Ethan Varian
The Press Democrat
(MCT)
Jun. 8—Work crews have begun cleaning up the site of what was Santa Rosa’s largest homeless encampment after issuing camp residents citations for trespassing on private property.
By the time workers arrived Wednesday morning at the two privately owned lots in the southwest part of the city, nearly all of the roughly 100 people living there had abandoned the camp, officials said.
Last week, police warned residents of the longstanding encampment — which has frustrated neighbors since it exploded in size last summer — to leave the properties and began citing some for trespassing. At the same time, a city outreach team has worked to offer camp residents shelter and services, but it’s unclear where many will end up next.
Paul Lowenthal, Santa Rosa division chief fire marshal, said the fire department is overseeing cleanup workers hired by the property owner to remove vehicles, trash and debris, as well as hazardous materials including propane, gasoline, refrigerants and human waste — a process expected to take about three weeks.
Clearing and cleaning up the sprawling encampment has become a top priority for the city as officials last week declared the start of the local fire season. There have been frequent small vegetation fires at the camp since people first started camping there in 2018, Lowenthal said.
“The need to resolve the encampment isn’t just to protect the community adjacent to the encampment, it’s also to protect the individuals in the encampment itself,” he said.
Over the past two years, the county’s estimated homeless population grew 5% to nearly 2,900 people as the region struggled through a chronic housing shortage and the economic upheaval of the pandemic. Around half of the county’s homeless residents live in Santa Rosa.
Because the camp at 2384 and 2410 Old Stony Point Road is on private property, city officials have maintained they need the property owner’s cooperation to safely clean and clear the adjacent lots.
That owner, a Clovis-based Affordable Housing Development Corp., had over the years shown little interest in resolving issues at the properties, city officials said, until it was threatened in February with code enforcement fines. Since then, the city has been working with the developer on a plan for cleaning up the site and erecting a fence to ensure unhoused people don’t return.
Clearing the camp comes as many Santa Rosa residents, including homeless people, have become increasingly frustrated with officials’ approach to encampment enforcement.
Some neighbors and businesspeople think authorities aren’t doing enough to confront the health and safety hazards caused by homeless camps in their communities. Local homeless advocates and unsheltered people, meanwhile, contend disbanding encampments causes undue trauma for the unhoused and accomplishes little except pushing homeless people from one part of the city to another.
Donald Umberger, a longtime resident at the Old Stony Point encampment, said it became more and more unsanitary and “a haven for the bad guy” as it grew in size. Even so, he said living there gave him the space to repair motorbikes and bicycles to support his main source of income collecting recyclables.
Umberger, 62, said he’ll likely go back to sleeping in his car now that the camp has been cleared out. He hopes to eventually move into a local supportive housing facility, but he’s unsure how to go about signing up for a room.
“I’m just doing the best I can and that’s all I can do,” Umberger said. “It’s like one foot in front of the other.”
You can reach Staff Writer Ethan Varian atethan.varian@pressdemocrat.comor 707-521-5412. On Twitter @ethanvarian
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