Post Office Fences Out Downtown Street People

Problems with transients and the homeless have forced the downtown post office to erect a tall, wrought-iron fence with sharp points curled outward in both the front and rear of the building.

A local Postal Service spokesman said the $30,000 fence is being erected to stop the vandalism against the vehicles parked in the rear and to deter people from using the front and rear of the building “as a toilet.”

“We thought a fence is the best way to go to protect our customers and employees,” said spokesman Ken Boyd. “We planted bushes in the front but that didn’t work. People were still sleeping in there and using the area to relieve themselves.”

A clerk at the downtown post office, on E Street across from the main library, said customers frequently complained about transients sleeping in the bushes. He noted that several local businesses, including the Salvation Army headquarters at 7th Avenue and E Street, and the Great Western parking garage across the street, have erected similar fences to keep transients out.

The gray fence, which is clearly designed to deter people from climbing over it, lines a busy thoroughfare used by hundreds of commuters every day while leaving downtown en route to California 94 and Interstate 5. The fence will extend most of the block on E and F streets.

“We have to send a security officer down there every morning to make our building accessible to our customers. There are a lot of people milling about on the front steps,” Boyd said.

A homeless person who wanted to be identified only as Jerome, acknowledged that transients sleep among the bushes and also relieve themselves there.

“But I wouldn’t think that people sleeping in the bushes would be the problem. They’re full of thorns and too low to the ground. But some people go to the bathroom there. I mean, when there’s no other place to go, what do they want people to do?” said Jerome.

Another transient said that postal authorities were really trying to keep “street people” away from the front of the building and from sitting on the steps leading up to the two entrances.

“Their guards patrol around the building and are always hassling people,” Joe Holley said. “They don’t want you sitting on the steps. They don’t want you standing on the steps. They’ve got no right telling us to move off the sidewalks but they do. They treat homeless people like dirt.”

Transients and homeless people congregate throughout the day at the two bus benches in front of the building and by the newspaper racks. They also frequently use the bathrooms in the main library when it is open.

The fence is being put up by a Riverside County company.