The approximately 40 people living in the makeshift homeless encampment along the San Benito River on Hollister’s western edge will be moved out within a week, Mayor Ignacio Velazquez confirmed to BenitoLink on Tuesday.
“We posted two weeks ago for them to be moving out at the end of the month, and we’re going to start that process within the next week,” he said. “Some people have already started to move out.”
Code enforcement personnel and Velazquez himself visited the site south of the Fourth Street crossing of the river to alert those staying there that they would have to vacate the banks of the dry riverbed as the new year dawns. “There’s room at the (winter) shelter and we’ll help them find a place for their belongings,” the mayor said. “We’re working through all that. We’re trying to work with everybody down there.”
The riverside camp has drawn concerns not just because of the potential dangers inherent with living along the river’s edge — particularly during an El Nino year — but because of aesthetic, environmental and safety concerns. Tons of trash that had been piling up for years was hauled away in September and local business owners have claimed that some of homeless people have trespassed and even stolen tools.
Portable toilets with a wash station and a dumpster were placed at the camp in recent months, but officials have long said that the makeshift camp was never intended to be a permanent living arrangement. Velazquez said expanded room at the winter homeless shelter can accommodate many of the 40 or so people living along the river, though he acknowledges not all of them will want to go there.
“We’ve been talking to the homeless out there for the past year,” Velazquez said. “With the rains that we know are coming and the potential for flooding, we told them it’s time to move out. We need to close this off already and find a better solution for the homeless. We’re going to look at how we can close off some access points (to the river camp) and make sure we’re checking the area more frequently so that things aren’t set up there.”
The issue of housing the homeless is a countywide concern, with the Board of Supervisors and Hollister City Council continuing discussions about where a permanent shelter will be constructed. The original idea was to create a shelter on Southside Road, but citizen complaints led supervisors to shift their focus to an industrial area on Flynn Road near the county jail and the Hollister Municipal Airport, Still more concerns from business people in the area forced another reconsideration, so plans now are for the shelter to be built on San Felipe Road.
Velazquez, who noted that the city and county need to work together on a solution for homelessness, said he is hopeful that the people living along the river will cooperate with the order to move. “We gave people enough time,” he said. “We don’t want to push them out, but help them out. Will they move to different areas? Some will, of course. We’re trying to get everybody situated. It’s a strategy of pushing people off the river, getting them shelter, and getting them help.”
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