A few weeks ago, Sue Langdon had an eye-opening experience about the lives of local homeless people.

She and her grandson were unloading boxes early in the morning at Realty World Corral Hollow, which she runs. Later, as Langdon and her grandson walked to a nearby coffee shop, a homeless woman ran after the pair to inform Langdon that she had left the door to her car wide open, with a pile of cash visible inside.

“She did the right thing,” Langdon said. “I thought that was a very honorable act.”

Langdon bought that woman a cup of coffee. But as the woman sat and drank her coffee on a sidewalk bench, Tracy police told her to leave, said Langdon, who ended up inviting the woman to rest in her business’s lobby.

“I thought they’re on the street because they don’t want to be anywhere else,” Langdon said, “or they’re criminals.”

But the homeless woman described how a chain of events — the death of her mother; the loss of her job — left her impoverished.

“It enlightened me,” she said.

On Thursday, Langdon will share her new perspective during a town hall meeting to discuss ways to get Tracy’s homeless population off the streets. The open forum, hosted by a group called the Coalition of Tracy Citizens to Assist the Homeless, will take place at Realty World at 104 W. 10th St. from 7 to 8 p.m. The goal of the meeting: determine ways to meet the needs of local homeless.

Langdon co-organized the event with Marvin Rothschild, who volunteers his time serving dinner to homeless people at Lincoln Park two nights a week. A 2009 Homeless Count Report conducted by San Joaquin County tallied 68 homeless people in Tracy, 32 of which were without shelter.

Rothschild said an average of 33 people show up nightly for dinner, although he once counted 68 people.

“Every week, there’s three or four new people I’ve never seen before,” said Rothschild, a retired high-school teacher who has encountered former students at the park who are now living on the street.

A few months back, Rothschild purchased a 1972 motor home to turn into a mobile shower for the homeless. He’s also received piles of clothes, 22 bicycles and $1,200 in donations. But, he said, helping the homeless requires more than handing out food, money and clothes.

He would like Thursday’s town hall meeting to initiate a long-term approach to “eliminating homelessness the right way,” rather than just running them out of town.

Rothschild hopes to discuss sensitivity training, the possible creation of a shelter and get input from residents about harassment toward the homeless.

“Cops go after them,” Rothschild said. “They make it so hard for the homeless to exist. They harass them with citations.”

That’s not the case, though, according to the Tracy Police Department.

“When we come into contact with people who identify themselves as homeless, we offer whatever resources are available. We have Interfaith Ministries, the Salvation Army, the McHenry House,” said department spokesman Sgt. Tony Sheneman.

He added the department has received no complaints of harassment toward homeless people.

But Sal Antonini, a homeless man, said he was harassed by police officers two weeks ago when he parked his motor home overnight at the local Walmart. The majority of Walmarts across the country allow motor homes to park in the store’s parking lots overnight, but ultimately that’s up to the discretion of store management and local ordinances, said Walmart spokeswoman Anna Taylor.

“It’s an act of convenience, but we don’t want to be considered a campground,” Taylor said.

Tracy’s Walmart has teamed up with police to ensure that any overnight parking is done only on a short-term basis, she said.

Sheneman said it’s against municipal code to camp motor homes anywhere within city limits for an extended period of time, even in private parking lots because these lots are open to the public. While some motor home owners act respectfully in Walmart’s parking lot, others create a nuisance or litter, Sheneman said, adding that code enforcement periodically checks the lot.

He said there has been “no concerted effort” to keep homeless out by preventing motor homes from parking at the site.

Antonini said he was minding his own business when a code-enforcement officer knocked on his door telling him it was against the law for him to stay there. Police officers soon arrived, ordering him to get off the property and threatening to arrest him, he said. Antonini, who said he’s on disability and has a wife and child to support, didn’t have anywhere else to go. But he left.

“I’ve been told we’re not wanted [in Tracy],” Antonini said.

Langdon and Rothschild hope Thursday’s meeting will be the first step in resolving conflicts between homeless people and law-enforcement.

“We want to be a group of people who can do whatever we can to help,” Langdon said. “We don’t feel there’s an entity here to help the homeless. People on the streets are falling through the cracks and there doesn’t seem to be a net to catch them.”

Contact a Tracy Press reporter or editor at 835-3030 or tpnews@tracypress.com. At a glance:

WHAT: Meeting about homelessness

WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday

WHERE: Realty World Corral Hollow, 104 W. 10th St.

INFO: 836-0890