Imminent Pajaro River encampment sweeps will displace dozens of levee residents before ‘tiny village’ opening

The Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency will move forward with scheduling its cleanup of encampments along the Pajaro River levee for Aug. 25. The sweeps – intended to prepare for flooding issues – will displace nearly 100 levee residents from the area before the anticipated opening of the 34-unit “tiny village” shelter in Watsonville, intended to house some of those living along the river.

The cleanup is meant to remove shelters, trim vegetation and clear any trash building up along the levee, executive director Mark Strudley told the PRFMA board. Strudley had previously told Lookout that the sweeps are necessary to address the levee’s structural weakness. Once the sweeps are completed, the agency aims to repair any damage created by residents building holes in the ground used for shelter and to prevent any future flooding. 

Residents living along the levee will have little time to figure out next steps, as Strudley said contractors could begin “soft-noticing” later this week. The sweeps will also occur before the tiny village Watsonville shelter, intended to house people living along the levee, opens in December. Construction on the project started last month at Westview Presbyterian Church. 

Originally, the project’s goal was to align the encampment cleanup with the opening of temporary housing, including the upcoming tiny village project, Strudley told the agency board: “But, we can’t for the November time frame for our encampment removal because we’re getting well into the rainy season at that point. We need to conduct this work as soon as we possibly can.”

While a minority of those now living along the river that separates Santa Cruz and Monterey counties could be accommodated at the tiny village later this year, there’s the immediate question of where these residents will go. Among others, nonprofit Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County is working on that issue. 

The PRFMA board unanimously approved contracts to Las Vegas-based contractor Lagestic LLC for the encampment cleanup and an on-call vegetation trimming contract, along with approving a formal agreement with Cal Fire San Mateo-Santa Cruz unit crews for vegetation trimming. The flood management agency will be paying $265,222 overall for the encampment cleanup. 

Lagestic’s work is estimated to continue until the end of September. Cal Fire crews will tentatively start cleaning up vegetation along the river levee in mid-September and are expected to work for a month, according to a PRFMA staff report. 

Since the cleanups are scheduled during peak fire season, Strudley told the agency board that if Cal Fire is unavailable, Lagestic will take over for vegetation trimming portion of the cleanup. “If Cal Fire crews are available, we would strongly prefer to use those crews under this pending [memorandum of understanding] before you today,” he said. “That would be a much cheaper and more efficient option to use.” 

Cal Fire would cost the flood management agency only $394 a day for all of its crews involved in the vegetation cleanup, said Strudley. “I’m pretty confident that they can go fast and that they’re going to go and do this whole area in about three to four weeks, which is fairly cost efficient,” he said. 

Where will levee residents go?

Levee resident Elizabeth Zavala previously told Lookout that she and her partner, Saul, have been feeling anxious about the upcoming sweeps, and constantly thinking about which belongings they’ll be keeping. Zavala added that she’s struggling to find a space that will accommodate them and their animals — 16 cats and two dogs. 

“Everyone’s stressing out about it,” Zavala told Lookout of the sweeps. “My neighbors are freaking out about it.” 

In addition to the upcoming “soft noticing” – letting residents know of the sweeps ahead of time — residents will be given a 72-hour notice by law enforcement agencies before crews begin the sweep, said Strudley. At that point, they must vacate the area for crews to clean up. The flood management agency is also working with the Pajaro/Sunny Mesa Community Services District on providing temporary storage containers for residents to place their belongings in if they wish to do so, he said. 

The upcoming sweeps will also create challenges for service providers, like Watsonville-based Community Action Board, which will be managing the tiny village shelter once it opens. One of the biggest challenges the nonprofit will face is keeping track of residents who are its clients once the cleanup happens, Mike Kittredge, homelessness prevention and intervention services director, told Lookout last month. 

It’s still unclear where levee residents will go once the encampment sweeps begin. Kittredge previously told Lookout that Community Action Board was attempting to work with a local hotel to provide some temporary shelter until the tiny village opens at the end of the year, but there have been no updates to those plans. 

The nonprofit has already started its outreach efforts for the tiny village, evaluating each case individually before deciding whether they are fit to live at the 34-unit shelter. Then, the wider question is where will those who don’t find housing in the tiny village will go. 

Last month, the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency partnered with Community Action Board and Monterey County’s homelessness services department on a mini-cleanup on the levee with its residents to help clear any trash and unnecessary items building up. Strudley said the efforts will relieve some of the pressure from Lagestic for when the contractor begins working on the levee in a few weeks. 

The flood management agency is still figuring out details on support from law enforcement agencies during and after the encampment cleanup to prevent people from returning to live at the river levee, said Strudley. 

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