“Notice to vacate” fliers were handed out to a clutch of people Thursday at noon at a longstanding homeless encampment on Airport Boulevard in Watsonville.
Escorted by Watsonville Police, a property manager passed the notices to people to inform them that a clean up of the camp would start up Monday morning at 8am.
Numerous large “NO TRESPASSING” signs have been posted on 4×4 posted around the site for the past several weeks.
It’s not the first time police and officials have conducted a clear-out of the hillside camp, a 2.75-acre wooded parcel along Corralitos Creek, across from the Freedom Centre shopping plaza. It has drawn repeated complaints and enforcement actions from city officials. The property lacks a formal street address and has been occupied by as many as 40 people, according to the city.
But it does mark the first time the property owner — Fremont-based KDS Dhaliwal Investments — has agreed to do take charge of the cleanup.
For several years, nearby residents and city officials have voiced concerns about growing piles of trash, improvised shelters and vehicles leaking fluids onto the property. According to city staff, activity at the encampment — including bathing, laundry and the disposal of human waste — has contributed to pollution in the creek.
KDS Vice President of Operations Karam Singh said the company held off on enforcing trespassing restrictions during an ongoing dispute with the city over proposed development plans for the property, which have included potential car wash and retail projects.
Edward Lovell, who grew up in Corralitos told The Pajaronian he has lived there for nine years, which he reckons makes him the longest resident.
“Who knows where I’ll go from here,” he said. “I’ve been kicked out before. It’s been a tough battle. My dad died when he was 48. I was a laborer in tree work and I can’t work with my hands anymore; I burnt them out.”
Lovell, an artist, said he went to E.A. Hall Elementary School and Aptos High, and has continued to develop his paintings and his “relationship with God.”
Todd Guild contributed to this story.
It’s about time that MESS is cleaned up…
I am a firm believer in more is less… More trash cans, less rubbish… More kindness and understanding… More communication is less misunderstanding…
The age of blame is over… Everyone knows what is wrong to one degree or another…
How about solutions!? Being miserable is easy, it takes work to be happy… Please for all our sakes, find kindness! Love!
I think that if you going to do that help these people find somewhere to go the reason they are out there is because they have no where to go. Makes me mad you want them to leave but where they just going to go somewhere else and repeat the same thing. So need to come up with a solution. Instead of eviction find somewhere to go that is the problem there homeless. Want them to leave but dont have a solution to where they supposed to go. This means anywhere there is homeless. The homeless have to do better or they will continue to treat you how your acting like animals.. just my opinion.
I agree with the comments before mine you know the solution we need to have a solution not just a eviction push them around all over the place because they’re just going to find another place and then you’re going to have to clean that up again it’s just this big ugly cycle. Now I’m sure a lot of this comes out of the taxpayers money I really think there’s a better way I was in Florida a few years back and they fenced off a little area for the homeless right around the corner
Labor ready to find work and there’s all of the homeless people there trying to be a part of society and try to get you know jobs and stuff you know I think that would be a good thing here in our town not all homeless people are bad you know they just had a little rough patch in their life and they ended up that way and they’re trying to get up off the street but it’s really hard and difficult when they have everybody pushing them down and putting them down maybe more kindness and understanding would be a good thing
Love & kindness have allowed the homeless problem to grown and persist in CA. If you continue to provide services for them, the problem will continue to grow. Feed them and they will come.
By the way, this lands on Watsonville’s leadership. Watsonville needs true Americans to lead.
Most of the homeless need to reconnect with family who likely they burned several times. The homeless are not victims, but tax payers are.