Escondido’s city manager on Sunday declared a local emergency and announced plans to clear homeless encampments from a section of Escondido Creek after recent water quality tests showed elevated bacteria levels.
After receiving months of complaints from neighbors, the city of Escondido plans to clear and fence a section of Escondido Creek that is the site of a growing homeless encampment that some call “the jungle.”
RELATED: South Bay water district bans homeless camps along creeks
In a notice posted on the city’s website Sunday, officials declared a local emergency, saying they would be addressing public health and environmental risks. The city cited water testing that found “coliform bacteria populations are 2 to 3 times higher than generally acceptable standards for safe and sanitary human contact.” Levels of enterococcus bacteria, another pathogen known to cause human illness, are “7 to 14 (times) higher than acceptable standards,” though specific amounts were not listed.
The Escondido City Council will hold a special meeting Monday afternoon and discuss ratifying City Manager Sean McGlynn’s emergency proclamation and spending $4 million on the response, including putting up fencing and paying for the removal of debris and any invasive plant species.
The city said the Church of God, Escondido will serve as a staging area for outreach and support services as the encampments are removed. It listed several nonprofit service providers, regulatory agencies, and community partners it said would assist those affected.
“This is not an overnight process,” Deputy City Manager Chris McKinney said in a statement. “While you will see progress, ratifying the emergency order, securing necessary resources, and connecting people with support services are essential first steps before fencing or other remediation efforts can begin.”
An emergency declaration allows the city to move forward more quickly on the project, setting aside some bidding requirements if necessary, in order to make the project happen quickly.
RELATED: Just one homeless encampment created 155,000 pounds of debris by a California river
A staff report accompanying the city’s proclamation states that previous efforts to clean up the creek bed have been unsuccessful, including three clean-up projects that removed 120 cubic yards of trash and debris from the area roughly bounded by the Harmony Creek Road and Citracado Parkway bridges over Escondido Creek.
“There still remains significant encampment material, trash, debris, shopping carts and human feces,” the staff report states, adding that 50 patrols by police have not kept the creek bed clear.
City officials say there’s also a heightened fire danger coming from the homeless encampments. Firefighters have responded to 64 calls in the area, compared to 24 last year.
The encampment exists at the spot where the creek leaves its man-made concrete channel, passing through open space that is covered with brush and other cover.
Escondido, CA_12_15_2024_|A moving van, waits to be loaded with homeless belongings as they were notified they had 24 hours to leave an area in Escondido.|Homeless residents pack their belongings in the area East of Citracado Parkway in the Harmony Grove area of Escondido. An encampment was established there and the city of Escondido has posted a notice warning the homeless to leave the area. JOHN GASTALDO for the Union-Tribune
Related Articles
Wish Book: Volunteers help find lasting homes for those on the street in Santa Clara County
Share the Spirit: Turning shelter into homes
Homicide at Oakland tiny home community solved two years later, police say
East Bay families to move into housing with help from nonprofit
Gov. Newsom uses federal health care dollars to help house the homeless. Donald Trump could stop that
Escondido officials said the problem has worsened since the California Department of Transportation installed fencing and removed encampments from state property. The city report said that “many of the people displaced from those encampments moved into the Harmony Grove Creek Bed Area.”
JP Theberge, a board member of the Escondido Creek Conservancy, said he has been copied on many complaint letters from surrounding residents, especially those living in the nearby Harmony Grove Village development to the west, who have become alarmed at the activities they have observed and experienced since the encampment started growing larger.
“These letters are horrific,” Theberge said. “People are reporting getting threatened in their backyards, you know, a lot of criminality.
“People are reporting getting robbed, things being taken from their homes.”
According to its report, Escondido plans to take a page from the state’s playbook, and plans to purchase and install fencing that is “cut-resistant” and “climb-resistant,” which is said to be the type that Caltrans has recently used to secure its own properties.
Mike McConnell, a local advocate for unhoused residents, called clearing people’s belongings and fencing current encampment locations treating the symptoms of a much larger problem that started in downtown San Diego with camping bans.
“This won’t solve anything, it never does,” McConnell said. “We spend a lot of money to just relocate the problem over and over and over again.”
Joseph Thompson, who lives in the creek bed encampment, saw a notice that had been posted Sunday. “As of this morning, we have 24 hours to vacate,” Thompson said.
He said he has been living in the area for about two and a half months after having to leave recuperative care lodging.
He said his attempts to find a shelter bed have been unsuccessful. He said he is not using drugs or alcohol and does not qualify for programs that help people struggling with addiction.
He said he considers the city’s complaints about dirty creek water to be a means to an end. After all, water in the creek has to trickle out from individual yards and businesses. It has not rained in months.
As to the complaints of crime, Thompson said he knows there are some “bad apples” but said he thinks most are just trying to get by in the last place they can find to hunker down.
“We can’t be in town because, of course, we get run off from every place around,” Thompson said. “Yes, there are some people out there that just don’t care, that trash everything around.
“But most of us don’t, and we try to stop that. We’re just living here trying to get what kind of jobs we can. It’s harsh.”
