Dewayne Picquette stands close to the doorway of a homeless encampment on San Miguel Highway in Harmony, Calif., on Sunday, January 23, 2022. Harmony police have ordered all 25 people on the encampment to depart by Jan. 26. (Gabriel Greschler/Bay Space Information Group)
Harmony police have ordered about 25 individuals who reside at an encampment close to the town’s skatepark to clear the world by Wednesday — a transfer decried by native homeless advocates who declare that the town has supplied no satisfactory alternate options and that the sweep will merely power the location’s residents to pitch tents in different areas.
Folks first began pitching a couple of tents on the location on San Miguel Highway in 2018, nevertheless, residents mentioned the overwhelming majority settled on the location’s greenspace over the previous 12 months. Police and metropolis employees ceaselessly go to the location — which lies beneath a BART observe and stretches over a few avenue blocks — to select up trash and talk with the camp’s residents who mentioned they've constructed an excellent rapport with the officers.
However on Jan. 18, orange tags had been posted on the resident’s tents, ordering them to filter out the camp. One resident of the encampment thought it was triggered due to complaints surrounding the usage of stoves on the website, however Councilmember Edi Birsan mentioned it’s doubtless because of upcoming development tasks on the southern portion of the sphere.
A metropolis spokesperson, in addition to the police sergeant, Matthew Millman, who oversees points on the encampment, didn't reply to a request for remark. A number of calls to CORE, the town’s outreach crew, went unanswered.
Residents, in the meantime, on the website are frightened.
“I really feel like this can be a good place as any,” mentioned Dewayne Picquette, who has lived on the encampment along with his girlfriend since December. “We don’t hassle no person right here. We gotta have someplace to go. The place else can we go?”
When requested the place he was going to go after Jan. 26, Picquette mentioned he was unsure.
“I don’t know,” he mentioned because the BART practice up above flew previous. “I’m gonna comply with the gang I believe.”
Others on the encampment have determined to only pitch their tents inside the basic neighborhood after Wednesday’s deadline. LeAnn Matthews, who has lived on the website for 4 years and is taken into account the chief of the encampment, is doing simply that. She at present has a tent with a big tarp excessive and a makeshift bamboo fence.
By means of tears, she described feeling accountable for the opposite campers’ well-being and overwhelmed due to the town’s orders.
“I don’t get it,” she mentioned bluntly as automobiles handed by on San Miguel Highway.
On Sunday, advocates from varied native nonprofit and non secular teams gathered in entrance of the encampment to protest the police division’s order and to assist transfer the belongings of residents who're keen to resettle. About half of the 25 residents are transferring out, advocates mentioned, and the opposite half are staying put, probably setting the stage for a showdown with the Harmony’s police division.
Emily Gaines, who's a member of the advocacy teams Harmony Communities Alliance, was on the encampment Sunday serving to coordinate residents’ strikes.
“It's unethical to maneuver individuals when you don’t have a greater place to supply them,” she mentioned. “If you wish to inform somebody, ‘You'll be able to’t camp right here, however right here’s a secure place you possibly can camp.’ That’s nice. That’s completely fantastic. However persons are out right here simply attempting to outlive, doing one of the best to shelter themselves as a result of they don’t have anyplace else to be.”
Every tag that was posted onto the location’s tents directed people to hook up with the town’s Coordinated Outreach, Referral, & Engagement company, generally known as CORE. Whereas the town and the encompassing space has shelters, advocates mentioned the pandemic has enormously decreased the variety of accessible beds.
“They’re all full,” mentioned Ady Olvera, one other member of Harmony Communities Alliance. Olvera mentioned she wish to see the town construct some type of housing on the location with a fence and correct amenities. (Her group at present offers a makeshift rest room for the encampment.) Whereas the thought has been floated round by metropolis officers, she mentioned, it hasn’t gained any steam.
“Can’t we make it good so the neighbors respect it?” requested Olvera. “Can’t we put trash bins? Can’t we put Porta-Potties? These might be achieved very low-cost. However when the town needs to do one thing, they suppose it needs to be actually costly.”
Nicole B., who selected to solely share the primary preliminary of her final identify and lives throughout the road from the encampment, mentioned the sweep could also be one of the best path ahead.
“I’m not the largest fan of it,” she mentioned concerning the website. “I want them one of the best. I would like them to have some other place to go.” Whereas she initially was all proper with the encampment, she accused one of many encampment’s residents of stealing one in every of her recycling bins, and mentioned it was a turning level for her emotions concerning the place.
“No, they don’t have anyplace else to go,” she mentioned. “However there are positively methods to assist set that up with out simply handing them the whole lot. I believe it’s been loads of time. I believe (the sweep) is a push in the appropriate course. I don’t suppose there’s one factor that the town can do. I believe it’s positively a neighborhood outreach challenge. I believe we must always simply all determine, ‘What's the frequent denominator in these guys being out right here?'”
Harmony councilmember Edi Birsan mentioned that the advocates protesting the elimination of the encampment’s occupants “have an affordable argument.” Birsan visited the location on Saturday and met with a couple of of its residents. He mentioned that CORE has been “decimated” by the pandemic however that they've been in a position to provide some companies to the encampment’s residents over time.
“The place are they going to go?” Birsan requested, including that he has been looking for one other piece of land that the campers may transfer to.
“I’m attempting to do what I can however it is vitally troublesome,” he mentioned. “We don’t have the land. We don’t have the assets.”