Pajaro River levee cleanup scatters an unhoused community, creating new challenges for outreach workers

Weeks after construction crews started clearing up tents and shelters along the Pajaro River levee, the homelessness outreach team tasked with helping some levee residents find alternative shelter is facing challenges in its efforts to reconnect with many of the displaced residents. 

Many of the unhoused residents have either moved up east on the levee toward the coast or the opposite direction toward Salsipuedes Creek, said Aimee Ramirez, operations manager for the 34-unit “tiny village” homeless housing project in Watsonville. 

Karla Escamilla, housing navigator for Watsonville-based Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, has been working alongside the nonprofit’s two case managers to help residents get into temporary housing, such as hotels, and into programs for mental health or substance-abuse issues. She said it’s been harder to reconnect with clients because they’ve moved into areas that are harder and less safe to access. 

 “It’s been tough,” she said of trying to do outreach with former levee residents since the encampment sweeps earlier this summer.

The encampment sweeps, which began Aug. 25, have displaced nearly 150 unhoused residents living along the Pajaro River levee. The cleanup was necessary to help address the levee’s structural weakness, Mark Strudley, executive director of the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency, previously told Lookout. 

The agency aims to repair any damage created by residents building shelter, and to prevent future flooding. Construction crews finished clearing the levee of any encampments and temporary shelters last week, said Strudley. He added that vegetation trimming is set to begin Thursday, to be conducted by Atlas Tree Service. 

Escamilla told Lookout earlier this week that a few of her clients have received hotel vouchers for a week, but she’s been able to extend their stays for longer as she works to get them into transitional housing programs. Community Action Board collaborated with The Coalition of Homeless Service Providers in Monterey County to receive funding from the state’s Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program that are used to pay for the vouchers. 

Of the nearly 150 people who were living along the levee, only a small percentage of them are clients of the nonprofit — which started building its caseload only this summer in preparation for the sweeps and “tiny village” opening. Beyond CAB, Santa Cruz County Housing for Health and Monterey County-based Access Support Network are also checking in with residents on their client lists, said Ramirez. 

The outreach team has also reduced its number of levee visits per week because case workers haven’t been able to meet a lot of their clients, as some areas like Salisipuedes Creek are harder for them to access, said Lourdes Salazar, a CAB case manager. “It’s harder to say, ‘Let’s go three times a week, or four times a week,’” she said. 

Strudley told Lookout that a few residents have been returning to the levee and trying to reestablish their homes throughout the first phase of the cleanup. “There are some people that are trying to repopulate the area. So there’s a few tents cropping up that we’re going to have to knock down again,” he said. 

He added that the agency’s board will weigh in on proposals with security companies to patrol the levee area at its next meeting, scheduled for next Wednesday, Oct. 8. The agency intends to remove anyone who tries to return to the levee because it’s not safe for them to live there, Strudley said. 

In the weeks leading up to the sweeps, Salazar, Escamilla and Elizabeth Rodriguez, another case manager for CAB, were visiting the levee almost daily, taking down the names and contact information of clients and other residents they connected with. As of this week, Rodriguez said that she’s been able to successfully reconnect with only three people from that list. 

However, the nonprofit’s office at the Westview Presbyterian Church in downtown Watsonville — which is also where the 34-unit “tiny village” will be located — has been experiencing a lot of foot traffic, according to Ramirez.  

People are sometimes waiting outside the church early in the morning before the outreach team even arrives for the day, said Rodriguez. One of her clients, who had been living at the levee for three years, helps the team out by telling other residents about the services CAB offers. “She’s really familiar with the people, and she knows where they moved further up [along the Pajaro River],” Rodriguez said of her client. 

There has been a mix of people seeking services, she added, not just people who lived at the levee, but also unhoused residents living in different parts of Watsonville. 

As the opening of the “tiny village” approaches toward the end of the year, Rodriguez is compiling a list of people who are interested in living there, she said. The 34-unit shelter aims to be ready for residents in December, and is intended to house people who have been living along the levee. Community Action Board is the designated service provider for the facility. 

The project, first proposed in 2023, will be made up of 28 individual single-bed shelters, two double units for couples, and four Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant units, which will allow for up to 36 people to live in the village. Residents will also have access to a laundry room, four shared bathrooms and a small kitchen area — all located on site. 

Rodriguez added that she’s planning to do more outreach to try to get more people to sign up for the interest list, but also get them on her caseload and get them connected to services. Signing up for the list does not guarantee a spot in the “tiny village,” she said. The nonprofit will be working with Santa Cruz and Monterey counties to determine who will be filling up the 36 spots available.  

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