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Lodi Holds Town Hall Meeting Looking For Solutions To Homeless Problem

LODI (CBS13) — The city of Lodi held a town hall meeting  Monday to come up with solutions to their homeless problem.

The meeting was held just hours after parents expressed outrage on social media over trash left at a park near their children's school.

Carina Fuentes has two children at Lawrence Elementary school in Lodi. She's concerned about trash she believes a large group of homeless people are leaving at the park near her children's school.

READ: Sacramento Considers Homeless Parking Lots

"I can't really take my kids there without them getting involved with anything on the floor, syringes or something," Fuentes said.

She's among a growing group of people upset with the city's shuffling of its homeless population.

"I just get frustrated when we move them from one place to another and then another place," Mark Armstrong with Take Back Lodi said.

Just last week, Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol gave people who lived at a homeless encampment on Highway 99 and Turner Road 72 hours to collect their things and leave.

READ MORE: Caltrans And CHP Cleanup Homeless Camp In Lodi

"If they're an addict, they're leaving needles out," said Lodi business owner Leah Sulter. "If they want to get clean, there's no detox centers for them in Lodi. We have to take them to the hospital and the hospital is already full."

Despite being offered services, the county said the majority of the group picked up and moved to another area of town, prompting groups like Take Back Lodi to speak up and ask the city to address these problems that are now impacting hundreds of elementary school students.

CBS13 reached out to the mayor and city manager but was told they were unavailable before Monday's meeting.

The city planned to discuss a tiny home community it plans to build with the help of a $1.3 million grant. The money would be used to build up to six houses.

Lodi officials are now looking at 19 possible locations.

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