The city of San Luis Obispo forced dozens of homeless individuals living in an encampment by the Bob Jones biking and walking trail to leave early on May 18, leading to concerns among some local homeless advocates about safety and human rights violations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
City officials and SLO police officers notified residents of the Bob Jones camp on May 12 that they would have to leave the area within the week, according to Deputy City Manager Greg Hermann, who said the decision was in response to “significant health and safety concerns” at the camp. On May 18, the city dismantled the encampment, removed the trash and waste that had accumulated in the area, and told remaining residents to move along.
Becky Jorgeson is the founder and president of Hope’s Village of SLO, a nonprofit that advocates for people experiencing homelessness. Jorgeson and her staff deliver food to residents of the longstanding Bob Jones camp daily, some who have lived there for nearly 15 years. Now they’ve all left the area and many can’t be located.
“The excuse is that [the city] warned people,” Jorgeson said. “Well there’s nowhere else for them to go.”
Although the city brought along social workers and 40 Prado Homeless Services staff to connect Bob Jones residents to services and get them placed in the Prado shelter, Jorgeson said only about 25 of the 50 to 70 regulars at camp were actually contacted by city officials. And Jorgeson said a lot of people with severe mental health and substance abuse issues have difficulties getting into and staying at Prado, which she said has stringent entry rules.
There is one place individuals experiencing homelessness could go, Jorgenson said. In late March, the county secured four motels and several trailers where homeless individuals with COVID-19 can quarantine and heal. But Jorgeson said there haven’t been many known cases of coronavirus among the local homeless population, and the county confirmed that those beds aren’t being used.
Unfortunately, she said, the county won’t house just anyone there.
So now Hope’s Village of SLO is housing several individuals in a local motel, including S, a single mother of a 4-month-old who has long struggled with homelessness. S, who New Times is identifying by her first initial, recently ended a relationship with her son’s abusive father, who she said struggles with substance abuse and threatened to kill her and take her son.
For weeks now S said she’s been trying to get help from the various shelters and services in SLO without luck. RISE SLO, which offers assistance to survivors of intimate partner violence, couldn’t take her because of her history of homelessness, she said. RISE said that while it does take some women experiencing homelessness, the shelter is often at capacity and there typically has to be a direct link between the homelessness and domestic violence.
Then S stayed at Prado for a few nights but was kicked out for a night after a minor violation. S eventually found the Bob Jones camp early last week, but after a day there, she found out that she’d have to leave soon.
“I’m just trying to get somewhere stable for us,” S told New Times.
City officials say they did their best to warn Bob Jones residents of the coming closure and help them find another place to stay.
In an email that was forwarded to New Times, Police Chief Deanna Cantrell said the city offered all residents beds at the 40 Prado homeless shelter and to hold personal belongings for residents for up to 90 days.
CAPSLO (Community Action Partnership of SLO) Deputy Director Grace McIntosh said she sent one of her staff members down to the Bob Jones camp to connect with residents and offer them space in 40 Prado. Of the roughly 25 people contacted, about 18 were eligible to come to the shelter whenever they wanted. McIntosh said 10 had no interest, and eight said they’d come in, but only a few have.
Right now, Prado is only accepting SLO County locals and individuals who have sought CAPSLO services before. Those measures are intended to keep numbers lower in the shelter to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak. There haven’t been any positive cases in the shelter so far, but McIntosh said only three individuals have met the criteria required to get tested. McIntosh plans to open Prado back up as usual on June 1 if all goes to plan. Until then, she said Bob Jones residents who meet Prado’s entry criteria are welcome there.
“We all need to understand that none of us has the answer for every single person and the more we can work together in a positive way together the better.” Δ
This article appears in May 21-31, 2020.
There is a huge problem of homelessness in our community that needs to be addressed properly. Clearing the homeless people out of one camp does not solve the problem. It only moves them to another location to set up camp. This decision to clear out a homeless camp would be wrong at anytime without a strategy in place to reduce the likelihood of the same camp resurfacing elsewhere. However, to do so now, is clearly not right to do so during a pandemic when our local homeless shelter is trying to keep everyone social distancing. We need long term planning from our city leaders to tackle this issue as a priority. I am frustrated by the focus on getting rid of gas appliances, plastic straws when we got trash everywhere, unsafe conditions. The homeless situation in SLO was only getting worse the last ten years during a good economy. Now, with more people unemployed, it is time for the leadership in SLO to develop a long term strategy to reduce the amount of homelessness in SLO.
Pick them up and drop them off at a border of their choosing HEADING OUT OF SLO.
The results are mostly the same in most homeless case studies, homeless people choose that lifestyle. Fine by me but as a taxpayer, I choose to see those free will moochers sent packing.
The odd case where a homeless person cannot find assistance does not sway opinion in my circles. The rarity is not the norm and they must be harshly dealt with by exiling them from this county. Accept help or literally get forced out.
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”-Unknown
The people in the camp was offered many opportunities to get help. This is often their lifestyle. Free of responsibility. Bob Jones trail cannot be used as intended due to the unpredictable transients living in camps a long the creek line. The stench of urine can be smelled at quiet a distance from the camp. The grass is very tall along the creek. The risk is extremely high for fires. I do walk daily along Higuera Street. The amount of trash in the area is a health hazard.
Im glad i dont live downstream from the encampment. The health department should test San Luis Obispo Creek for E. coli. Its got to be threw the roof as the homeless who are living along Bob Jones trail which parallels the creek dont have proper bathrooms to use. So all their waste will seep into the creek. When the water exits in Avila it must be really contaminated…
I worked directly, VERY directly, with a large population of transients, chronically homeless, drug-addicted, and mentally ill down in Ventura for many years. It deepened my sympathy for the mentally ill, because they are truly the ones left behind, but taught me the “transient” variety are absolute scammers, literally every single one. They choose this lifestyle when they’re young and regret it as they age, they all have a sob story about how the mean cops preyed on them, or society just won’t help them, etc etc. All bullshit, they turn down the offers of real help at every turn, because the shelters won’t allow them to drink and smoke. They whine that they aren’t given enough govt benefits, all while making hundreds a day spanging. It was eye opening to see the scams they would run on unsuspecting shoppers who, out of human decency, would give them change for the food they would never buy. “I make more money a day than you,” – one of my local spangers, as he laughed and bought a bottle of vodka, using money he had been given for pizza a few minutes before. This was not a unique conversation, the solution to homelessness is to use all the resources for the mentally ill, the survivors of domestic abuse, the addicts who actually want to get clean, the rest can get fucked because it’s their own fault.