That is changing now, as local leaders and residents prepare the valley so the land can be transformed into an 11-mile regional park. But the homeless have not been forgotten. When volunteers decided to launch a community cleanup of the planned park, they invited local homeless activists to speak to the people, mostly men, who inhabit the river valley. When police sweep through the areas set for cleanup, the activists go with them, offering the homeless people shelter, medical care, even employment in exchange for being forced from their makeshift homes. Being invited to be part of such a project is welcome, but uncommon, said Bob McElroy, founder of the Alpha Project, a San Diego agency that helps and employs the homeless.
Officers then sweep through the valley, asking the people to leave.
Some of the homeless are reluctant to do so. One man, whom cleanup coordinator John Willett knows as Ralph, has moved three times around the area off Saturn Boulevard in Palm City. But about a dozen others have taken advantage of the programs offered by the Alpha Project. The agency also has recovery programs that provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation, education and employment.