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Body found in tent at San Luis Obispo homeless encampment

October 9, 2020

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

Police officers found a homeless man, who was in his 60s, dead inside a tent at an encampment in San Luis Obispo Thursday morning.

At about 11 a.m., members of SLO Police Department’s Community Action Team and Special Enforcement Team inspected several homeless encampments along the Bob Jones Trail between Prado Road and Los Osos Valley Road. Officers found 20 encampments, several of which were unoccupied, according to police.

The officers made contact with about 10 individuals and offered them a range of services and programs.

While inspecting one encampment, officers located a tent near the trailhead at Los Osos Valley Road east of Highway 101. Officers tried to contact the person inside but immediately noticed the man was deceased.

It appeared the man had been dead for several weeks, police said.

Detectives came out to the scene and did not find anything suspicious. They interviewed several people near the area who told them the man had ongoing health issues.

An investigator with the San Luis Obispo County coroner’s unit then arrived and took over the investigation. Following the initial investigation, the man’s cause of death remains unknown.

Investigators will conduct an autopsy early next week.

Authorities are currently withholding the deceased man’s name while relatives are notified. Anyone who has information about the death is asked to contact investigators at (805) 781-7312 or Crime Stoppers at (805) 549-STOP.


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Very sad to hear. So many hurting out there struggling with issues that lead to homelessness and this end for various reasons.


Where are you Governor Newsom? This has exploded and become a major epidemic under you reign. Far more impacting on our communities than COVIR-19. Last week Newsom stated he was going to appoint a commission on looking into paying reparations for slavery by the state. Maybe he should shelve that thought and address the drugs, mental issues, and over burden taxes for individuals that often puts them on the streets. Its much more important and needed than relieving the privileged white guilt you and others of your ilk seemed to be filled with.


9

Boy, it sure is great that we taxpayers footed the millions of dollars for that great bike path idea that we don’t dare try and use unless we want to risk our safety to unhinged transients, needles, trash, and whatever other fun things that area has become.


12

He sat there rotting for weeks as the 100k dollar Tesla model x DoD contractor psycho Musk car and the 500 dollar jogging outfit blissfully strode by griping about the under served ruining their sacred nature trail all while desecrating a Chumash Burial site with a nude beach full of Poly Privilege. Oh so glamorous is Slo.


-24

Move


10

Will the powers that be please come to your senses and get these people off of the streets and into shelters and or hospital treatment centers….I can’t think of anything more uncaring than to allow your brothers and sisters to sleep in the streets….

This is why back when we were really compassionate unlike the phony feel goodisim we have today we had vagrancy laws…those laws were not enacted out of meanness….it was out of compassion….


19

Laws that were deemed cruel and unusual due to ticketing homeless and poor folks who couldn’t stay in over packed shelters or had some alcohol? You call that compassion? How about tax the rich to house the poor, vs tax breaks for the wealthiest and quit incentives for rich people anywhere.


4

Why would the rich be burdened with footing the bill…don’t we all live in this society? Shouldn’t we all be equally responsible in your utopia? Believe me, I am not rich, I just don’t think it’s reasonable (or fair) to place the costs on people just because they have more than the rest of us.


1

There is a very nice, relatively new, homeless shelter in SLO (on Prado St). Many of the homeless choose to not receive these services, which are readily available via government programs…and others via non-profits. There is a cause and effect relationship at play here…the cause to some extent is prison realignment (AB109, prop 57, 57) and the effect is what you see. CA is exacerbating this homelessness situation via its progressive legislation & policies. This problem is complex, it’s not due to a lack of compassion. You say it’s uncaring to allow your brothers & sisters to sleep in the streets, but how many homeless have you welcomed into your home? Is this the phony feel goodism you referred to? I don’t expect you to do it, I wouldn’t, it wouldn’t be safe. BUT, what options do “the powers that be” have? Jail (nope), free housing (available), free mental health (available)…the root problem is seeded in the deinstitutionalization that occurred in the 70’s….many of these people have real problems that require treatment, it’s just that no one can force them to get it.


7

FYI, 40 Prado is only taking clients who have been in SLO County for at least a year, per the sign on their front door.


1

I’m sure it’s rather difficult to prove, or disprove, whether someone has been living homeless in SLO county for a year.


4

I agree with your comments. But it seems to me that most, not all, homeless people do not want to live in a structured and regulated environment. That is what led them to the homeless live. I have no empirical evidence, just casual observation, to support this.


17

I agree with your comments “sloweb”. I am part of ministry that twice a week provides food, clothing and a hand to help give them an avenue out of their situations. Sadly, only some have taken advantage. The majority of them just want the food and clothing. Most of them have addictions to drugs, and alcohol which often leads to the mental issues. We try to get them into sobriety, but many reject it or if they do accept, they fail because they don’t like the structured or regulated environment as you stated. They often struggle badly with personal accountability and responsibility.


Over the last few weeks we have tried to help several young adults all between 20-25 who are on the streets and homeless. All of them have substance abuse issues. All of them lost their jobs and income due drugs and alcohol use. This is also all due to their poor choices. It is not anyone else’s fault as “kevin wise” suggest. Two of them were willing take a step to sobriety. The third chose not to. We’ll see how it all plays out.


There have been success as well. There are three young men 25-35 who are clean and sober and reaching out to others in our street ministry to share with them a better way.


9

Well, commonsenseguy, I want to thank you for your care and efforts on behalf of those folks.


If our so-called “governments” truly cared about those lost souls, those are the kind of approaches that could actually begin to address the problem.


6

Agreed, the choices we make as individuals have consequences. Many, if not most of these individuals, have made bad choices…some, have mental health issues & need treatment. Our society has a serious problem with accountability (or lack there of) and entitlement. It is always someone else’s fault, I should get what everyone else has because it’s not fair…oh, and they should pay for it too because it’s really not fair. Our state and local politicians have been complicit in spreading this plague because it buys them votes…unfortunately, the consequences are what we have to live with.


6