The City of Antioch Code Enforcement team worked to remove a homeless encampment Wednesday in Fulton Shipyard that netted roughly 20-dumpsters full of garbage and debris.
Yesterdays effort removed roughly 30-people living in the area which included 15-camp sites.
Ryan Graham, Antioch Code Enforcement, stated they had the backhoe and big loader going all day long to dump trucks with the ground crew gathering debris. The day was non-stop with activity which still did not get everything they needed removed.
Crews will be back Thursday to trim back trees and clean up brush to open up the area.
According to Graham, before they cleaned up the area and removed camps, city staff went to each camp to see if there was anything they wanted to take with them and they could. If they wanted to keep an item of value that they couldn’t take the city offered to store it for them for up to 90-days—2 people took them up on the offer.
“We are trying to clean it up while being compassionate,” says Graham.
Graham noted that two weeks before the cleanup began, city staff made contact with the camp sites to provide written notice as well as offer county services for shelter. They made several visits over a two-week period to see if assistance was needed.
“We do whatever we can to help people before we get to this point of cleanup,’ said Graham. “Ultimately it has to get cleaned up and this one got so big and uncontrollable.”
In the last six-months Code Enforcement has had 10 homeless encampment cleanups—Wednesday was by far the biggest one they had had.
Graham does want to remind the community that being homeless is not a crime and there is a difference between being homeless and a homeless encampment that gets out of control.
Each day, the City Code Enforcement team is working daily to prioritize work orders and investigate complaints that come in.
“We are having to prioritize our work daily, each day we go over what is outstanding, what comes in, we understand the issues people are upset about, but these bigger issues are time consuming,” explained Graham. “Today was a good example, we assumed one day, its turning out to use resources for two-days.”
With staff committed to the cleanup, it means other issues in the city are piling up as complaints come into the department.
According to Graham, the Contra Costa County code enforcement, BNSF Railway Police as well as Sheriffs/Marine Patrol were on hand to help out in the project.
7 comments
This camp should have been removed over a year ago. This was no picnic for the red caboose and they had to put up with this which probably hurt their business. The bleeding heart people on facebook just dont get it. You do not pick a piece of property that is not yours and build a place to live. Half these people want to live off the grid.
Our code enforcement staff does a great job with what the city gives them. We were down there yesterday watching what goes on and it is a gigantic job, plus weeks of preparation making sure to offer services to these folks and lining up the other teams working in tandem with the city. It is very sad on both sides of the story. The expense to the city is really out of control. This type of exercise by the city is also dangerous. The homeless are armed and the crew is not. The homeless have machetes and axes and the crew has pepper spray. It is time to give the Code Enforcement crew Tasers. Try to pepper spray a guy that is high or a pit bull, and there were several, it doesn’t work.
many homeless were Vietnam veterans that served this country….what other outside agencies were used…ie veteran services….mental health…where are these men and women going in Antioch now…yes it is true they need to confirm to society
Most of the homeless in Antioch are not vetrerans. Matter of fact, I can’t name one that was a veteran of anything but Antioch homeless living. Not sure what who really knows is taking about. If he is talking g about the people that were moved along then i think they are sadly mistaken. Unless the homeless population has total changed in that last 12 months.
I have tried many times to help any VETERAN that lived in this encampment. I never could get one of them to talk to me. There were many homeless non-profits trying to help.
Greg
DVG/VFW post#6435
I have learned most of the homeless in Antioch are from Antioch and do not wish to live anywhere else. Given the recent opportunity only 2 or 3 of 30 made the choice to use options given them. Greg Low is right, there are MANY non-profits trying to help but you cannot help someone who does not want it.
They are not vetrans. Just people that want to live with no responsiblity.
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