3/26/16
The city of Eureka issued a request for proposals Friday on how to relocate the nearly 200 people living in Palco Marsh encampments by the newly set May 2 deadline, with the California Coastal Commission slated to hear an application for a temporary camp within the city’s local coastal zone as early as April, officials said.
The move comes nearly one year after a police raid of the area resulted in more than 20 arrests and as the city prepares to begin construction on a section of the Waterfront Trail running behind the Bayshore Mall slated to start mid-May. The city cited the construction, a lawsuit, safety issues and environmental concerns as reasons for setting the new deadline.
“We’ve been working in this direction really since last fall,” Eureka City Manager Greg Sparks said.
Interested parties and nonprofit or religious organizations can submit an “exit strategy” for a 30-day period that started Friday. Plans must be limited to a six-month window and not require city funding or resources.
Sparks said the Eureka City Council is split on allowing city property to be used for the temporary relocation effort.
“That still remains to be determined by the council,” he said.
The city previously shelved plans to establish one or more temporary homeless campgrounds but the move received new momentum earlier this month with Mayor Frank Jager calling on the council to approve a temporary homeless camp so the people living in Palco Marsh have somewhere to go when trail construction starts.
Sparks said the city hasn’t designated a site for a temporary camp. “We’re leaving that open in the RFP for proposers to propose it on city property or private property,” he said.
State Sen. Mike McGuire said he attended a meeting Tuesday with local and state officials, including elected officials and representatives from a number of agencies, to discuss the issue.
The application that would go before the coastal commission would be for “the temporary use of a temporary homeless camp” within a local coastal zone, if that’s the direction the city decides to go, McGuire said. One of the concerns about previously discussed sites — the most recent was a city-owned parking lot Washington and Koster streets — was receiving permission for sites within a coastal zone from the commission.
Affordable Homeless Housing Alternatives — or AHHA — unveiled its sanctuary camp proposal two weeks ago and has submitted the plans to Sparks, AHHA board member Edie Jessup said.
“Our vision for how the sanctuary camp would work is on the table,” she said.
As presented, the AHHA camp doesn’t fit into the sixmonth time frame set by the city. Jessup said she and the rest of AHHA will see if they’ll submit a revised proposal to the city after looking at the wording of the request.
“It’s pretty vague, I’m not really sure what it means,” she said.
Sparks said that if the 30day period passes without a feasible plan being brought forward and approved by the council, the those camping in the area will still have to vacate.
“That responsibility rests with the individuals staying out there,” he said.
Sparks added that the city is concerned with the prospect of these people picking up and relocating to another encampment in a green belt or elsewhere.
“We would not encourage that type of thing to happen,” he said. St. Vincent de Paul and Eureka Rescue Mission facilities can provide beds for around 50 people, Sparks said.
Last year, the Eureka Police Department responded to 315 calls in the greenbelt area and documented 60 instances of crimes or reported crime. Aside from crime, the city has also recently faced litigation due to safety concerns behind the mall. Eureka paid $400,000 to Kathleen Anderson, who was injured in the concrete structures in the area are known as the “Drying Shed.”
“She took a fall and injured her shoulder as she was taking people back there to camp,” Sparks said. Now Eureka faces losing insurance coverage in the area if the structures aren’t removed by summer. The structures were already planned to be demolished and the concrete used as a base for the trail before the lawsuit, Sparks said.
McGuire said the California Coastal Conservancy will consider a $1 million grant application to tear down marsh structures in May. Sparks said the city is also looking into getting $300,000 from another source. The marsh and Humboldt Bay are unique ecosystems and have been strained by all the waste that ends up out there, according to Humboldt Baykeeper Executive Director Jennifer Kalt.
“The homeless camps do impact the environment and certainly do impact access to the coast there,” she said. “I’m really glad to see the city is going to start working on the trail there.”
Kalt said she is concerned that homeless campers will move to greenbelts or into the forest, which would lead to many of the same environmental issues now happening in the marsh.
“The city and the county really need to be working toward a longer term solution,” she said. “Certainly it’s a much bigger social problem that we have to address as a community.”
“Until we come up with a long-term solution to address the larger social issue,” Kalt added, “just moving people around isn’t going to help the bay.”
