Portsmouth police dealt with another string of calls involving a troubled homeless woman who has been wandering the streets, showing up in traffic, calling for help, reporting stolen medicine, and ending up back at the hospital.
Officers have responded to dozens of calls involving the same woman in recent weeks.
This latest round started around 11th and Findlay, where a caller reported a woman pushing a shopping cart in the left-hand lane of traffic.
Police found her near the Waller Street underpass and advised her to get out of the roadway.
About 20 minutes later, she showed up at a local counseling center and reported that someone had stolen her medication. Officers responded and took information for a report.
The next day, police were called around noon after someone reported the same woman lying on the sidewalk near 25th Street and Shawnee Road.
Officers learned she had just been released from the hospital. Police said she was okay and leaving the area.
About two hours later, another 25th Street caller reported she was back in the middle of the road with all her belongings, stopping people as they passed.
Security also told police it looked like she had been taking items from backyards in the area.
Officers located her again and advised her to stay out of the roadway and use the sidewalks.
She told police she was going to a homeless camp to stay.
Then, just a day later, the woman contacted police again because she wanted to know how to get help and get to a counseling center.
She later requested a squad because of medical issues, and the fire department transported her to the hospital.
No arrests were listed in the information provided.
The calls paint a grim picture of someone caught in a loop.
Street.
Sidewalk.
Underpass.
Hospital.
Homeless camp.
Counseling center.
Back to the street again.
For residents and businesses, it is frustrating and sometimes frightening. A woman wandering into traffic with a cart and belongings creates a real safety risk for drivers and for herself.
For police, it is another call where there may not be a clear criminal charge, but there is clearly a problem.
And for the woman, each call seems to end the same way: moved along, checked on, transported, released, and left to figure out where to go next.
It is not hard to see why people keep calling 911.
It is also not hard to see why the problem keeps coming back.
When someone is homeless, medically fragile, and struggling with serious mental health issues, a police response may stop the immediate danger, but it does not create housing, long-term treatment, medication management, transportation, or a safe place to recover.
So she keeps wandering.
And the calls keep coming.
