How schizophrenia is playing out in one Redding neighborhood

As he spotted a passerby Tuesday, a young man got out of the car he’d been sleeping in, introduced himself — middle name and all — and then walked off.

He’s the talk of this south Redding neighborhood right now, but he probably doesn’t know it.

The man has schizophrenia, family and neighbors say, and his untreated mental illness is at the center of frequent police calls — both from fearful residents and from his own mother, who says she can’t seem to get him the help he needs.

“He’ll just go off at all hours of the night. But it’s sad, because what do you do about someone who’s been in and out of the county jail, and there’s no resources to help them?” resident Marcia Murphy said. “It's like, what’s going to happen? Is this going to be a tragic situation?"

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His mother — who would only identify herself as Barbara — said she’s sick of it, too.

“It makes me, like, ill — physically and mentally ill,” she said standing on the porch of her house Tuesday, just feet from the car where her son sleeps. “I always beg that the cops would take him, you know?”

The situation unfolding on West Street is full of hot-button issues that are becoming common topics of conversation throughout Redding: Frustration over homelessness, the seeming lack of mental health services and a limited police force.

“We call the cops all the time if he’s acting up, screaming in the street," Barbara said. "We’re sleeping at night, he’s walking up and down the road yelling, there’s nothing I can do.”

Murphy said the drama has been playing out for half a decade. But it's only gotten to the point that neighbors are threatening a civil suit within the past year or so.

"I mean, what's going to happen before somebody wakes up and pays attention?" she said. "It’s like watching a slow-motion movie where you're waiting for the tragic end."

Sgt. Danny Smetak confirmed that officers have responded to the family's house a handful of times so far this year.

"Things are occurring, police are coming out ... he’s being arrested. But it sounds like what needs to happen is maybe a long-term solution," he said.

While officers can do mental health evaluations in the field, the criteria to actually hold someone for treatment are strict. That leaves a grey area where someone might be seriously ill, but they can't be taken for treatment if they don't want it.

"It's those in-between ones where they’re not a danger to themselves or others. And there's a lot in this community," Redding police Capt. Bill Schueller said.

Supervisor Les Baugh even got involved in the situation on West Street because "Public safety is always the goal — to live without fear or harassment," he said in a Facebook message.

Still, the man continues to sit in the car and wander the neighborhood.

“Mother, I may be, but I can’t get information, I can’t call and…try to get him somewhere without him (agreeing)," Barbara said. “They just freak out because they don’t understand schizophrenia.”

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The path to get her son treatment has been difficult, she said.

His psychiatrist won't treat him if he's been using drugs, and he can't stay at the Good News Rescue Mission anymore because of an alleged sex offense. Barbara says her son just keeps his hand in his pants as a sort of nervous tic, but someone mistook it for a sexual act.

She said he's stayed at psychiatric care facilities before, but they didn't help him.

“The mental health system is broken, and they’re not helping," Barbara said. "There’s more than just him.”

Barbara said it's come to her son sleeping in a car because his two young children live with her and she doesn't want them to see his behavior, though she lets him in to use the bathroom.

Meanwhile, residents like Murphy and others — who sent a sort of homemade cease-and-desist letter to Barbara and her family about the situation — are living in fear.

"Somebody's going to get really hurt," she said.

Schueller said the police department's problem-oriented policing unit might open a special case to help, but that would center more on potential code violations.

And living in a car that's on private property isn't one of them, he said.

"You can camp on your own property," he said, though abandoned cars are sometimes determined to be a nuisance.

There might be a beefed up crisis-response team coming to the county soon, so Schueller that could also help in situations where someone is mentally ill, but not determined to be dangerous.

"Mental health doesn’t have the bed space, a lot of times, to be able to hold them. And unfortunately, the jail ... they may not stay for very long," Smetak said. "Sometimes it just takes time, and it’s frustrating, but (help) will eventually be there."