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One of the transient camps in the Santa Clara River Wash.

Sheriff’s Deputies, Prototypes Conduct Homeless Outreach In Santa Clara River Wash

Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies and leaders of the nonprofit organization, Prototypes, conducted a homeless outreach program for pregnant women in the Santa Clara River wash Thursday morning.


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Deputy Dan Dantice, Deputy Betsy Shackelford and three women from Prototypes went into two homeless camps to work to help three known pregnant women who are heroin addicts and are living in the wash.

Prototypes is a program to help women who are struggling with addiction and other serious issues such as domestic violence and mental illness, according to Prototype’s website.

Santa Clara River Wash Homeless Outreach

The three women from Prototypes included April Wilson, the vice president of integration, Trina Marquez, re-entry supervisor and Bethany Ineson, Community Prisoner Mother’s Program supervisor.

“What’s keeping them out here is their addiction,” said Dantice. “What also keeps them back here is their attachment to someone else… I’ve never walked anyone out that wanted help.”

Related: Santa Clarita Leaders Offer Resources For Pregnant Addicts

One homeless, pregnant woman gave birth to her baby in the wash on August 10.

Two of the three homeless, pregnant women known to be living in the Santa Clarita Valley were able to be contacted and are living in the wash with their boyfriends.

The first homeless couple decided to stay in the wash, but the second couple was taken to lunch by Wilson and Ineso so they could buy them a decent meal and try and convince them that getting help is a good thing, Dantice said.

“We’re lucky here, a lot of cities can’t put out the resources, we’re fortunate in Santa Clarita that the city is really proactive and community oriented. They know this is an issue and if they don’t do something about it, it’s just going to compound,” Dantice said. “It’s a lot better than what it was. To say we’re ever going to end camping in the wash would be unrealistic.”

The Santa Clarita Valley has several programs and organizations in place to help homeless individuals, such as Bridge to Home, L.A. County Housing and Assistance League.

“(The resources are) available, just, we can’t make them do it. We try to encourage them to (seek help),” said Dantice. “There’s numerous transients that I’ve been in contact with that I haven’t seen since. I have to believe that they’ve gone and, hopefully, helped themselves.”

The transient couples that were contacted during the outreach know each other and their camps have relocated several times after being contacted by Sheriff’s deputies and city of Santa Clarita Community Preservation officials for living in an illegal encampment, Dantice said.

“There’s a core group, and these (women) are part of the core group,” Dantice said. “They’ll usually stay within this area because it’s what they’re used to. When they move, they’ll pick up and move but they’ll leave a bunch of stuff.”

More than 80 sites have been cleaned up, which resulted in the removal of more than 78,550 pounds of trash within 4.07 square miles, according to a news release. The cost for the cleanup of all the sites to the city has been more than $57,467.

One of the other couples who are living in the wash are collectors and, from their camp alone, over 4,000 pounds of debris has been removed, Dantice added.

Car parts, couches, refrigerators, electronics and items that could possibly be stolen can be found in the transient’s camps, added Dantice.

“We try to identify property that we think might be stolen. We’ve taken 100 bikes out of the wash and try to match them with bikes that may have been stolen locally, we haven’t had very much success,” said Dantice. “Every camp has a bike, that’s how they get around.”

Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com.

KHTS AM 1220 - Santa Clarita Radio

Sheriff’s Deputies, Prototypes Conduct Homeless Outreach In Santa Clara River Wash

One comment

  1. I, along with the staff at Prototypes that helped the deputies with the outreach, were very encouraged to see the dedication from the sheriff’s department to help these families. It was very inspiring to see the community come together. As an organization that treats people with addiction every day, we know that these types of interactions help to plant a seed. It isn’t that people don’t want help or want to live in the river wash; these are people who have a chronic disease and aren’t yet ready to make a change. It is not unlike people with heart disease who lead an unhealthy lifestyle. They know it is bad for them. They are scared and just aren’t ready to make a change. Prototypes is here and ready to help when they are ready to get the help. A seed was planted last week. Sometimes it just takes some time to grow.

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About Heather Harbin

Heather grew up in the Santa Clarita Valley and graduated from West Ranch High School in 2012. She recently graduated from College of the Canyons with an Associate's Degree in New Media Journalism. She was involved in College of the Canyons' "Cougar News" for two years, where she became the senior producer. She will be studying for her Bachelor's Degree at Cal State Northridge in the spring. Heather became a staff writer at KHTS AM-1220 following her internship in the newsroom. She has been writing news and feature articles for the KHTS website since May 2015.