Homeless camp cleared in midtown Sacramento. Most campers move just one block away
State Caltrans crews cleared a homeless encampment from a midtown Sacramento property Tuesday.
The clearing took place so crews could clean up used needles and human waste on the property, along 29th Street between F and H streets, said Caltrans spokeswoman Angela Daprato. The property, owned by Caltrans, is a dirt lot with trees between the Capital City Freeway and the street. Crews also cleared camps around the corner along G Street under the freeway.
Caltrans posted notices at the camp several days ago informing homeless men and women that the camp would be cleared. Those notices contained a phone number for a hotel voucher referral line that was disconnected.
Many of the roughly one dozen unhoused people who were cleared from the lot moved their tents a block north, to a dirt lot along 29th Street between E and F streets.
Among them were Naylee and his girlfriend Alice, who have been camping on the property for about three months. They have been trying to get into a shelter, but all shelters in the city are typically full on any given night. They’ve also been trying to get a motel voucher, but never heard back, Naylee said.
On their gray and blue tent read the message written on a blanket: “We all have a story. Not all of us asked for this. Some of us had no choice.”
“We’re waiting to get our opportunity so we can take advantage of it and get up outta here,” said Naylee, who declined to give his last name because he said he was embarrassed to be homeless.
Emily Bolshakoff, 31, and her boyfriend Mark Tvrdik also moved their tents about a block north. Among Bolshakoff’s belongings were a giant stuffed teddy bear and a green stuffed dinosaur.
“We’ve been here over a year,” Tvrdik, 53, said. “We’ve never had no mess, no garbage. We don’t do drugs.”
The couple has run into similar challenges in getting into shelter and housing.
“They just say call back, call back, call back. It’s no help at all,” Tvrdik said.
Nowhere to go
Caltrans has been increasing the number of camp clearings near freeways in Sacramento in recent weeks. That’s partly due to a new policy that allows the state agency to clear camps for safety issues, in conjunction with the governor’s office, said Patrick Bishop, Caltrans’ deputy director of maintenance and traffic operations.
Last week, the agency cleared a camp along Ninth Street near W Street under the overpass. Afterward, City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela said she got calls from residents in the area complaining about an increase in tents in the adjacent Southside Park neighborhood.
Valenzuela, who represents the area, criticized Caltrans for not opening alternative spaces where the homeless could go. The city’s $100 million Comprehensive Siting Plan to Address Homelessness includes five Caltrans sites under the W-X freeway from 18th to 24th streets for 200 tiny homes. They have yet to open.
“If you needed to move people urgently, which we agree we probably do, why don’t we open one of those sites?” Valenzuela said.
Earlier this year, when Caltrans had to move camps to expand the freeway, the agency worked with the city to open a Safe Ground for tent and vehicle camping near Sixth and W streets to move people to. That Safe Ground, along with one in Miller Park, are now full, but Valenzuela wants to open more. She said she was disappointed Caltrans did not work with the city to do that prior to clearing camps.
“What they could’ve done is what we’ve done before — identified a Caltrans site they could go to and worked with everyone to get them over there to safety,” Valenzuela said. “They seem pretty committed to wasting resources and traumatizing people by just moving them a block at a time without addressing the issue of where do they go.”
The city last month opened a 100-bed homeless shelter on X Street near Alhambra Boulevard. As of Monday, there were 13 people staying in that shelter, with 20 expected to be added by the end of the week, said Christie Holderegger, spokeswoman for Volunteers of America, the shelter’s operator. People can only get in the shelter if they are referred from the city or from homeless service organizations.
Candis Montoya, 40, who’s being cleared from G Street, said she wanted to get into that shelter, but she has a cat. The shelter does not allow cats.
Caltrans is also clearing camps due to an uptick in the number of homeless people being killed when they are hit by cars on the freeway, and also due to fires, which can damage the infrastructure, Bishop said.
Earlier this year, Caltrans cleared a camp near 29th and C Streets and put up a permanent fence to keep them from coming back. The agency may also do that with 29th Street between F and G, Bishop said.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
