Residents of Riverside County Frustrated with Homeless Population

Destiny Roybal | Coyotechronicle

In Riverside, California, residents are beginning to grow tired of the amount of homelessness that is taking over the city and impacting the surrounding businesses and employees by driving customers away. From 2022 to 2023, the population of the unhoused has increased an overall 12 percent throughout Riverside County.

When working her morning shift at Bakers in August 2021, Arianna Roybal was approached by a homeless man during her shift and then assaulted her by trying to drag her into the restroom. She luckily fought him off and then called the police who then located and arrested the suspect. Although the authorities helped with her specific situation, the homeless people continue to roam around, and she has to always be on high alert.

“I was always on the lookout and more protective over my little sisters. I had no sense of ease or relief whenever we’re out doing anything because there’s homeless everywhere… It took me awhile to be able to go out on my own like just to the store or to run errands,” Roybal states as she explains how the situation has impacted her life socially.

With a majority of the homeless population struggling with substance abuse or mental illness, they are at higher risk of becoming a danger to either themselves or, unfortunately, a risk to the public. Another business that had struggled with being in a center that the unhoused had decided to reside in.

I spoke with Annalize Ortega who had previously worked at May’s Flowers, a local flower shop, and she told us that because of the homeless surrounding the business, customers were always complaining to her or her coworkers about how unsafe it felt to even just walk through the entrance. There were times where they would come in to harass the workers.

“Homeless would even come into the store and yell at us workers… sometimes we would have homeless outside the store nude from the waist down,” shared Ortega. “We did have to call the police a few times unfortunately because we didn’t have security in the plaza that we worked in.”

Just four miles west of May’s Flowers, we have the Galleria at Tyler, which is more likely known as Tyler Mall where Bryan Salazar was working for Zumiez located inside the mall. When asked to describe how the homeless effected his day on the clock, he said he was affected greatly because it would cause a strain on his abilities to complete his daily tasks.

“Having homeless people in the store made store operations difficult… I had a lot of daily tasks to do throughout the day and often and had to pause because there would be homeless people either disrupting customers or attempting to steal,” Salazar states. “Some would be on drugs and make people uncomfortable,” he adds. With these occurrences happening three to four times a week, security would be called but nothing ever was done to prevent it from happening again.

With how high the homeless population has increased from the last reported count, it is becoming rather more difficult for businesses to continue operating as normal. Some residents find it difficult to continue their daily routine without fearing of what could possibly happen when it comes to homeless people invading the spaces where businesses reside and must continue day to day operations.

According to News Channel 3, in January of 2025, the channel covered the homeless count of 2025 which results are still pending for and spoke to Chief Andy Mills of Palm Springs Police Department, where he discussed the three potential outcomes when it comes to living on the streets.

“If you are going to live on the street you have three choices. You can use the navigation center or some other housing,” states Chief Mills. “Option number two is your welcomed to go home and we’ll help you get there to wherever you’re from… The third option is jail,” He adds.

When I asked my interviewees if there were any suggestions for improvement, Salazar and Roybal both believed that criminalizing the use of drugs in public the same way public intoxication with alcohol is criminalized could potentially be a solution to the ongoing problem.