MODESTO, Calif. -- The City of Modesto designated a park for homeless people to stay, without any question or tickets, just about a month ago. Since then, the park has developed into its own "village," complete with their own so-called "council members" and "code of conduct."
The Beard Brook Park "village" has more than 200 people staying there every night.
"Here it’s just like a community, like a village, everybody comes together," Edward Peacock, a homeless man staying at the park, said.
Complete with bathrooms, hand washing stations, and dumpsters, for the first time in a long time for the homeless community, there's a feeling of safety.
“It feels like you belong somewhere instead of just getting kicked out of everywhere you go with the cops," Peacock said.
"It kept this group of people and others from camping all over the city, so there’s someplace now where it’s safe," sai Jerri Lynn Matoza, a volunteer helping to collect donations at the park.
Modesto opened the park up for the homeless about a month ago, in part due to a federal court ruling that prevents cities from prosecuting those who live on the streets. So far, with no major health or safety violations, city officials say it’s working.
“They have bound together to create a site that is safe and ideal for them to live in," Thomas Reeves, a spokesman for the City of Modesto said.
The people living there have taken it upon themselves to create their own unique sense of community, by developing their own council of about six camp leaders, complete with a "camp mom."
Michael Pittman is one of those leaders.
“We kind of make sure everything’s OK in here, policing kind of ourselves. Not really police it, but just make sure everything goes OK," he said.
The council even pens their own code of conduct rules, with set meetings twice a week.
“If people aren’t getting along they can move to the other side. We’re trying to keep down the problems," Pittman said.
“The council decides, when there’s changes or conflicts, they decide how it needs to be handled within the group," Matoza said.
But the city says they can't necessarily condone that mentality.
“We’re watching it closely to ensure that there are no additional barriers placed on those who want to camp out there," Reeves said.
A month ago, when the city opened the park up to the homeless, they told ABC10 this was only a temporary solution and that it would only be open for about a month. Now that it's been longer than that, we asked, what's next?
“We’re in the middle of vetting other options as our next step to this homeless crisis to the city. We don’t have anything to announce at this point, but we are getting close. It could be a combination of sites. It could be Beard Brook and another site or it could be another site all together," he said.
City and county officials are meeting twice a day every day to find a long-term solution to their homeless problem.
Continue the conversation with Lena on Facebook.