Residents rush to save belongings as city bulldozes longtime homeless camp

This story was updated to clarify that the city says this camp abatement was not in response to Gov. Newsom’s order.

The city of Richmond on Thursday morning forced about 30 people to leave a homeless encampment along the Greenway Trail.

While the action came about a month after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide order telling cities to remove homeless camps from state-owned property, the city said the clean-up wasn’t related to that order and that it has conducted “multiple abatements” of the property, which is within city limits.

The 42nd and Greenway Pocket Park area behind the Target store on Macdonald Avenue, along the San Francisco Bay Trail and BART tracks, has long been a place for unhoused people to find shelter under trees or in tents. The city’s effort was there part of a larger effort to use state funds to clear areas near BART and California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) property.

People like Bryan Nunn were among those who were trying to pick up pieces of their property along the bike trail, as police officers and city workers watched. Nunn told Richmondside he felt “angry and depressed” since he said he does not know where to go next.

“The sergeant might put me in jail for being homeless,” he said, turning to supervising Richmond Police Sgt. Benjamin Therriault. When Therriault asked Nunn if he would consider going to a shelter, Nunn said he had too much property with him.

“F*** man, I don’t like being around a bunch of people. I’m solo, man,” Nunn said. 

“I hear you man, I respect that, but you gotta do something,” Therriault said. 

City workers used bulldozers and heavy equipment to destroy property left behind by those who had already left the area, as the city had posted a written notice 72 hours before Thursday’s camp eradication. Police surrounded a tent at one point, insisting that its inhabitant, a middle-age man, leave immediately. Officers quickly began destroying the tent and its contents just after the man removed food for his dog. Two other men left the area with dogs and a litter of puppies, saying they weren’t sure where to find a shelter that would accommodate their animals.

As BART trains screeched on the tracks behind him, Kenneth Elmo was hurrying to gather some of his property before the bulldozer reached his tent. He said he’s lived in Richmond since he was 4 and has lived along the Greenway for at least five years. 

Elmo said over the years city workers allowed him and others to stay there if they kept the area clean and cut the grass. But within the last two weeks, the city told him and his neighbors to move.

“You got the community, the homeowners, and the (Target) store telling us to go,” Elmo said. 

Elmo said he accepted the city’s offer to move into a hotel room in Hilltop until the Motel 6 property is ready. But he was told he would have to leave most of his property.

“I’m just grabbing what I can grab now,” he said.

Michelle Milam, the city’s crime prevention manager, said city officials have spent weeks contacting about 25 to 30 people living along the Greenway, managing to find housing for 10 people, including Elmo, in shelters or temporary hotel rooms. Milam said those who were displaced will work with a case manager to find permanent housing. Officials are unsure how many shelter beds are available at any given time, since they are usually at capacity.  

“This has been a problem area for years, and we’ve cleared this area three or four times,” Milam said. “Some people take the services, some people don’t. We may be able to get some people into temporary shelters for support.”

Although Milam helped organize the effort to convert Motel 6 into supportive housing, she said that people removed from encampments cannot yet benefit from the new $14.5 million grant which the state just approved to turn it into housing. She said the motel isn’t ready yet, and it may be at least eight months before people can stay there. 

Daniel Barth of SOS Richmond, a nonprofit contracted by the city to offer services to help local homeless people navigate state bureaucracy, said his team has been working with people like Elmo for years. He considers it an accomplishment to see Elmo find a place to stay indoors. 

“Usually in these situations, he’d go away and then come back. He’s now in a place in his life where he can make a decision to go indoors,” Barth said. 

Speaking over the sounds of workers operating bulldozers to crush property, Barth said the city’s been wanting to see the Greenway encampment cleared “for a long time.” He said there may be about 30 other encampment “hotspots” around the Richmond area which could get cleared next, such as an encampment near Raley’s in San Pablo. There may be more than 1,700 people living unsheltered across the Richmond area at any one time, by SOS’s count.

Barth said that he’s been working with Bay Area homeless people for almost four decades and isn’t surprised when people who are removed go to another location until they are displaced again. 

“They all have stories of struggle that are decades-long each,” Barth said. “Some folks don’t believe in possibilities, because possibilities have been denied them for decades.”

The operation which took place Thursday comes a month after Newsom’s July executive order, which followed a June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that ended protections for homeless people living in encampments in western states. The court upheld an Oregon law banning sleeping outdoors, setting a precedent that allows cities and states to crack down on homeless camps. SOS blasted Newsom’s executive order in a statement released in July, saying the governor “is pursuing a misguided and cruel policy.” 

Richmond’s camping ordinances, found in Chapter 11.96 of the Municipal Code, prohibit camping, sleeping, or occupying encampments in streets, parking lots, and public areas. However, sleeping outdoors is not a violation if the person has not been informed about available homeless shelters, if shelter space is unavailable, or if the person refuses to stay at a shelter. After COVID led to an increase in homeless encampments, the state made funding available to cities to clear encampments.

Last year, Richmond used a $4.8 million state grant to clear the former Castro encampment near North Castro Street. The city reported that 70 of the 102 former Castro residents now have some form of housing.