Public Warned to Avoid River Downstream of Homeless Encampments After Feces-Linked Outbreak

The homeless problem in California is not just one of drug abuse or crime — it is one of public health, as well.

KNTV reported a Shigella outbreak in Santa Clara County, with nine confirmed cases and 21 more suspected cases among the homeless as of Monday.

Health officials in California have advised the public to avoid bathing in or drinking the water from the Guadalupe River downstream from Highway 85, where multiple homeless encampments are located.

According to Mayo Clinic, Shigella infection, or shigellosis, is highly contagious. It’s spread by coming into contact with bacteria from the stool of someone who’s infected.

The bottom line: Homeless people are defecating in the river and spreading illness to other homeless people who use that river for drinking water and bathing.

Now health officials are warning the public to keep their distance to avoid it spreading further.

The San Jose Mercury News quoted Dr. Monika Roy, assistant health officer and communicable disease controller for Santa Clara County, as saying that while Shigella is only fatal in “rare cases,” the public is advised to avoid that part of the Guadalupe River.

Given the highly contagious nature of Shigella, Roy said this should be done “out of an abundance of caution.”

Roy added testing the water for Shigella would be of “limited value,” explaining, “When you have a body of water like a river, there is less data on infection transmission in flowing bodies of water, and there’s certainly not the same mechanisms to remediate that you might have in, say, a backyard pool.”

While this development is stomach-churning, it is not unexpected in the saga that is California’s ever-present homeless problem.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported 181,399 homeless in California, 28 percent of the total homeless population in the country. This is roughly a 40-percent increase from five years earlier.

Homelessness is not just an “unsightly” issue to be cleaned up or swept away.

These are real people. If left unaddressed, the general population of the state could suffer, as the Shigella problem indicates.

The hurdle is how California addresses the issue. While health officials are reportedly at encampments trying to encourage better habits, this treats the symptom.

The state tends to throw money into the void, as $20 billion has been spent over the past five years to deal with it. Just last week, Skid Row residents received news of the opening of the 19-story Weingart Tower, a luxurious housing development for the homeless, where units cost about $600,000 each.

In this case, the homeless will just take tendencies that made them homeless into free housing, where that culture can continue.

Concerning Monday’s Shigella outbreak, maybe its potential to impact the general public will force health officials to be more innovative and actually find a way to solve the problem.