Tag Archives: Camping

Bathrobespiere’s Broadsides radio show streams tonight (9-19-19) at 6 PM at www.freakradio.org: “Act Don’t Agonize” Alicia Kuhl, Strident Steve Conover, “Catch Me If You Can:” Cooper, & More

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YOU GOT A TIP ABOUT A STUDIO SITE? 
WE GOT $300 FOR YA.  
YOU FIND US A TRANSMITTER TREE.  
HUGS & KISSES

$300 REWARD for info leading to a 10′ X 10′ Free Radio Santa Cruz studio space.  

We need access to a bathroom, internet, and electricity.–either indoors or out (we’ll build a structure if necessary). 

We’re also seeking a transmitter space where we can put up an antenna–a backyard, a multistory home, a high tree–help us spread the word.   


Tonight’s show streams at freakradio.org and archives at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html  
  • Santa Cruz Union of the Homeless Activist Alicia Kuhl on the Ross Camp Lawsuit & Continuing Conditions at 1220 River St. Campground
  • Driving Homeless People Off the Beaches Into Nowhereland–Cooper’s Report
  • More…if you’re listening

Bathrobespiere’s Broadsides radio show streams today (9-15-19) at 9:30AM at www.freakradio.org: Interviews A-Plenty with “Cornerstone” Carol Denney, “Mind over Madness” Mike Zint, “Whip ‘Em Into Shape” Wes White

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THAT SAME OLD REWARD !


Free Radio Santa Cruz stands ready to dole out $300 for info leading to a 10′ X 10′ studio space with bathroom, internet, and electrical access–either indoors or out (we’ll build a structure).  We’re also seeking a transmitter space where we can put up an antenna–a backyard, a multistory home, a high tree–help us spread the word.   Help us so we can help you!


Tonight’s show streams at freakradio.org and archives at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html  

On today’s show:
  • Berkeley’s Tiny Triangle Park Under Sneak Attack: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/09/13/18826195.php 
  • Activist Carol Denney on the Triangle Park History
  • “First They Came for the Homeless” (now called “Here/There”) Activist Mike Zint Updates Us
  • Cop Facial Recognition Software Ban Weakened in Pending Legislation
  • Carotid Blocking Chokeholds: What are the Santa Cruz Guidelines?
  • “Wake ‘Em Up” Wes White on the Good & the Bad in Friday’s Court Ruling on the Sherwood Park Plaintiffs
  • Salinas Union of the Homeless Activists Van Graham and Carry Meeks Report from the Court Catacombs
  • “Can’t Contain Us” Keith McHenry Attacks “Obligation to Accept Shelter” Chatter by Friendly Fascists
  • “Head-butter” Brent Goes Wide and Deep on Tuesday’s Main Beach Curfew Vote at City Council
  • Main Beach Interviews with Justin, Tony, Sonyo, and Jeremiah
  • One Against Six:  Glover Votes to Keep the Main Beach Open
Tips and Trips: Random Resources


WHAT YOU CAN DO BETWEEN SHOWS:

  • Document Homeless Discrimination & Sign Up for Direct Action to “Open the Bathrooms Now!” Action at San Lorenzo Benchlands at the Union of the Homeless table at the Food Not Bombs meals Saturday and Sunday 4-6 PM outside the Main Post Office.
  • Support Survival Camps & Squats as City Council Sides With “No Homeless on the Beach” Bigots & Homeless People Face Police Lies & Turn-Aways from Shelter.
  • Post Your Documentation or Pass it on to Barracuda Mama at 831-431-7766
  • Donate to Existing Homeless Encampments, NOT Poverty-Pimp Posturers– Survival Demands Blankets, Water, Tarps, Portapotties & Trash Pick-Up’s–and Deter Police Harassment by being On Call to Document It.
  • Additional Needs for Community Samaritans!–More Needs: Potable Water for Drinking and Grey Water for Washing, Laundry Access so Clothes Don’t Mildew, a Drainage System Against the Rains, More Space in Additional Spots, Monitor and Expose Cop Crackdowns
  • Support Food Not Bombs,  the Warming Center’s Day/Night Storage Program, HUFF, Conscience and Action,Santa Cruz Union of the Homeless documenting, providing resources, & publicizing the situation.

  •  Check out The Santa Cruz Community, Santa Cruz Homeless Advocates & Homeless Outside in Santa Cruz, Monterey County Homeless Advocates, SNAIL, HEART Disabled Homeless People,  Power Surge Tenants Rights, Bay Area Landless People’s Alliance, and more on Facebook..then go out and do something!
  •   Exchange information with other supporters there to generate more communication and better solutions in the future.
  •   Listen in to Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides at freakradio.org Thursdays 6-8 PM, Sundays 9:30 AM- 3 PM
  •   If you must, expropriate items from chain stores.  Don’t steal from vulnerable fellow homeless or local businesses!

Done Deal Main Beach Ban–Next Steps for Conscience & Action at 11 AM Sub Rosa at 703 Pacific, followed by HUFF Wednesday September 11th

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CONSCIENCE AND ACTION IDEAS  9-11-19

Note:  Agenda Ideas are simply suggestions and subject to change and addition from anyone in the group.  They cover a wide range of possibilities.  Bathrobespierre Robert will be absent, with medical probs.

  • Announcements: Choice of Action Items; Timekeeper & Time Limits; Vibes Guy 
  • Beach Campground Update
  • City Council’s Done Deal–Suggestions for Follow-Up
  • Louden Nelson Update: Building on the Same old Shit
  • Continuing the Posner Petition to Downtown Businesses Organizing Efforts along with Homeless Union organizing
  • Staff Reports for Council Agenda for 9-25–deadline Thursday
  • Ross Lawsuit and Union Organizing Report: Phone a Cop Proposal                                                                          

 

For HUFFsters

  • Announcements: Including Brief Summaries of Agenda Items
  • Further Action on C & A Items
  • Street and Campground Report
  • 9 AM September 13th Monterey Court Hearing 1200 Aguajito Rd for Salinas Injunction Against Cop Harassment at Sherwood Park Contact Robert at 423-483
  • Updates: Stepping Up in Santa Cruz Poverty Pimp PR Checking: Eli and Laura Report; Helping Homeless Union Tabling
  • End of Recycling Report
  • Public Records Updates: Bathroom Data–Norse and Colby’s Data  Some at https://cityofsantacruz.sharefile.com/d-s34d2fddbfc2468da

No Curfew Without Due Consideration: Stop Martin Bernal’s Rush to Close the Main Beach at Night

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Stop the “Hide the Poor” Beach Curfew
Open San Lorenzo & City Bathrooms at Night

ReOpen the Louden (London) Nelson Bathrooms!

  • No one, including 1000-2000 homeless folks,  have actual bathroom facilities for nighttime use (except for 3 wretched portapotties downtown)
  • Santa Cruz City Council debated then ducked the issue of reopening the Louden Nelson bathrooms & passed it to the CACH (Community Advisory Committee on Homelessness). The LN bathrooms were closed to all but “patrons” in March 2018.
  • The CACH, run by Assistant City Manager Susie O’Hara, ignored the issue,
  • CACH met at LN & scheduled months of future meetings there, a slap at homeless.
  • At Drew Glover’s regular agenda meeting 9-6, neither he nor Councilmember Krohn took action to require the reopening by agreeing to require a future agenda item on 9-10.
  • Police Chief  Mills, Parks and Rec boss Elliot, and City Manager Bernal are rushing to Council Tuesday (7:30 PM 9-10) to shut down the Main Beach & continue bathroom closure there at night.  Their staff report includes no documentation for this closure.
  • Conscience and Action, Food Not Bombs, HUFF, the California Homeless Union, and Give a Shit! volunteers directly opened Louden Nelson bathrooms recently in direct actions that they intend to repeat until the city’s potty pinchers get the message.


Sign Up For DIRECT ACTION ALERTS to restore public access.

No Curfew Without Consideration

Santa Cruz City Council Chambers

Tuesday  September 10  7:30 PM

  • Police Chief Mills, Parks and Rec boss Elliot, and City Manager Bernal want to shut down the Main Beach and continue bathroom closure there at night. 
  • As with last spring’s Depot Park plan, there has been no community outreach. 
  • The proposal supports the agenda of right-wing activist Lynn Renshaw whose letter in the Sunday Sentinel seemed to indicate advance knowledge of the proposal.
  • The Mills/Elliot Bernal staff report has zero specific documentation for this closure.
  • No hearing before the Parks and Recreation Commission—the normal procedure.
  • No hearing before the new homeless CACH Commission.
  • Vice-Mayor Justin Cummings is a fan of the CACH Commission and “more data” (i.e. staff, city, and county buy-in) when it comes to transitional encampments, bathroom closure, and police harassment of homeless.  On this homeless removal issue to be fair and consistent, he must vote to postpone unless and until data are available.
  • E-Mail jcummings@cityofsantacruz.com  citycouncil@cityofsantacruz.com
  • Be up for Direct Action to Counter Bernal’s Agenda in the days ahead


Flier by Norse of  HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) 831-423-4833   www.huffsantacruz.org     9-9-19

CAMPGROUND STRUGGLE

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The struggle for a homeless campground is no new thing.
So is the mechanical, persistent and relentless official movement to crush such campgrounds or turn them into super-regulated prison-like areas that serve only a few. Back in 1996, Becky Johnson explored the refusal to reopen the Coral St. Open Air Shelter.
Three years before the City Council’s useless Homeless Issues Task Force final report in 2000 (http://sccounty01.co.santa-cruz.ca.us/bds/Govstream/BDSvData/non_legacy/agendas/2000/20000502/PDF/020.pdf), she and other HUFF activists struggled to get the poverty pimpster Citizens Committee for the Homeless [CCH] (numbering Darrell Darling and Paul Lee among others) to restore the Coral Street Open Air Shelter.
That campground served 200 people at its height and was located on the site of the current Page Smith Community House, what was known back in 1996 as the “back forty”.
It was destroyed by the City Council in collusion with the CCH in violation of agreements made with the campers organization SOS (Save Our Shelter).
Part of the story was recorded by dissident CCH (and active HUFF) member Becky Johnson at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/StreetSpiritSantaCruz/016.For%20The%20Poor,A%20Campground%20Is%20a%20Illegal%20Dream=12-96.pdf and
pp. 123-127, Street Shit Sheet’s ##151a, 152 .
CACH is caught in the same snare as activists “working in the system” were then.
Even temporary and partial initiatives by city officials are only prompted by Direct Action from activists and homeless people themselves.
Thus the San Lorenzo Campground opening of 2017-2018 during the winter happened after homeless people began camping in numbers along the Post Office fence after City Manager Bernal and Chief Mills had driven them away from City Hall’s Survival Sleepers protest.
And last year Ross Camp was “created” because sleepers on the beach were driven first to Depot Park by Mills, and then to Ross. But it was the de facto formation of a campground at San Lorenzo and Ross that required the City (finally) to put in portapotties and wash stations and provided a focus for community attention.
This year’s situation is no different—arguably worse.
“Progressives” are in full flight under pressure from phony Recall and Investigation distractions. They are responding to bad advice to “keep a low profile” as the winter looms for those outside.
Accordingly no attempts are even being made to force Mayor Watkins to agenda-ize long-delayed items like selective police enforcement, survival encampments, and opening bathroom facilities. Those who should be sitting-in in Cummings office with long overdue demands are nervously debating Recall opposition stratagies.
And meanwhile renters are fleeing the city as Brown nervously warms her chair while pal-ing up with Cummings for crumbs (reopening the City Hall bathrooms for a trial trial month period).

 

Sunday’s Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides Radio Stream 4-21-19 9:30 AM-3 PM at www.freakradio.org & a Flashback to 3-15-96

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STILL AVAILABLE!  REWARD ! :$300 for info leading to a 10′ X 10′ studio space indoors or outside with access to bathroom, internet, and power.  Free Radio Santa Cruz is also seeking a transmitter space where we can put up an antenna–a backyard, a multistory home, a high tree–help us spread the word.   Help us so we can help you!

Today’s show streams at freakradio.org and archives at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html  
On the show today:

  • Bathrobespierre Outlines the City’s Likely Ross Camp Agenda
  • Katzenjammer Keith McHenry’s “Emergency Alert at Ross 10 AM Tuesday”
  • Berkeley’s Carol Denney and Andrea Pritchett Discuss the History of the Current Crackdown on People’s Park
  • Raging at the Wreckers of Ross Camp
  • Susie O’Hara’s Storytelling Hour–the City Manager Spins its Tale to the Ross Camp Residents

Blasts from the Boulevard from Santa Cruz Fulltimer Vandweller Julie & Bathrobespierre
FLASHBACK to March 15, 1996 show includes:
  • 15 Days Into the 8-Month Long City Hall Sleepers Vigil
  • Videojournalist Patrick Lancelin on Community TV’s anti-homeless shenangans
  • Debob–Peppersprayed by the SCPD?
  • Skidmark Bob’s Gives a Copwatch Report on Officer Martin Over’s Backpack Thefts
  • Flashy Phil Free Weighs In
  • Dialogues at the Vigil
  • Crossroads Chris Brozda Flayes the Homeless Community Resource Center
  • Louise Santana on the SCPD Assault
  • River St. Refugees Update
  • Catch original 1995 show segment at http://huffsantacruz.org/lost/F%20BB%203-15-96%201.mp3

SCHEDULED MEETINGS

  • 1-4 PM Sunday April 21  Easter Excitement at the Ross Camp with Drew Glover
  • 1 PM Monday April 22 City Sues Ross Camp in Dept. 5 at 701 Ocean St.
  • 3 PM Monday April 22  Open meeting of Ross Camp Council with Drew Glover
  • 10 AM  Tuesday April 23 ROSS CAMP ALERT FOR POSSIBLE POLICE ACTION
  • 10 AM  Tuesday April 23 Closed City Council Meeting on Ross Camp lawsuit
  • noon or earlier Tuesday April 23 City Council Votes on #13–the Ross Camp Closure
  • 11 AM Wednesday April 24 Conscience and Action/HUFF meets either at Sub Rosa or at the Ross Camp itself to be announced.
  • 6-8 PM Wednesday April 24   Community Dialogue on Ross Camp at the Resource for Non-Violence at 612 Ocean St.
ADVISORIES FOR ADVOCATES
  • Support Ross Camp and other Real Alternative Survival Camps and Squats
  • Join the Ross Camp Lawsuit: Protect Survival Camps Everywhere! Contact Barracuda Mama at 831-431-7766
  • Join Campquest 2019–the Search for Community Shelter in Empty Buildings and Parking Garages for Refuge if Ross Is Depopulated and “Clean-Up” Restricted
  • Donate to Existing Homeless Encampments, not Poverty-Pimp Posturers– Survival Demands Blankets, Water, Tarps, Portapotties & Trash Pick-Up’s
  • Community and City Council Take Note!–Ross Camp Needs: Potable Water for Drinking and Grey Water for Washing, Laundry Access so Clothes Don’t Mildew, a Drainage System Against the Rains, More Space in Additional Spots.
  • Demand Immediate Council/Supervisor Support for the Hundreds of Homeless Refugees Outside in Wet and Freezing Weather
  • Support Food Not Bombs,  the Warming Center’s 24 Hour Storage Program, HUFF, Conscience and Action, Monterey County Homeless Advocates,  and other activists in documenting, providing resources, & publicizing the situation.
  •  Check out Ross Camp, The Santa Cruz Community, & Homeless Outside in Santa Cruz  on Facebook for updates.
  •   Read Updates and Post Them on Santa Cruz Indymedia at https://www.indybay.org/santa-cruz/
  •   Back up homeless efforts to organize either in protest or to demand adequate and accessible facilities.
  •   Exchange information with other supporters there to generate more communication and better solutions in the future.
  •   Listen in to Bathrobespierre’s Broadsides at freakradio.org Thursdays 6-8 PM, Sundays 9:30 AM- 3 PM
  •   Hear archived shows at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html .  Call in with street reports and commentary: 831-423-4833.
  •   If you must, expropriate items from chain stores.  Don’t steal from vulnerable fellow homeless or local businesses!

HUFF in the Wilds: Special meeting 10:15 AM Wednesday 2-28-18 at San Lorenzo Benchlands Look for the Protest Signs

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We will be moving from our usual Sub Rosa location next to the Bike Church to the San Lorenzo Benchlands as the City forces campers to leave.

  PLEASE COME DOWN TO SAN LORENZO PARK TODAY TO ASSIST FOLKS:

    •   Help document the mass deportation to nowhere with audio and camera
    •   Assist, if you wish, in helping move homeless gear
    •   Support the Warming Center, Food Not Bombs,  HUFF and other activists in documenting, providing resources, & publicizing the situation.
    •   Back up homeless efforts to organize either as in protest or to demand adequate and accessible facilities.
    •   Exchange information with other supporters there to generate more communication and better solutions in the future


    UP FOR DISCUSSION AS WE EYEBALL THE BENCHLAND EVICTIONS:

  • More Reports from Santa Ana Riverbed Encampment,
  • Communicating with Other Encampments to the North and South
  • Stories from the Street Around Us

 

Several Suggested Strategies for Those Left Outside

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A double-sided flier I circulated today and will do again tomorrow, energy willing. The San Lorenzo Benchlands area contains scores of tents which now face eviction. The “humanitarian” cover for this removal operation is a $90,000/month fenced off area on the edge of town at 1220 River St. with unclear access policies and three levels of policing (internal hosts, First Alarm Security outside, and a nearby mobile Police Substation.

The deadline for eviction tomorrow, according to workers at the River St. campground, is 11 AM. While I found numerous City-funded workers helping move homeless property from San Lorenzo to River St. today, there is clearly no place for most homeless people in the City to go.

HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom) activists will be down at the San Lorenzo Campground to observe and document the eviction of the poorest in our community 10:15 AM Wednesday 2-28.  Join us and post any video you take.
Read more and make comments at

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/02/27/18807021.php

Flyer is at https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2018/02/27/campground_evictions__side_one.pdf
and https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2018/02/27/campground_evictions_side_two.pdf

LAST DAY OF THE SAN LORENZO CAMPGROUND? COME DOWN TO DOCUMENT THE CREATION OF INTERNAL REFUGEES!

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According to Channel 8, today, Tuesday February 27th, is the last day for survival campers in the San Lorenzo Benchlands.  


      The only immediate campground alternatives is a barbed wire-ringed fenced-off space at the edge of town at 1220 River St.  It looks to be 1/3 the size of the current San Lorenzo campground.   Homeless people are considered too dangerous to be able to walk to and from the campground, so those using it must be ferried to and from.  It is reportedly already almost completely filled.  It costs $90,000 a month–which is likely far     more than was spent on San Lorenzo, with only a fraction of its clients.  Homeless advocates and homeless people were not consulted in its creation.  Its existence seems more of a fluffy PR cover for the elimination of the San Lorenzo campground with no real alternatives..

       The other “shelter alternative” is the Winter Shelter program slated to end in mid April. It involves body searches, strict entering and leaving times, and other aspects that make it unsuitable for many outside.  It is current limited to around 110 people.  There are no plans for a summer shelter program other than the “have your ‘Path to Housing’ cash or vouchers” ready program of the Homeless (Lack of) Services Center.

        Given these sober facts, it’s nonsense to believe government claims that San Lorenzo campers are being given a real alternative –at least for most.  Much of the ballyhoo around these “shelter proposals” seems simply to be a way of dressing up mass eviction & possible crackdown city-wide.

        The San Lorenzo campground was initially created as a “toleration” zone given the Hepatitis A epidemic.  Won’t removing the campground recreate the bad conditions?


       PLEASE COME DOWN TO SAN LORENZO PARK TODAY TO ASSIST FOLKS.

  •   Help document the mass deportation to nowhere with audio and camera
  •   Assist, if you wish, in helping move homeless gear
  •   Support the Warming Center, Food Not Bombs,  HUFF and other activists in documenting, providing resources, & publicizing the situation.
  •   Back up homeless efforts to organize either as in protest or to demand adequate and accessible facilities.
  •   Exchange information with other supporters there to generate more communication and better solutions in the future.


This e-mail is from HUFF and does not necessarily represent the views of the Warming Center or Food Not Bombs.

A LONGER E-MAIL WITH MORE DETAILS WILL FOLLOW

       PLEASE COME DOWN TO SAN LORENZO PARK TODAY 

    •   Help document the mass deportation to nowhere with audio and camera
  •   Assist, if you wish, in helping move homeless gear
  •   Support the Warming Center, Food Not Bombs,  HUFF and other activists in documenting, providing resources, & publicizing the situation.
  •   Back up homeless efforts to organize either as in protest or to demand adequate and accessible facilities.
  •   Exchange information with other supporters there to generate more communication and better solutions in the future.

This e-mail is the opinion of HUFF and does not necessarily represent the views of Food Not Bombs or the Warming Center.

Speaking Back to the Sentinel on the San Lorenzo Campground

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A Response to Jessica York’s Latest Sentinel San Lorenzo Campground Story
by Robert Norse (rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com)
Saturday Feb 3rd, 2018 9:24 AM

TO LEAVE OR VIEW COMMENTS, GO TO: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/02/03/18806465.php

Jessica York’s front-page story in today’s Scent Anal “Camp Cleanups Shuffle City’s Homeless Population” breezes over the destruction of homeless property and survival gear. It does indicate that City bosses colluded with Cal-Trans in the latest “destroy their stuff” campaign. Those bosses, of course, would be City Manager Bernal, Police Chief Mills, P & R head Garcia, and nominally Mayor Terrazas). Perhaps it’s just raw meat for the Next Door/Take Back Santa Cruz crowd, but it’s criminal cruelty nonetheless.

Most of this was left as a Disquis comment to the article. I’ll also be covering some of this on my Sunday Free Radio Show at 101.3 FM at 9:30 AM (also freakradio.org) which archives at http://www.huffsantacruz.org/Lostshows.html .

Those who want to can leave comments on the Sentinel story at http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/social-affairs/20180202/camp-cleanups-shuffle-santa-cruzs-homeless-population-around-city.   Beware the bigot barrage likely to follow, since the Comment section is largely a Bigot’s Banquet.   I’m also reprinting the story below, since who wants to pay $1.50 to buy this rag, and it’s no longer free on line.

The “clean-up” was actually wholesale property removal that refused to provide temporary storage. Brent Adams mentions this and the prior “force the folks to move and dump the property that remains” process during the previous clean-up (but not during the first one). See https://www.facebook.com/Ho… .

The City’s ridiculous justification for this policy (some storage unclaimed in previous clean-up’s) reveals its real motivation. This is akin to the apparent agenda of most posters here–to thin out the homeless population by forced removal and property destruction. That should increase the homeless death rate, already high this last year.

York’s irrelevant inclusion of the storage problems of a camper not necessarily connected with San Lorenzo Park reveals her own bias, but also ironically is an example of the problem that many campers and the fearful residents who complain about then, have: storage.

This is a problem that Adams and the City arranged to deal with, but that storage agreement the City backed out on at the last minute, claiming it needed to “prepare” the ludicrously inadequate “Boneyard” barbed wire campground at 1220 River St.. This small space can house only a fraction of those at San Lorenzo (itself only a fraction of the homeless) and will require users being bused in and out twice a day to pander to the paranoia of businesses nearby.

Activists in the community need to consider providing trash pick-up’s and portapotty rental for the many existing campgrounds that reappear after every sweep. I also suggest better communications with the campgrounds in order to document that illegal property theft and destruction of survival gear that the City is colluding with Cal-Trans to do.

If they get hit in the pocketbook with some hefty lawsuits, like Fresno, perhaps we’ll see a little less city-funded theft (http://abc30.com/archive/61....

The Sentinel Article
Camp cleanups shuffle Santa Cruz’s homeless population around city
By Jessica A. York, Santa Cruz Sentinel

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/social-affairs/20180202/camp-cleanups-shuffle-santa-cruzs-homeless-population-around-city

SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz’s homeless population was put on the move this week, as separate encampment cleanups around the city coincided.

Santa Cruz Police Deputy Chief Rick Martinez told the city Public Safety Committee on Monday to expect Caltrans cleanups along Highway 1 to have rippling impacts throughout the rest of the city, relocating the city’s homeless to parks and open spaces, downtown and the neighborhoods.

“Hopefully we can find that magical place called ‘somewhere else’ where those can receive a system of care and get them off the streets,” Martinez said. He said “hundreds of people” were residing along Highway 1, past the bypass to Santa Cruz Memorial and uphill to Mission Street.

Caltrans crews began their Santa Cruz cleanup efforts on Jan. 26, said Caltrans District 5 spokeswoman Susana Cruz. Caltrans has targeted properties along Ocean Street, along the San Lorenzo River, Swift Street and Western Drive since then, she said. More cleanups are scheduled for Shaffer Road and Plymouth Street in coming weeks, Cruz said.

Martinez told the commission that Santa Cruz officials had asked Caltrans to address the growing number of encampments on their properties since October or November of last year.

“This has been going on for years,” Cruz said of Caltrans crews’ efforts to address trash buildup and homeless encampments in Santa Cruz. “They (Caltrans workers) do do this, but they have a list of work that they have to do, so every once in a while, they have to stop and just take care of the encampment thing, the homeless issue.”

Separately, residents of the city’s largest homeless encampment, comprised of 70 or more people in tents along the San Lorenzo Park benchlands, were temporarily evicted Tuesday evening through Thursday morning for a semi-regular city site cleanup effort. While past city camp cleanups have extended for only 24 hours, an extra half day was allotted this week due to the extended duration of time needed by campers to clear the area, city Parks and Recreation Director Mauro Garcia said.

By the conclusion of the cleanup Wednesday, city Public Works and Parks and Recreation workers had loaded some 2.6 tons of debris into a packer truck, Santa Cruz city spokeswoman Eileen Cross said. A 20-yard Dumpster on site has been averaging 2.5 to 3 tons of trash per pickup, for a cumulative 17.2 tons of trash collected since Oct. 30, Cross said.

Homelessness issues advocate Brent Adams has been posting videos of day-to-day experiences of people living at the benchlands through his Homeless Outside in Santa Cruz Facebook page. During this week’s camp clear-out, Adams spoke to several people who relocated to temporary camps near the Water Street Bridge.

When campers returned to the benchlands Thursday, they saw the nearly 60 outlined campsite spaces reduced by one space that had been damaged by a camper who dug deep trenches around and through their site, Garcia said. Though his department’s general rule has been to restrict one tent per campsite, city workers have been “flexible in enforcing this rule, depending on the situation.” Some campers have been allowed to set up secondary “E-Z Up” tent structures to extend their shelter space, Garcia said.

During the benchlands cleanup, the city dispensed with offering overnight storage space for campers’ possessions, an amenity officials had previously provided, because “several storage bins from previous cleanups have not been claimed,” Garcia said.

In a likely unrelated occurrence, storage-related issues came to a head for one man who told officials he had been evicted from an Eastside private storage space and then opted to store his possessions on Santa Cruz City Schools’ property at the Branciforte Small Schools campus Thursday and Friday.

Though an on-site school administrator was aware of the man’s actions and permitted it temporarily, his extended stay caught the attention of local residents and Santa Cruz police, said department spokeswoman Joyce Blaschke. The man was cited by police and his possessions picked up by a moving truck Friday afternoon, Blaschke said.