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The Grain Silo/Canal Bank Homeless Encampment is Destroyed

by Mike Rhodes (editor [at] fresnoalliance.com)
The City of Fresno continued their attacks on the homeless today by destroying the last encampment in the downtown area. The photo below shows one protester stopping a bulldozer as it tried to enter the encampment.
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The City of Fresno destroyed the last remaining homeless encampment in the downtown area today. The assault on the Grain Silo/Canal Bank homeless encampment started at dawn and continued throughout the day. By 7:30 a.m. homeless advocates had blocked the two main roads into the encampment, preventing bulldozers and other city vehicles from entering.

The city work crews shifted their strategy to focus on a handful of tents and other structures in a field on the other side of the railroad tracks. Bulldozers, garbage trucks, police and other support vehicles came down a dirt road on a canal bank to start the demolition. The handful of homeless people at that location were told to remove their property or it would be stored. The destruction of the structures at that location took several hours, while the homeless advocates maintained their vigil at the main encampment.

Eventually the city focused their attention on the much larger encampment and tried to bring in their bulldozers on a road that ran parallel to the railroad tracks on the south side of the camp. They were met by 10 - 15 homeless advocates who refused to allow the city vehicles to pass. After negotiations with Jim Betts, an attorney working for the City of Fresno, an agreement was reached to allow a U-Haul truck in to move some of the property.

As the homeless and their allies were loading the U-Haul a second bulldozer came down a road at the north end of the camp. One of the protesters jumped on the bulldozers claw and the city soon withdrew that vehicle.

The protesters, having gained time to help move the homeless, stepped back and two bulldozers and a garbage truck entered the encampment and started destroying what was left on the south end. It appeared that all of the homeless had moved out of that area and the property remaining had been stored.

I had to leave by mid afternoon, but it appeared that the city would have the entire encampment leveled by the end of the day. Several City of Fresno representatives told me that a fence would be put up on Thursday to keep anyone from re-establishing an encampment at that location.

Meanwhile, in other parts of town, homeless people are having their property confiscated if it is left unattended. I was also shown a citation one homeless person received yesterday that charged them with an infraction for leaving “debris in the road” which was, they say, their property. To see an earlier story about this new police tactic in Fresno, see: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/10/09/18744608.php

To see what groups working in support of the homeless will do next, see: http://www.helpfresnoshomeless.org/
§Negotiations take place with Jim Betts (Center)
by Mike Rhodes
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Betts is the attorney representing the City of Fresno
§A U-Haul Truck was used to help people move
by Mike Rhodes
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You can see the protesters stopping the city equipment, to the left of the U-Haul
§What is left
by Mike Rhodes (editor [at] fresnoalliance.com)
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This photo shows what remains of the Grain Silo/Canal Bank homeless encampment the day after the City of Fresno came in with their bulldozers and garbage trucks.
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by Dan Waterhouse, Newslink
A proposed ordinance is scheduled to be introduced at the October 31st City Council meeting to authorize the confiscation of shopping carts found off store property.

The new law is being proposed by the police department, and is patterned after an ordinance recently implemented in Visalia. The Visalia ordinance makes clear that carts are presumed to be stolen property if off store property and subject to immediate seizure as contraband. Visalia has been using the new rules to clean up Lincoln Oval in north Visalia. City employees either will provide plastic trash bags to put property in or will urge homeless to store their property at the Visalia Rescue Mission.
by Olga
Thanks mike for your continued reporting on what is happening to those who are homeless by the city of Fresno.
It is horrific and shameful what the City is doing. We are surprised here in Minneaplis that tax dollars are used to abuse and terrorize the homeless. There are so many solutions that I know you have reported about that could those who are homeless and get them off the streets. The City leaders of Fresno could look at successful programs in MInneapolis and St Paul and many other cities in this nation. As you reported it costs taxpayers less to help get people off the street and into homes so they can keep or get jobs. That means people paying taxes. Many homeless people already have jobs so that is why I say keep or get jobs.
I also find it incredible that the CA Attorney General and US Attorney General allow the destruction and abuse to happen. Refugees from other countries are treated better than the City of Fresno treat their own citizens.
Any chance I get, I tell our MN Congress members of the abuse that happens in Fresno.

I hope others post More reports from advocates and people who were pushed out the encampments. I know it is heartbreaking and I can't image how horrible it would be to be homeless and then you find a little cardboard shelter and a little commmuty and that is torn apart.

I hope in Fresno's next elections the people vote for the least "Christian" politician because the current Officials who tout their Christianity are so unChrist like. And there have been 3 "Christian" mayors in a row who have been the most abusive to the poor and sick in Fresno history.
by Mike Rhodes (editor [at] fresnoalliance.com)
I received this today (Saturday, October 26) from one of the former residents of the Grain Silo/Canal Bank homeless encampment:

Two days after 61st birthday…

Hello, I’m Nancy. I’m someone’s mother, a grandmother, a good friend and a homeless senior citizen. Ten months of day to day at times five-ten minutes of uncertainty. Safety is first in mind, from weather to strangers. Pushing a cart on the street, through a park or just in a dark area, the fear overwhelms.

I was left homeless, without a clue to my immediate survival last January. Nightfall brought freezing cold. Two nights in Roeding Park, seems that every kind of Fresno’s criminal are in and out of the shadows. I have never been so frightened.

I was rescued and invited to just rest or stay at the Clinton and Marks encampment. It was destroyed by the city in early March. Moving around again… A second time, I was rescued, invited to the canal encampment by Sinamon, and welcomed by Shanti (a really large and friendly dog).

We are all respectful of anothers space/area. Any emergency big or small, every resident gives their help in earnest. Our gathering at this camp has few problems of any magnitude.

It’s been eight months at the Canal encampment. Neighbors help others if they are able. Some need and are allowed their solitude.

We are just people, all with events, situations, decisions and issues that brought us here. Each of us with a story and a history. Some are more at ease with life as it is. Some want to get back to a structured comfortable life. Not all are criminals, lost on drugs or “infidels” as described by some prominent citizen of Fresno.

We are real people in jeopardy of losing our dignity once again, sleeping in dark corners, pushing a few belongings in a grocery cart aimlessly, all thought and energy, spent finding food and safety for a night, maybe eight-ten hours.

The Canal Encampment has twenty residents. Nine are fifty-five or older. When the city of Fresno destroys the shelters we’ve constructed. They have put the weakest members of the homeless community in direct danger of freezing to death this winter.

The Canal Encampment has friends and support from the community. Their gift of portable toilets gave the residents a personal dignity and the Thursday Group provides precious water, clothes, pet food, hygiene products and bagels. They bring their concern and great conversation. Church organizations feed, clothe and pray for us. Veterinarians have given their time, knowledge and love for animals to our precious pets. For some of us, our pet is all the love and affection we have in our lives.
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