Quick Take:
The City of Watsonville began Monday to clear a homeless encampment along the Pajaro River levee that officials say has steadily grown since the beginning of the year. Public works crews issued more than 60 notices last Friday, but there are likely more than that living along the levee.
The City of Watsonville began clearing an encampment along the Pajaro River levee on Monday morning, just days after distributing and posting notices last Friday informing encampment residents that they must vacate the area with their belongings.
Like the City of Santa Cruz’s public clearing of the Benchlands encampment next to the San Lorenzo River in September 2022, and its subsequent clearing of the Pogonip encampment in May 2023, the City of Watsonville is working to clear and clean the levee encampment over the next two weeks. Officials say the encampment has grown rapidly in just a matter of months.
The areas that must be vacated are from Sakata Lane to Main Street, Main Street to Lincoln Street and Lincoln Street to Loughead Avenue. That is about 1 mile of the levee.
The city’s notices say that the decision to clear the encampment is because “it has been determined to pose serious health, welfare and safety risks to the persons living in the encampment.” Those who do not leave could be subject to citation or arrest.
City of Watsonville spokesperson Michelle Pulido — who also manages communications for the Watsonville Police Department — said city public works staff issued more than 60 notices to vacate, both handing them to people and posting them around the levee. Although Pulido did not know the number of people in total living in the encampment, she said that it has “quadrupled in size” since the beginning of the year.
This year’s point-in-time count showed that Watsonville saw a 60% increase in its unhoused population.
Pulido also said that, as far as she knows, the clearing has been in the works since well before the recent Supreme Court decision that allows local jurisdictions to criminalize sleeping and camping on public land, as the city and police had been receiving more complaints about safety and environmental concerns in recent months.
“Our police department has been getting a lot of complaints about criminal activity and other hazardous conditions like reports of syringes and trash, especially in some areas where we tend to see a lot of kids and families,” she said.
Police have responded to “pretty serious crimes” at the levee, including three homicides and a number of drug overdose deaths, Pulido said, contributing to the decision to clear the encampment.
The police department has its police service specialist in the field, a new role designed to work with organizations providing resources to those being cleared and connecting them to service providers. Pulido said the specialist is providing a full document of South County services including food access, shelter and medical services compiled by People First Santa Cruz County — formerly Santa Cruz Free Guide.
The city’s goal is not to drive the levee residents out of the city, Pulido said, but to “provide them services and ensure a clean and safe environment.” She did add, though, that there are a lot of questions that have not been answered.
“At the end of the day, it’s up to the individual to accept those services,” she said. “But to be honest, we’re at a point where we still don’t even know exactly what type of services these folks may need or where they are coming from.”
At the encampment Monday, unhoused residents were scrambling to figure out where to go. Many said they feel they are out of options.
“I have no clue what we’re going to do because this is all we really got right here,” said Johnny Pero, who has lived at the encampment for about five months. “What they’re trying to do is get rid of us. What do they want us to do? Go to another city? It’s just going to be the same problem over there.”
Joaquin Chavez, who has been homeless for eight years, said he is planning to trek over the Monterey County line in an attempt to set up a safe place for himself. “And if they clear that area, then I don’t know. Try to find another place, I guess.”
The city will continue to clear the encampment through Friday, Aug. 2, but could extend beyond that, said Pulido.
Kevin Painchaud contributed to this report.
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