SLO clearing 58 homeless camps along Bob Jones Trail. Critics call it a ‘raid’
Monday marked the first day of a massive San Luis Obispo city cleanup effort to remove 58 homeless encampments along the city’s stretch of the Bob Jones Trail.
The San Luis Obispo Police Department, city rangers and social workers monitored the clear-out, set to take place over the next two weeks in advance of winter weather.
The cleanup is designed to protect San Luis Obispo Creek and the surrounding wetland area, and to improve safety along the nearby bike and walking path.
“As of recently, there’s been a substantial outcry by the community as to the condition of the Bob Jones Trail, both when it comes to all the trash and when it comes to the behavior of the homeless community,” John Klevins, a social worker with San Luis Obispo Police’s Community Action Team. “We’ve seen attempted murder. We’ve seen deaths. We’ve seen a lot of drug use. It’s gotten to the point where we were asked by the community to survey the situation and clean things up.”
In addition, Klevins said city officials have observed campfire rings, putting the SLO area at risk of a fire.
Last week, city officials hosted a forum that included many local nonprofits to help connect transients to shelters and a variety of services, as they’re forced to relocate.
SLO homeless advocates call it a ‘raid’
Despite the city’s characterization, the founder of Hope’s Village of SLO, Becky Jorgeson, called the situation a “raid” that’s inhumanely forcing people out of their tents and makeshift homes.
“This is a raid, and the city is illegally taking personal goods and forcing people to leave during a pandemic against (Centers for Disease Control) guidelines,” said Jorgeson, whose nonprofit aims to create a community for homeless veterans and their families. “We’re offering to help people by housing them in hotels.”
CDC guidelines encourage government agencies and the unsheltered to embrace links to services and assistance.
But the CDC also says in its guidance: “If individual housing options are not available, allow people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are.”
Klevins said that he works closely with the unhoused population, some of whom refuse help or return to the streets after getting assistance, including shelter.
Carly Creath, a formerly homeless woman who volunteers with Hope’s Village, said the city isn’t doing enough for people.
“Many of the people who live out here on the Bob Jones Trail drink or do drugs, and the shelters like 40 Prado (homeless center) won’t let them stay,” Creath said. “If they show up drunk or high, there’s no place to go.”
Echoing Creath’s concerns, Jorgeson said many of the homeless will simply go into hiding and move to other areas along the creek. She doesn’t believe the city is handling the situation properly.
“There needs to be an outdoor location that’s monitored where people can set up tents and get a shower,” Jorgeson said. “The back of Laguna Lake is a good option.”
City officials said the county of San Luis Obispo, along with partnering SLO County city governments, will begin forming a long-range regional plan to address homelessness in January, and possibly come up with an outdoor location for camping.
‘This is not a raid,’ city official says
Klevins, the social worker, said that the more than 70 people who live along the trail are occupying areas that stretch more than a mile between Prado Road and Los Osos Valley Road.
Klevins said that cleanups are regular, annual occurrences that take place typically before rainy seasons to prevent contamination of the creek that flows into the ocean at Avila Beach.
“This is not a raid,” Klevins said. “The people here have been warned for two weeks that they’ll need to clear out. We hosted an event to connect them to services (including housing, health, food and mental health assistance). Thirty-two people showed up — about half of the people out here.”
Klevins said that the city, which is contracting trash pickup crews, expects to remove about around 50 tons of material, including shopping carts, clothes, old mattresses, used food cartons and a host of miscellaneous items collected by the unsheltered — all of which could contaminate the creek.
Throughout the Bob Jones Trail area, tents erected near trees with piles of belongings, as well as campfire rings, were visible.
Klevins said about 75% of homeless suffer from mental health issues and drug addiction. Indicating the heightened tensions, Klevins said he was yelled at already a few times Monday morning by unhappy campers as the cleanup proceeded.
“There can always be more done to help,” Klevins said. “In order for people to want to get out off the streets, often they have to deal with issues first, and more funding always could be available.”
Homeless campers share experiences
On Monday, multiple homeless people collected their belongings in shopping carts, with varying degrees of resistance to the evacuation.
“This is s---,” said Terry Leach, a 59-year-old woman who was packing up her belongings next to a tent. “I don’t like to be harassed. ... I just want to be left alone.”
Leach said she’d lived in SLO for more than two years, doesn’t like to stay at 40 Prado because of the noise and “voices” of the people there, and expects to move across the roadway to a new spot.
John and Debbie Ivy live in their van and say they regularly are asked to leave locations where they park.
“There’s really no good place to park,” said John Ivy, who said he’s on probation after recently leaving jail. “We basically get told to leave.”
40 Prado has a homeless parking area for those who live in their vehicles, city officials said last week.
Sixty-six-year-old Darcene Clayton has a broken hip and complimented Klevins and the role he has with helping people, saying he’s a “good guy.”
“I know people leave their needles, and I know we have to do better with trash,” Clayton said. “... People do meth and heroin out there. Often it’s to cover up the pain, the pain of having a kid taken away from their custody or things like that.”
Clayton said she would accept housing if she could be set up, after being on the street since 2014.
“I didn’t expect to stay so long,” she said.
Klevins said there’s not an easy explanation for why people end up on the streets.
“There are many reasons,” Klevins said. “I often say there’s a big difference between sympathy and empathy. Sympathy is feeling sorry for people out here. Empathy is doing something about it and trying to help.”
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