November 12, 2017
The intentions of County Officials are now clear, Santa Ana River Trail homeless will be pushed into neighborhoods soon.
by Tim Houchen

Anaheim, CA -  On Friday November 10, 2017, Orange County Sheriff's Deputies and a task force of Police Officers from several cities including Anaheim, began a planned displacement of persons living in homeless encampments along the Santa Ana River Trail in Fountain Valley. 
The OC Register reported on Friday that an estimated 100 to 200 people had been disbursed from the west bank of the river between Edinger Ave. and Harbor Blvd. since enforcement began there earlier in the day. According to the article at least one homeless woman planned to head north along the river to pitch her tent near Anaheim Stadium. 
"That's where the resources are," the woman is reported to have said. Apparently she was referencing homeless services being provided there by nonprofit organization CityNet which is contracted by the City of Anaheim and the County of Orange to provide resources to homeless people living in the County's largest homeless encampment near Anaheim Stadium. See the article here.
The news that the County of Orange is displacing persons experiencing homelessness and herding them like cattle towards the huge homeless encampment near Anaheim Stadium should not be a surprise to anyone. It is not by reason of chance, but rather by current policy that the County is

This airborne view of the homeless encampment located along the Santa Ana River between Chapman Ave. and Orangewood Ave. was captured on video by a drone on Sept. 5, 2016. The video begins with a caption that reads, "One side bikes, one side homeless."

using this as a strategy to rid the riverbed of the homeless population by pushing them into neighboring cities and leaving the cities to deal with the problem of homelessness. Friday's actions in Fountain Valley demonstrate an established pattern of events as evidence that a County "end game" is in progress. It is obvious that our BOS has abandoned the solutions that the Board established in the creation of its own Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness in 2010. The problem is, they never told anyone else.
If the Ten-Year Plan were being executed as it was written, there would already be at least two County year-round emergency homeless shelters and sufficient low-income housing opportunities to graduate persons experiencing homelessness into permanent homes. The Ten-Year Plan is in accordance with the terms set by the federal government as a condition of continued federal aid to our County for the purpose of ending homelessness. Orange County has received more than $250,000,000 in federal funding since 1996 specifically for ending homelessness. The federal government endorses a "Housing First" model as a "best-practice" for municipalities to adopt and the model is widely accepted as the only proven method to ending homelessness. If our County has backed away from Housing First and its own Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness, then that might explain the ongoing pattern of displacement. Knowing that there is no plan for getting homeless people out of the riverbed, out of the civic center and off of our streets, one might discern that the continuing displacement policy will eventually wind up with a whole lot of homeless people spilling into our neighborhoods after being pushed there by the County.

If you look at the video on the top right, you will see a drone video that captures the state of homelessness at the Santa Ana Riverbed on Sept. 5, 2016. The caption at the beginning of the film says, "one side for bikes, one side for homeless." At that time, at least from what I can tell, there were less than fifty people living in the area near Anaheim Stadium and most were camped on the east bank of the river.
If you look at the video on the right shot just four months later, you will recognize that the numbers had increased at a very rapid rate during that time, but the encampment was still contained to the east bank at that time.
Later in January, notices were posted to inform homeless residents there that OC Public Works had scheduled the area for maintenance work and they would have to leave or risk prosecution for trespassing. 
On Feb. 8, 2017 Public Works showed up with heavy equipment and work crews began dismantling the first "increment" of the encampment. See the article. This came after I had phone conversations with the supervisor of public works and Shannon Widor, the County Public Information Officer just one week prior. I also met with Director of Care 

This video was published on Jan. 2, 2017. It shows that the encampment has grown rapidly over the past 4 months, but remains on the east bank of the river isolated from the bike trail, condos, a trailer park and Anaheim Stadium.

Coordinator, Susan Price, that same week at the Hall of Administration where I voiced my concerns that the displacement of homeless persons there would likely result in them moving out only to occupy the opposite west bank of the river. I pointed out that in doing so, the County would be placing homeless people living there in direct conflict for use of public space by residents who rightfully use the Santa Ana River Trail for recreational purposes. I also pointed to the residents of nearby high-end condominiums and a trailer park as well as Anaheim Stadium as unlikely to be agreeable hosts to a homeless encampment sprouting up there. I pleaded that it would be unfair to subject the nearby residents to such a move and that by pushing people from the east bank encampment to the west would be to exploit them and make them the object of aggression for angry residents and bicyclists. After all of my effort, I was led to believe that the displacement would not take place, but it did anyway.
County officials have claimed that the encampments must be cleared to make way for improvements and routine maintenance at the riverbed. On March 22nd, however, the hidden agenda of one County Supervisor was revealed when Attorney, Mohammed Aly, made public information requests for emails that exposed a scandal concocted by Fourth District Supervisor Shawn Nelson and a management-level employee of the County Public Works Department. The email in question provided the Supervisor with updated information on work that he requested including "before" photos showing tents in one area and "after" photos that showed large boulders in place of the tents in that same area. See the article.

There are other examples of the policy on the part of our county to displace persons experiencing homelessness and pushing them into other jurisdictions. In one case, a large construction project at the civic center dislocated several hundred people living on the County side of the civic center who in turn occupied the Plaza of the Flags, an area located between Santa Ana City Hall and the County Courthouse within the jurisdictional supervision and enforcement of the Santa Ana Police Department. A prophetic and very angry Vince Sarmiento predicted this beforehand. 
“What’s going to happen during construction, is they’re going to push all those folks into our side of the Civic Center and they’re going to say now its your problem, and that’s going to be at our doorstep,” Sarmiento said. “This isn’t something that wasn’t well thought out. I think they’re doing this in a very conscious way.” See the article.
​​​On July 17, 2017 Public Works and Sheriff's Deputies showed up to enforce the eviction of another homeless encampment along the Santa Ana River Trail. This smaller encampment was located on the west bank of the river near the Honda Center. This time the camp was pushed to the east bank of 

Cal State Fullerton's Titan News reports at the riverbed during the leveling of the first part of the homeless encampment on the east bank of the Santa Ana River on Feb. 8, 2017. One of the people interviewed talks about homeless people from the encampment being pushed into nearby neighborhoods.

the riverbed away from the Honda Center. The actual River Trail for recreational users, takes a path that crosses over Katella Ave. from the west bank and leads bicyclists to the path as it continues its course along the east bank of the riverbed. In February, homeless campers were pushed from the east bank to the west bank. In July, homeless campers were pushed from the west bank to the east. In both instances homeless campers were pushed into direct conflict for the rightful use of public space with residents using the trail for recreational purposes. 

Mapping a Pattern of Purposeful Conflict
black dots show the path of the Santa Ana River Trail which is considered by many as a recreational jewel.
South of the Big A - orange dots show where encampment existed before displacement on 2/8/2017. Pink areas on the opposite side of the river show where the encampment is today.
North area near Honda Center - yellow area on west bank shows where small encampment was pushed to opposite side of the river on 7/8/2017. Area shaded in pink show where that encampment is today.
​In both cases the County pushed homeless persons toward the River Trail in direct conflict with recreational users of the trail. 
The County of Orange is pushing homeless people into direct conflict with residents. It's not fair to the homeless persons and it's not fair to residents.

If any more proof were necessary to demonstrate the strategy on behalf of the County to push persons experiencing homelessness from the riverbed and into neighboring cities, one might consider information spoken straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. On October 27th Fourth District Supervisor Shawn Nelson spoke at a town hall meeting on homelessness before the Anaheim Republican Assembly. 
Nelson said the county likely will try to move people out of Orange County’s largest homeless camp in phases, and “push” many of the hundreds of homeless people who live along the Santa Ana River into the city of Anaheim.
“I think you’re gonna start seeing, probably further south [on the riverbed], an effort to start getting people out of the river, removing locations that are…sort of an invitation to camp,” Nelson said during a presentation he gave on Oct. 27th at an Anaheim Republican community meeting.
“[You will] probably see more areas getting fenced off, smaller groups being relocated at a time,” he added, according to a video of his presentation. Several hundred people live in the homeless camps next to the concrete river banks in sections that extend roughly from Angel Stadium to Fountain Valley.
Nelson said the effort to move out homeless people would later go north to the main camps near Angel Stadium sometime after the new year begins. He warned that under the current situation, with few available shelter beds for riverbed dwellers, homeless people would be pushed out into Anaheim.
“Unfortunately, the status that we’re in right now, if you push people out you will end up dealing with it in the city,” Nelson said.
See the article.

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