Police order homeless to vacate area
Half of the 25 campers plan to stay underneath the BART tracks despite Wednesday’s deadline
Concord police have ordered about 25 people who live at an encampment near the city’s skatepark to clear the area by Wednesday — a move decried by homeless advocates who claim that the city has offered no adequate alternatives and that the sweep will simply force the site’s residents to pitch tents in other areas.
People started pitching a few tents on the site on San Miguel Road in 2018, but residents say the vast majority settled on the site’s greenspace over the past year. Police and city workers frequently visit the site — which lies underneath a BART track and stretches over a couple of street blocks — to pick up trash and communicate with the camp’s residents who say they’ve built a good rapport with the officials.
But on Jan. 18, orange tags were posted on the resident’s tents, ordering them to clear out the camp. One resident of the encampment thought it was triggered because of complaints sur
rounding the use of stoves at the site, but Councilmember Edi Birsan said it's likely due to upcoming construction projects at the southern portion of the field.
A city spokesperson, as well as the police sergeant, Matthew Millman, who oversees issues at the encampment, did not respond to a request for comment. Multiple calls to CORE, the city's outreach team, also went unanswered.
Residents, meanwhile, at the site are worried.
“I feel like this is a good place as any,” said Dewayne Picquette, who has lived at the encampment with his girlfriend since December. “We don't bother nobody here. We gotta have somewhere to go. Where else can we go?”
When asked where he was going to go after Wednesday, Picquette said he was uncertain.
“I don't know,” he said as the BART train up above flew past. “I'm gonna follow the crowd I think.”
Others at the encampment have decided to just pitch their tents within the general vicinity after Wednesday's deadline. LeAnn Matthews, who has lived at the site for four years and is considered the leader of the encampment, is doing just that. She currently has a tent with a large tarp over the top and a makeshift bamboo fence.
Through tears, she described feeling responsible for the other campers' well-being and overwhelmed because of the city's orders.
“I don't get it,” she said bluntly as cars passed by on San Miguel Road.
On Sunday, advocates from various local nonprofit and religious groups gathered in front of the encampment to protest the police department's order and to help move the belongings of residents who are willing to resettle. About half of the 25 residents are moving out, advocates said, and the other half are staying put, potentially setting the stage for a showdown with the Concord's police department.
Emily Gaines, who is a member of the advocacy groups Concord Communities Alliance, was at the encampment Sunday helping coordinate residents' moves.
“It is unethical to move people if you don't have a better place to offer them,” she said. “If you want to tell someone, ‘You can't camp here, but here's a safe place you can camp.' That's great. That's absolutely fine. But people are out here just trying to survive, doing the best to shelter themselves because they don't have anywhere else to be.”
Each tag that was posted onto the site's tents directed individuals to connect to the city's Coordinated Outreach, Referral, & Engagement agency, known as CORE. While the city and the surrounding area has shelters, advocates said the pandemic has greatly reduced the number of available beds.
“They're all full,” said Ady Olvera, another member of Concord Communities Alliance. Olvera said she would like to see the city build some form of housing on the site with a fence and proper facilities. (Her group currently provides a makeshift toilet for the encampment.) While the idea has been floated around by city officials, she said, it hasn't gained any steam.
“Can't we make it nice so the neighbors appreciate it?” asked Olvera. “Can't we put trash bins? Can't we put Porta-Potties? These can be done very cheap. But when the city wants to do something, they think it has to be really expensive.”
Nicole B., who chose to only share the first initial of her last name and lives across the street from the encampment, said the sweep may be the best path forward.
“I'm not the biggest fan of it,” she said about the site. “I wish them the best. I want them to have somewhere else to go.” While she initially was all right with the encampment, she accused one of the encampment's residents of stealing one of her recycling bins, and said it was a turning point for her feelings about the place.
“No, they don't have anywhere else to go,” she said. “But there are definitely ways to help set that up without just handing them everything. I think it's been plenty of time. I think (the sweep) is a push in the right direction. I don't think there's one thing that the city can do. I think it's definitely a community outreach issue. I think we should just all figure out, ‘What is the common denominator in these guys being out here?'”
Concord councilmember Edi Birsan said that the advocates protesting the removal of the encampment's occupants “have a reasonable argument.”
Birsan visited the site Saturday and met with residents. He said CORE has been “decimated” by the pandemic but has been able to offer some services to the encampment's residents over the years.
“Where are they going to go?” Birsan asked, adding that he has been trying to find another piece of land that the campers could move to.
“I'm trying to do what I can but it is very difficult,” he said. “We don't have the land. We don't have the resources.”