City Clears Out Homeless Campsites

City police and street maintenance crews dismantled three illegal homeless campsites last weekend. Two of the encampments were located on city-owned property next to the Casa Esperanza Homeless Center parking lot. The other was near the creek bed at the corner of Calle Cesar Chavez and the railroad tracks.

Police, said Sergeant Riley Harwood, had received a number of complaints in recent week from Casa Esperanza and area business about drinking, defecation, urination, and garbage-dumping at the sites. “Prior to the cleanup effort, the campsite inhabitants had been warned and advised to remove all personal items of value,” said Harwood in a prepared statement. “All remaining refuse was disposed of properly.”