Vandalism and drugs rise in downtown Atascadero — and Sunken Gardens neighbors are worried
Atascadero is grappling with vandalism and drug activity in the city’s downtown area — which police and business owners say is on the rise.
Centennial Plaza and the Sunken Gardens have long served as a public gathering place for residents — sheltered and unsheltered, alike.
But the community conversation about conditions in the area has shifted since a local museum temporarily closed, citing concerns about the safety of its members.
Now, police are stepping up patrols, and at least one downtown business is warning parents to make sure their children steer clear of that section of town.
“We have a little bit of everything that’s all come together at one location that should be a crown jewel for the city,” Police Chief Jerel Haley said.
Museum closure
The Colony House Museum, located near the intersection of East Mall and Lewis Avenue and home to the Atascadero Historical Society, has been a focal point of recent troublesome activity.
The museum closed after the city’s Colony Days celebration in early October, following the destruction of a large fountain and drug-related activity that frightened members, Historical Society president Jim Wilkins said.
“I don’t want to have one of our members get hurt, or the general public,” he said.
The museum’s backyard leads into a wooded area, where homeless people and students from nearby Atascadero Middle School have always hung out, Wilkins said.
“They weren’t real destructive,” he said. “They were just leaving trash and trampling the plants.”
However, a “rough” group of men in their 20s and 30s moved in during the last few months and kicked out the previous crowd, he said.
Then, members found a large fountain that once occupied a space in the backyard broken apart.
“The top was 1,200 pounds, so that wasn’t just kids playing around,” Wilkins said.
A few times, Historical Society members were frightened when people fled into the building — once in the aftermath of a drug deal, Wilkins said.
“It scared the heck out of some of those people, who aren’t used to dealing with those kinds of individuals,” he said.
The Historical Society is raising $3,000 to purchase motion-sensing cameras and security lights, which members hope will deter vandalism and drug use, Wilkins said.
Once the cameras are installed, members will be able to see what’s going on at the property from afar and notify police, if needed.
Members have raised about half the money needed to purchase the equipment, and the museum will likely open again sometime early next year, Wilkins said.
Other businesses raise concerns
Other area tenants have also expressed concerns about vandalism and drug activity around their properties.
Dr. Jason Pambrun, who operates an East Mall orthodontist office, posted a warning on Oct. 23 to parents on his practice’s Facebook page.
“Those of you who frequent our office have seen the situation behind the office,” the post reads. “It has essentially become a homeless day-camp. Our city is working hard trying to clean it up, but in the meantime, we witness drug use and mental illness episodes back there daily.”
The post, which has received 116 comments and been shared 255 times, warns parents “our A-Town kids really don’t need to be back there.”
For Carey Rogers, president of Senior Citizens United, interacting with homeless people and coping with drug activity is not a new experience.
The nonprofit operates the Senior Citizens Center on East Mall, right next door to Pambrun’s orthodontist office. People fill their water containers using the facility’s outdoor faucet, chain their bikes to the facility’s fence and sometimes use the area between the center and orthodontist office as a bathroom, Rogers said.
“We try to keep it cleaned up as much as we can, but it’s kind of an ongoing problem,” she said.
Sometimes, people come by the center and ask to use the restrooms, she said. Rogers doesn’t turn them away, which can bother visitors.
“I’m not going to deny anyone the opportunity to use the restroom if they really need to,” she said. “That’s just cruel.”
Early this spring, the center had termite inspectors come to evaluate their building. The inspectors found sleeping bags and drug paraphernalia in a 3- to 4-foot tall crawl space underneath the center, and they informed the nonprofit people were likely living there, Rogers said.
The center notified the city, who sent staff to warn those living there to clear out ahead of the impending fumigation. Eventually the nonprofit hired workers to clean out the space and board up the area where people had gotten in, Rogers said.
In spite of the incident, seniors continue to feel safe when they come to the center, Rogers said. Most people engaging in drug activity or other similar behaviors tend to spend time near the facility in the evening when no one is there, she said.
Rogers said she’d like to see more services for homeless residents in the North County. The region could use another shelter — one similar to 40 Prado in San Luis Obispo that that can provide services and a place to be during the day, she said.
“We don’t really have anything like that in the North County that I’m aware of,” she said.
Police step up patrols
Due to community concerns about security in the Sunken Gardens-Centennial Plaza area, police began asserting their presence there a few weeks ago, Police Chief Haley told The Tribune on Nov. 14.
That afternoon, police and staff from the San Luis Obispo County Probation Department fanned out around the area near the Colony House Museum, stopping and searching some people and talking to others sitting in public areas with their belongings.
It was a gray, chilly day, and middle school students began walking by soon after school let out for the day. One student, noticing the law enforcement presence, walked up to Haley and asked what was happening.
Police have noticed a “dramatic increase in criminal activity,” including narcotics, vandalism, graffiti and camping, Haley said.
Haley linked some elements to juveniles hanging out in the area, as the trouble started around the same time the school year began.
He also suggested some of the individuals involved may have come from Paso Robles, which cleaned out the Salinas riverbed during the late summer and early fall due to concerns about fire hazards.
Either way, Haley sees the issue as a drug problem, first and foremost.
“We don’t have a homelessness crisis,” he said. “What we have is a drug crisis.”
Living unsheltered in Atascadero
Just down the sidewalk from the museum, Justus Keefover sat on a bench, a purple sleeping bag draped over his shoulders to shield him from the cold.
Keefover, 22, has been living in the wooded area behind the museum for two weeks, ever since his dad kicked him out of his Paso Robles house.
“We’re all a big community,” he said of the people living in the area. “We help each other out.”
Keefover was wearing a snapback hat and had a black eye — “Oh, I deserved that,” he said with a slight smile when asked how he was injured.
He blames much of the graffiti on minors who “tag up everything.”
“Why would we spray-paint the house where we’re living at?” Keefover asked.
He’s resentful of how officers interact with the homeless — police recently gave him a ticket for storing his belongings on public property, he said.
Keefover wishes police could find a better way of talking to him and others like him.
“All we are is just the piece of gum stuck to the bottom of a shoe,” Keefover said.
Later, police came over and spoke with a nearby woman, who was sitting just off the sidewalk with small dog and a stroller containing her belongings. She told one law enforcement official to work on his social skills.
Wendy Lewis, president of the El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO), said her nonprofit is in the midst of hiring a full-time staff member to conduct outreach to people living on the street.
ECHO has seen an uptick in 18- to 24-year-old and senior clients, but there’s still limited shelter space, Lewis said.
“Where do they go?” she asked.
The 2019 point-in-time homeless census counted nearly 1,500 people living without housing throughout San Luis Obispo County. About 32% of those people live in the North County.
ECHO and 40 Prado in San Luis Obispo — the only two permanent homeless shelters — have just about 150 beds between them.
However, the North County is planning to expand its homeless services. ECHO will stay open longer and will add 10 more beds. And Paso Robles is preparing to build a permanent warming center.
Lewis said the situation can seem hopeless, but she’s seen struggling people turn their lives around.
“Homeless services can’t do all of it,” she said. “It takes all of us.”
