Posted on 02/27/2018 9:19:38 AM PST by jeannineinsd
Orange County’s largest homeless encampment is no more.
On Monday, following a six-day blitz during which county officials moved 732 homeless people into local motels and shelters, the once-bustling tent encampment sat unoccupied. The last few occupants packed their belongings and left. Sheriff’s deputies guarded locked gates to the flood control channel, preventing people from reentering.
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The county attempted to clear the Santa Ana River encampment beginning Jan. 22 so it could conduct an environmental cleanup of the flood control channel. But U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter suspended that process by granting a temporary restraining order in a Jan. 29 lawsuit over camp’s eviction. After Carter helped broker a deal to get encampment residents into motels, the county resumed evictions on Feb. 20, offering homeless people shelter and services along the way.
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Toppled tents and piles of debris still littered the riverbed Monday, and public works crews moved methodically through the area, clearing the trash. It will likely take another week until that process is finished and the remediation project can begin.
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John Leonard, 65, said he had been living in the riverbed for a quarter-century and wished he didn’t have to leave.
Leonard said he returned to get some of his clothes, which he left behind when county workers moved him into a motel a few days prior. He said he’s thankful for the help but he’s still getting used to living inside after nearly half a lifetime outdoors.
“It’s different,” Leonard said. “Four walls. It’s nice, but I might give it all up to come back out here.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Under the deal Federal Judge Carter brokered, Orange County taxpayers paid to provide 30 day motel vouchers to the homeless living along the river channel.
Orange County taxpayers also pay for the clean-up of the river channel.
Which development company bought the land for cheap and paid off officials to move out the winos?
Yeah...these people get a free month in local hotels paid for by taxpayers...
Welcome to Orange County California on your next wonderful visit to Disney or Knotts Berry Farm.
Those hotels are all gonna be CRAWLING with bugs.
What happens at the end of the 30 day motel vouchers? Will the Orange County taxpayers step up again? Maybe get them some nice, furnished apartments this time? (/s)
So they move them into motels and shelters and then what? The homeless men will go on a 30 day bender / drug binge in the motels and then be back out on the street. The only way to fix this is to bring back work houses for the sane ones and long-term mental health incarceration for the insane ones.
No more living in a van down by the river.
To WHERE will they ultimately move?
Some lucky city is going to get some new neighbors.
God, it’s great seeing California sink into the cesspool it’s created.
Trash trucks and contractors in hazmat gear have descended on the camp and so far removed 250 tons of trash, 1,100 pounds of human waste and 5,000 hypodermic needles.
https://hotair.com/archives/2018/02/26/orange-countys-largest-homeless-camp-cleared/
This isn’t development land. This is part of the flood channels built into Los Angeles years ago.
They are dry about 10 months of the year.
I’ve visited that area around Angel Stadium, Honda Center and Disneyland several times for business conferences.
Constant bums milling around, asking for money. I once saw a guy (looked like typical homeless addict) beating up his girlfriend in front of a Jack in the box. Several of us got between him and the girl, but not knowing what else to do, sent her on her way, while convincing him to go back inside.
Welcome to the jungle. What a mess.
If they ask what they want, most of them will say they want to go back to their camps. Let there be hobos.
The people who were living there have been moved out abd rewarded with free housing. What rational person would believe that eventually others will arrive to take their place?
And I still have to EXPLAIN WHY I moved out of So Calif in 1993.
Time to make some documentaries out of this truth.
Smooth move. 732 at (more than) $100 a day. Added to whatever they were already collecting.
How ‘bout a basic income for ya pal, how well would you like that?
Bet that costs a pretty penny per day. Feel sorry for the taxpayers.
With all due respect to the many FReepers and conservatives who live in CA, the idea of CA leaving the union sounds better every day.
...and I’ve read were once home to some giant ants.
Enough of the new residents will complain to the right people, who will get an endlessly repeating 30-day extension while the motel owners come to grips with their new occupants, reduce services accordingly, and the property degrade until condemned. Over time many residents will just move back to their prior outdoorsy digs.
Death squads?
I guess Orange County didn’t like the bad publicity when that video of the encampment went viral, so they decided to clean it up.
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