FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) — The Cambodian Buddhist temple on Clinton and Valentine serves as a place of peace for many in Fresno County, but a growing unhoused community is encamped against its walls, raising concerns among its members and monks.<\/p>\n
“We don’t want our community to feel unsafe coming over here and also creating the health hazard for children that might be playing over here,” Fresno Cambodian Buddhist society board member Danny Kim said.<\/p>\n
The temple says it has experienced issues with the unhoused for years.<\/p>\n
“We caught someone in the dining hall setting up a tent or trying to sleep,” Kim explained. “They left needles, paraphernalia, glass pipes.”<\/p>\n
The temple says it’s helped the unhoused through compassion and respect, but the growing safety concerns have made that difficult.<\/p>\n
“We treat every human being the same regardless of their status and the unhoused community is no exception,” Kim stated.<\/p>\n
The unhoused are set up on private property within county and city jurisdiction, so the temple has been working with both to solve the problem.<\/p>\n
The city’s portion is within councilmember Annalisa Perea’s district.<\/p>\n
She says no encampments sit within city limits, but city officials still want to help.<\/p>\n
“We did send out city code enforcement teams as well as our homeless outreach teams to see what we could do to be a good partner with the county,” Perea said.<\/p>\n
The county’s Office of Housing and Homelessness could not talk about this property specifically, but says solving an unhoused problem on private property can take a long time.<\/p>\n
“Our process is always to work with the property owner, coordinate with the sheriff’s office and our outreach team to notice the property,” Fresno County homelessness program manager Dylan McCully explained.<\/p>\n
If the property owner is not compliant with the county, the process can take even longer.<\/p>\n
Perea says the city has tried to contact the property owner several times, but had no luck.<\/p>\n
However, Perea says there has been some recent communication between the owner and the county.<\/p>\n
The county’s office of housing and homelessness would not talk about this specific incident.<\/p>\n
The temple is asking unhoused organizations for help in dealing with this ongoing issue.<\/p>\n
For news and weather updates, follow Tiffany Olin on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n