Watsonville may soon draw out designated “no encampment zones” which would bar unhoused individuals from setting up tents, parking RVs or using cooking supplies in certain areas.
Signs would be posted showing a map of the zones.
These areas would be subject to immediate cleanup, and the city would not require a 72-hour notice to remove personal items in these sections of town. Major waterways and parks would be prioritized as no encampment zones if the ordinance were to be enacted.
The updated ordinance is largely driven by current enforcement problems. When cleanup crews arrive at existing encampments along the city’s levees and sloughs, campers often simply move their belongings outside the work zone to a different location on the waterway, city officials say. This creates a new site that requires its own 72-hour notice to clear.
The new “no encampment zones” would allow cleanup crews to immediately clear the area without that requirement.
Police Capt. Mish Radich says the ordinance is modeled around an existing ordinance from San Jose.
“This camping order supports public health, safety, the environment, access to parks and open spaces and public right-of-way,” he said.
The first reading of the ordinance was approved at the Tuesday night City Council meeting, with all in attendance voting yes except Mayor Vanessa Quiroz-Carter, who vehemently opposed it, citing a lack of services for the unhoused community in Watsonville.
“This is ridiculous. I will not be supportive of this,” Quiroz-Carter said of the ordinance. “We need to have adequate services for people. We need to have adequate shelter for people. That’s a basic human right.”
The item will return to the council for a second read and approval later this year.
