Homeless residents in a west Gilroy encampment were uncertain of
the future Monday after they received an order last week to move
from their miniature tent city.
Homeless residents in a west Gilroy encampment were uncertain of the future Monday after they received an order last week to move from their miniature tent city.
Members of the “Bamboo Village” encampment west of Santa Teresa Boulevard received notices Thursday morning telling them that they would be prosecuted if they continued to camp or squat in the area after Monday. The warnings indicated that the city was ordering trespassers to leave by Monday, but city officials said they did not create the signs.
“We have not been asked to help abate anyone, and nothing is planned for today,” Gilroy Police Sgt. Wes Stanford said Monday afternoon.
The origin of the note was still unclear Monday afternoon.
Chris Vanni, who owns property in the area, said he was in Irvine when the notices were distributed, but he heard about them. Other land owners did not return calls seeking comment.
Even though the homeless are on private property, police could cite the squatters for trespassing if the property owners asked them to do so, Stanford said.
The encampment, which stands in a forested area along Uvas Creek west of Santa Teresa Boulevard off Third Street, contains several tents as well as pinned-together blankets and a couple of wooden canopies. It has existed for at least two decades, according to resident Anna Boscacci, who moved to Gilroy in 1989.
“It’s always been a place where the homeless could go and not be bothered,” Boscacci said.
However, police previously cleared the camp from public property Dec. 12, moving out more than 30 people. At that time, the residents were told to move and were notified that they would be cited for trespassing if they returned.
Now, again forced to move, many Bamboo Village residents are preparing for the worst.
Residents Gloria and Robert Lopez said they were not sure what they would do next, and they hoped that the city would be able to help residents.
“We’ve got no place to go,” Robert Lopez said.
“I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m going,” said one man who only identified himself as Dave. “You can’t fight City Hall. I’m not even going to try.”
Still, most residents said they knew that they were on private property and that it was only a matter of time before they would be told to leave.
Dave’s son, known as Dave Jr., figured the camp just got too big to avoid notice.
Gilroy Police Chief Denise Turner said police met 1.5 weeks ago to discuss abating the homeless camp.
Turner said police have had to respond to the homeless camp for various calls from time to time. On Thursday morning, police were notified that transients had been defecating in public in front of people on a trail.
However, residents said that they generally keep to themselves. Some residents drink and smoke marijuana, but that’s also likely true of some of the residents of the upscale Eagle Ridge development that stands just on the other side of Uvas Creek, residents said.
The city has received several complaints about the encampment, City Administrator Tom Haglund said. However, he said the matter is complicated because while it is a health and safety issue, the city also wants to respect private property owners’ rights.
“These people have to clear the property because ultimately it is an unsanitary situation,” Haglund said. “The only way we can physically remove them is to cite them for trespassing, and we need the private property owners’ help.”
St. Joseph’s Family Center, which provides various services for poor Gilroy residents, is working closely with several Bamboo Village residents to help them obtain housing in San Jose, said the nonprofit’s homeless outreach coordinator Marty Estrada.
To qualify, they must have some kind of debilitating condition, such as bipolar disorder or depression, and most Bamboo Village residents do, he said.
St. Joseph’s has worked with several Bamboo Village campers, Estrada said. He noted that one man who lives at the camp with his wife is working at a grocery store and using that money to pay for his daughter’s tuition at San Jose State University.
“After that, we will have to fish for those folks,” Estrada said.
Boscacci and her boyfriend both are on the list to apply for the free units in San Jose. She said she calls on a regular basis to find out the status of those apartments.
Residents already have filled out “dummy” applications for the apartments, Estrada said. The official applications should be ready any day now, he said.
Even though Boscacci said she will not pass up a free dwelling, she and many residents said there was a certain kind of “freedom” of living in the outdoors.
Residents this week estimated that about 30 people had lived at the camp at most. In addition to notices, they also received information from the city about local services for the homeless that are available.
Vanni said homeless people reside up and down Uvas Creek. However, he stressed that the creek bed is neither a sanitary nor a safe place to live, and he noted that Uvas Creek serves as habitat for the federally protected South-Central California Coast Steelhead.
“The worst part out there is the litter,” Vanni said of the homeless camp. “Unfortunately, they’ve created quite a mess out there.”
Several Bamboo Village residents said Monday that a few people at the camp had ruined things for everyone. Yet Boscacci said some people there also took it upon themselves to clean up the area a couple of weeks ago, spending several days on the endeavor.
Although a couple of shopping carts had trash strewn about them in remote portions of the camp on Monday and a box of cereal lay poured on the ground near one dwelling area, no garbage appeared in the creek bed.
Turner said issues surrounding the homeless are complex, and she plans to bring the issue to the council’s attention to see if some citywide solutions can be reached.
“It’s hard because if we move them out of that creek, they’re going to move somewhere,” she said.
