Captain Scovel discusses County’s Homeless Outreach Proactive Enforcement (HOPE) Team

Jef Harmatz Jef Harmatz Send an email June 30, 2026

On last Friday’s (June 26) episode of the Z107.7 Up Close Show, host Gary Daigneault spoke with Captain Steve Scovel of the Sheriff’s Morongo Basin Station. Daigneault asked Captain Scovel about the Morongo Basin’s unhoused community. The conversation started with a look at the Sheriff’s Community Service & Reentry Division’s Homeless Outreach Proactive Enforcement Team, known as the H.O.P.E. team. 

Here is a snippet from that conversation:

Daigneault said “San Bernardino County is really on the edge of what they were doing with homeless and it’s starting to be very effective. The homeless population is going down. So tell us about H.O.P.E.”

Captain Scovel replied, “The H.O.P.E. team basically covers the whole county. Sheriff’s Stations will let them know we have this issue in a certain geographic area. They can deploy the H.O.P.E. team out with all of their resources, whether it be for housing or mental health issues, things of that nature. Just recently Yucca Valley created a new position, the community engagement, homeless outreach person with the town.”

Captain Scovel is referring to Faith Nicholson, who was appointed as the Town of Yucca Valley’s first Community Engagement and Homeless Services Coordinator in June.

Yucca Valley appoints Community Engagement and Homeless Services Coordinator

Captain Scovel continued, “We have a deputy right now that is just recently been assigned as our quality of life officer that is going to pair up with code enforcement and Nicholson.

“Just recently, we had five operations between unicorporated county area, Yucca Valley, and Twentynine Palms, where we went out and did both Off-Highway Vehicle enforcement and identified encampments in the outlying area. It was kind of dual operations. 

“The encampments you can see from the main highway right here are not that extensive, but once you get into the back areas where a normal patrol vehicle might not be able to go they get larger.” 

When does the Sheriff’s Department take action about those?

Captain Scovel explained, “Once a trespass agreement is filed with the property owner, they have to have that notarized, basically saying no one has a legal right to be on my property. Up until that point, it’ll be a code enforcement issue, and then once that is filed, if they are found on the property again, then it transitions to us. So it goes from being a code enforcement to a criminal action.”

You can hear their full conversation by listening to the Z107.7 Up Close Show here:

Jef Harmatz Jef Harmatz Send an email June 30, 2026
Jef Harmatz

Jef Harmatz

Jef Harmatz is the co-host of Z107.7’s “Morning Show with Cody and Jef” and Z107.7’s News Director. He has worked as a journalist, cartoonist, chef, and delivery driver. He is known nationally for his writing and comics in publications like TimeOut, Popula, Roadtrippers, Solrad and Spiralbound, and for his album covers for Third Eye Blind and Sir Sly. He is known locally for his pop-up barbecue restaurant Hot Dog Panic. He remains unknown in the field of beekeeping, because he is too afraid of being stung to try it. When not on the radio, he draws comics and self-publishes little books. He lives with his partner and his dog Sunday in Yucca Valley, where he cooks them both elaborate meals.