Homeless camps cleared along Petaluma River

Efforts to clear homeless camps in Petaluma continued Monday when police and volunteers from the Mary Isaak Center and Santa Rosa Catholic Charities removed eight encampments from vacant property on Hopper Street.

The four-hour effort was focused near the banks of the Petaluma River and where Highway 101 crosses the river.

Workers had visited the camps for the past month, posting no trespassing signs and warning those living there about the Monday cleanup effort. When workers swept through the camps, only one person remained. He decided to help volunteers with the cleanup.

More than 50 cubic yards of wood debris, garbage and waste was removed, said Petaluma Sgt. Marty Frye.

The increased efforts to clear these camps in Petaluma was made possible by a $500,000 grant from CalRecycle in 2015 to the Petaluma Police Department in December. The grant funded a two-year full-time position for an officer to focus on homeless outreach - Petaluma Police Officer Ryan DeBaeke - and for cleanup and disposal of camps and the trash that comes along with them. Next month, an additional full-time officer will be added to the department.

“The biggest issue is the trash - the debris from drugs and alcohol,” said Robin Phoenix, program director of the Mary Isaak Center. “The biggest camp was a bicycle chop shop where they were stealing bicycles and making them better to sell them for drugs.”

Phoenix said she offered services to everyone in those camps, but understands life in a shelter isn’t for everyone.

“We keep doing it over and over until someone’s ready because if they’re not ready, they’re not going to do well,” she said. “We do have a group of folks in our community, they want to live off the grid, but living off the grid then doesn’t mean you camp on private property or come on to our campus when it’s closed to guests. There are some rules that you’re still going to have to follow.”