn\u2019t just simply ready for treatment,\u201d Dildine said. \u201cTo choose that option, you have to be ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What’s at stake? The city has no tangible wins to show for its anti-encampment ordinance well over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,54837,114,53063,113,80333],"class_list":["post-166679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-anti-encampment","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-homeless","tag-fresno-news","tag-fresno-treatment-first-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/DSC1445.jpg\")
Cameron Phillips. Pablo Orihuela | Fresnoland<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/DSC1223.jpg\")
Fresno attorney Kevin Little answers questions from the media following the announcement that he would challenge the city\u2019s anti-encampment ordinance in court. Pablo Orihuela | Fresnoland<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/DSC1444.jpg\")
Cameron Phillips. Pablo Orihuela | Fresnoland<\/p>\n