Petaluma police studying series of transient deaths

The discovery of a third body this month near the Petaluma River on Tuesday night has prompted police to take a hard look at the number of similar deaths in Petaluma in the past four years and what, if anything, can be done to prevent more.

Since August 2013, at least 10 people have been found dead outdoors in Petaluma, mostly along the railroad tracks or Petaluma River, favored locations for homeless people.

Police have said many of those found deceased were homeless. Foul play isn’t suspected in any of the deaths.

On Tuesday night, police found the body of a local man who was believed to be homeless at Cavanaugh Landing off Weller Street near the downtown river turning basin.

There were no signs of trauma or foul play, Sgt. Ed Crosby said. The man had been identified but his name was being withheld until his family could be notified.

Two other homeless men, Michael Todd Coleman, 57, and Douglas Stewart Hall, 62, were found dead this month, both along waterways.

The deaths come as Sonoma County housing advocates are working on plans to help the most vulnerable of those without housing and as agencies gear up for the winter, when inclement weather exacerbates problems for those living outdoors.

Supervisors in August approved $900,000 to launch a sweeping overhaul of the county’s policies on homelessness, backing an approach that provides the most at-risk homeless with immediate housing before linking them with social services such as substance abuse counseling and mental health treatment.

That “housing-first” strategy is in addition to the county’s emergency winter housing programs and a proposed Housing Outreach Team pilot program that would combine law enforcement, social services and housing advocates to try to reach some of the nearly 10,000 people a year in Sonoma County who experience homelessness.

Because of concerns over the number of recent deaths, Petaluma police said Wednesday they were evaluating the last few years’ records of “unattended deaths” to determine what, if any, commonalities or trends emerge.

“We don’t see any kind of huge pattern or concern over the fact there have been these transient deaths,” Lt. Dan Fish said, noting that none of the deaths appeared to be violent.

Crosby, who leads the department’s violent crime unit, on Wednesday had pulled the files of all unattended deaths since 2010 to begin exploring patterns. Unattended deaths are generally those that occur outside a hospital or hospice setting.

He said he will begin narrowing down the deaths to those that may have similarities.

“I want to get a sense of what the actual numbers are,” he said.

“One common thread for at least these three, and I probably will find looking back through time, is that alcohol abuse or substance abuse was a backdrop in their lives,” he said. “That’s not to make a character judgment or to disparage their reputations; people have their demons. But the reality is, that is a common thread, at least with the last three.”

The three recent deaths come after a similar cluster over six months from August 2013 to March when seven people were found dead along the Petaluma River or train tracks running through the city. There were no signs of foul play in any of the cases, police said.

One was the skeletal remains of a woman on the McNear Peninsula. Two were suicides. Four had been homeless or were homeless at the time of their deaths, police said.

In Santa Rosa, of 154 total death reports this year - a number that includes those of natural causes and deaths of terminally ill people at home - four appear to have been homeless people found outdoors, and a fifth was apparently a transient man who was found in his RV parked outside of the A Street shelter.

One person was found dead behind a church. Another was a woman found in a homeless camp, who may have died of a drug overdose and two others who were found in water. One man’s body was found behind Hoen Avenue floating in a creek and another’s was in a creek near Doyle Park, said Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Lisa Banayat said.

The transient deaths in Santa Rosa typically involve alcohol, drugs or people with ongoing medical problems, she said.

“Every once in a while we get a coincidental clumping” of such deaths, she said.

Petaluma police often issue press releases, which may add to the visibility of the deaths.

“Transient folks who live in camps, when they die, they die in public,” Fish said.

But Petaluma also draws homeless people to the area because of the good reputation of the Mary Isaak Center and Committee on the Shelterless programs, police said.

“We have a large transient population here. We have a lot of services that draw people from even out of state,” Fish said.

From 2011 to 2013, Petaluma experienced the largest increase in homelessness in the county. The number nearly doubled, from 465 to 909, according to county homeless counts. At the same time Petaluma’s population went up by 444, Rohnert Park’s fell by about 400.

Georgia Berland, executive director of the Sonoma County Task Force on the Homeless, said there are about 30 homeless deaths a year in Sonoma County.

She said the recent deaths in Petaluma likely are coincidental.

“It’s probably average, but we’re paying more attention to it,” she said. “And it’s good we’re paying more attention to it, because we’re leaving our most vulnerable people literally out in the cold.”

From statistics compiled in 2013, two-thirds of homeless people has at least one serious medical condition or disability. A quarter have been treated for substance abuse problems.

“There are a huge number of people who are ill, and that’s why they die. They are in a very difficult situation,” she said.

The other two deaths in Petaluma this month were discovered within a week of each other.

On Oct. 11, the body of Coleman was found floating in the river north of town, not far from the camp where he was known to have been living. An autopsy found Coleman had a medical condition that may have contributed to his death, Fish said.

He said the man found Tuesday had been seen within a few hours of his death drinking with others in the area where he was found, a city “micropark” behind a shopping center near the city’s transit hub.

A friend in the group told police he had left the area for a while, returned and found the man asleep. Shortly afterward, he discovered the man had died.

Five days earlier, the body of Hall was found in his Shollenberger Park camp. He apparently died in his sleep, perhaps as long as a few weeks ago.

Crosby said there was also no apparent violence in Hall’s death, nor was he robbed, as his belongings - including a bike, backpack and cellphone - were untouched.

Berland said the county has made some progress in the past year with homeless services, but still lacks indoor spaces for emergency, transitional or permanent housing.

It’s particularly troubling, she said, as the rainy season approaches, making life outside more difficult and dangerous.

“For those we won’t be able to get inside, we need to have a place they can legally be - some sanctioned encampments, where people can go and be, legally, where you can also provide outreach, services, maybe some survival gear, with some order and safety,” she said. “It’s going to be wet and cold.”

Staff Writer Randi Rossmann contributed to this report. You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or lori.carter@press?democrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.