SLO clears out homeless ahead of work on Bob Jones Trail, sparking tears and anger
In preparation for a safety improvement project along the Bob Jones Bike Trail that starts Monday, several homeless campers in San Luis Obispo were given notice to clear out of makeshift encampments near Prado Road on Friday — and they weren’t happy about it, with some yelling or breaking down in tears.
As city park rangers and police monitored nearby and a junk removal team hauled off trash left along the trail, homeless residents rolled up tents, clothing, tools and other belongings, with some biking and walking off with their possessions packed onto trailers.
“I don’t know where to go,” said David Phillips, 50, who grew up in Atascadero and has lived unhoused in SLO for years after a “nasty” divorce upended his life. “I’ll go sit out on the street. You know? We got to move from here to there. They tell us you can move over here and you’ll be OK. This is everything I own. This is a life thing.”
City officials said that the cleanup is necessary during the construction process, which will provide a safety barrier beside steep drop-offs and environmentally sensitive areas along a large section of the 1.5-mile trail, where heavy timber fencing will go in.
Crews will remove existing split-rail wood fencing along the trail from Prado Road to Los Osos Valley Road and replace it with decorative wrought-iron fencing. They will also cut back vegetation to reduce fuel for potential wildfires.
“We’re starting this project a little bit earlier than expected because we were fortunate enough to receive the fencing materials sooner than anticipated,” said Greg Cruce, SLO Public Works Department’s deputy director of maintenance operations, in a city news release. “We hope to finish the project quickly so community members can once again enjoy the bike trail.”
The stretch of trail will be closed for about eight weeks, lasting through March 4.
The city also isn’t allowing access or thoroughfare to riders, runners and walkers during the project timeline.
Kelsey Nocket, the city’s homelessness response manager, said that the city’s Community Action Team, made up of police and social worker staff members, conducted outreach to every individual within the Bob Jones Trail Area in advance of Friday’s cleanup to make people aware of resources such as shelter, food and social services, as well as hotel stays.
“I want to ensure that people understand the city does not see this as an ideal situation,” Nocket said. “But we do want to ensure that we get people into more appropriate housing options. So while cleanouts do disrupt people’s day to day, it ensures everyone’s safety and it gives us the opportunity to hopefully get that person into a living situation that will benefit them in the long run.”
Nocket added: “I know that people think that the cleanouts are kind of our solution. It’s not a solution. It’s a temporary thing.”
Homeless impacts
While the 40 Prado homeless shelter run by the nonprofit Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo (CAPSLO) is located nearby on Prado Road, several of the unhoused who spoke to The Tribune on Friday said they don’t use it or have been asked to leave.
The nonprofit Hope’s Village has helped several of the homeless residents to get by through donations of tents, clothing and food. Hope’s Village coordinators were on hand Friday to offer breakfast burritos, coffee and emotional support.
“We’re asking those of you who are sick and tired of seeing our unhoused neighbors be treated like animals to please come down and support our homeless men and women,” said Becky Jorgeson, Hope’s Village founder and president, in an email callout to supporters. “They have nowhere else to go.”
Jorgeson has long advocated for a tiny home village and seeks the city or county’s help in providing a property that could offer home space for such a project.
Carl “Red” Caslin said that he was kicked out of 40 Prado several months ago for stealing bike parts as part of his work doing bike repairs, which he denies.
Caslin said he was later asked to apologize about it, before being let back in, but added “I’m not going to apologize for something I didn’t do.”
He has been living in a tent along the trail with his bike and other possessions.
Ashlynn Miles, 21, said she became homeless due to family turmoil and was also packing up her tent and possessions.
She said she got into a dispute with someone at 40 Prado over her religious beliefs and “tapped them with a stick,” which was perceived as more serious than she believes it was.
“Someone was looking at me homicidal for liking God, so I tapped the stick and I got kicked out,” she said. “That’s the only thing and then I started yelling at him.”
Asked “What’s the hardest part of being homeless?” Miles responded, “it’s the packing and packing and packing.”
A nuanced problem
City officials say that they are working hard to place people in shelters or provide them services, though some refuse those offerings.
Nocket, who said beds are available at 40 Prado, added that once someone is in the system, there are choices other than just that facility, such as El Camino Homeless Organization (ECHO), a transitional homeless shelter in Atascadero, or the Five Cities Homeless Coalition program in South County.
At 40 Prado, homeless individuals receive individualized case management to determine the resources they need. The daily check-in time is between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
“They’ve got that two-hour window to develop individualized case management where they say ‘OK, what are your benefits? Can we get you a hotel room tonight? Can we have somebody host you?” Nocket said.
Nocket said that the standard for removing someone from 40 Prado is high, but there are situations in which people aren’t allowed in.
“They have to abide by Megan’s Law,” Nocket said. “So if they’re on the sex offender registry, that can inhibit their access to the facility because there are families who stay there. They have the staff that are really well trained to handle those situations.”
Nocket added permanent bans for stays are unusual.
“It can be a permanent ban, but those are rare, and they’re even working now on policy to reevaluate some of those,” Nockett said.
Lawsuit pending
The legal nonprofit California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) has on ongoing lawsuit against the city on behalf of five unhoused people and Hope’s Village of SLO, claiming SLO officials are “criminalizing homelessness” and those living in their vehicles by cleaning out encampments and taking belongings without providing sufficient shelter space.
A CRLA lawyer visited the trail Friday to take declarations of people living there.
“The lawsuit comes after the city repeatedly broke up homeless camps, destroyed homeless individuals’ property, and cited and arrested unhoused individuals, despite being capable of providing shelter to only a fraction of the city’s unhoused individuals,” the attorneys said in a past news release. “The city has continued to threaten and to harass homeless individuals, who have no alternative housing or shelter, apparently seeking only to remove them from sight within city limits.”
But City Attorney Christine Dietrick said that the city has strived to offer services and connections to resources, and the moveouts are justified.
Some have been unwilling to accept help, thus creating difficulty in the options the city has to assist in getting them off the streets, city officials say.
“We’re working with CRLA with their clients who have filed a lawsuit to see how we can accommodate their needs in existing services,” Nocket said. “So we’re very much engaged in that process. And it’s ongoing, and a few of those individuals were on the trail for this cleanout. So, we’ve been in constant communication about how can we possibly accommodate their specific needs to ensure that we get you out of this situation.”
This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 3:03 PM.
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