Santa Rosa plans sweep of park encampment as campers grieve apparent overdose death

Santa Rosa is planning to clear an encampment of at least 15 tents from a small park on the city’s west side where campers are mourning the apparent overdose death of one of their own.

The city’s latest encampment sweep, displacing about 15 to 20 people camping illegally at Jennings Park, is set for Tuesday, according to city staff. Per the terms of a 2019 U.S. District Court order, the small group of campers must be offered shelter and storage for personal belongings, with most likely provided space at Samuel L. Jones Hall, the city-owned homeless shelter that’s the largest in Sonoma County.

The impending clearance will be the third in two weeks in Santa Rosa, the heart of Sonoma County and home to the largest share of the local homeless population — the highest per capita among largely suburban areas nationwide, according to federal housing officials.

The Jennings Park clearance will follow Sonoma County Regional Parks’ dispersal of a similarly-sized collection of dwellings along the Joe Rodota Trail in late February and the city’s clearance of a much larger encampment along Industrial Drive in northwest Santa Rosa last week. The city also cleared an encampment along the Prince Memorial Greenway near Olive Park in late January.

Just over a week ago, Jay Jackson, 61, was among those camping at Jennings Park. But Jackson died of an apparent overdose last weekend at the encampment, where neighbors remembered him fondly as a former carpenter who wore long black hair and a dark beard.

“A likable, kind guy — kind of a hippie,” said Doug Thompson, a nearby camper who planned to accept a shelter offer at Sam Jones.

One man, an artist who identified himself only as Don, sketched Jackson the day after his death as a tribute. Don’s living area is a stone’s throw away from Jackson’s tent, which is now fronted by a small memorial: a plain black chair with some flowers, ribbons, food and other items, along with a cardboard sign encouraging onlookers to keep away.

Campers who knew Jackson acknowledged that he’d been known to use fentanyl, a powerful synthetic painkiller that was involved in almost all overdose cases in Sonoma County last year. Some at Jennings Park blamed that opioid for his death.

Thompson said he’d smoked cannabis with Jackson but hadn’t joined him in using fentanyl. He added that Jackson recently had to be revived with Narcan, a medication that can reverse opioid overuse.

Police responded to the encampment shortly after midnight on March 1 to a call of a reported fentanyl overdose, said Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Christopher Mahurin. The victim appeared to be dead once officers arrived, Mahurin said, noting that such types of overdoses are not uncommon.

“We’re seeing a lot of people in the unsheltered population that are overdosing from fentanyl,” Mahurin said, noting that some homeless people have access to Narcan and have tried to prevent fatalities among their neighbors.

“They are trying to take care of each other the best that they can," Mahurin said.

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Jackson’s death and but wouldn’t elaborate on the suspected cause. Death investigations typically take at least a few weeks and Jackson’s case was awaiting the results of a toxicology report, department spokespeople said.

The 2020 Sonoma County homeless census found that more than 60% of chronically homeless individuals reported some sort of psychiatric or emotional conditions, with 90% experiencing drug or alcohol abuse.

Don, the artist who sketched Jackson, described his late friend as generally happy but Jackson also exhibited occasional signs of depression.

“Sometimes we get a bit depressed,” Don said. “I’m kind of depressed right now.”

A woman nearby overheard his remarks and chimed in, accusing him of “candy-coating” their experience.

“I think depression is normal,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.