What’s at stake?
The deal would allow the city to spend up to $400,000 to remove highway encampments, with California reimbursing the city up to that amount next summer.
Fresno City Hall plans to cut a deal with Caltrans this week to clear out additional encampments along state-owned highways and other “right of ways.”
First reported this week by Central Valley Community Action, the deal would allow the city to spend up to $400,000 to remove highway encampments with California reimbursing the city up to that amount next summer, according to city documents.
Thursday’s City Council vote comes one week after Caltrans cleared out at least two Fresno-area highway encampants, and just days after a resource fair in Fresno attempted to connect unhoused people with “support and care,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a prepared statement.
Encampment crackdowns have been climbing in Fresno and many other parts of the nation since last year’s contentious Supreme Court ruling essentially cleared the way for cities to outlaw sitting, lying and sleeping in public without having to provide beds to displaced residents.
Over the years, both Newsom and Fresno City Hall have stressed the need to break up encampments for health and safety reasons and said offering displaced people housing and other help is a fundamental part of the approach.
But the region also already has more unhoused people than available shelter beds, a problem that’s not likely to get better as local homelessness grows and some city shelters brace for possible closures in the coming months.
Fresno’s crackdown on encampments has been quietly supported by many in the local business community, particularly downtown, where shop owners have struggled for years with garbage and disturbances frequently involving people staying at campsites.
Critics of the anti-camping laws have long complained that the strategy is not only inhumane and ineffective, especially without adequate alternatives to offer, but routinely violates the basic rights of unhoused residents.
In its public call out this week, Central Valley Community Action urged residents to attend Thursday’s hearing to oppose the Caltrans deal. CVCA also slammed the city’s efforts, saying unhoused residents frequently have property taken or destroyed instead of stored, despite local laws outlining property storage rules.
The Caltrans agreement, if approved, would require the city to store seized property for “not less than 60 days.”
The Fresno City Council is expected to vote on the agreement Thursday at City Hall. The meeting begins at 9 a.m.
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