South Valley river camp may be vacated

Complaints prompt shift for homeless living near Visalia.

Published online on Friday, Oct. 09, 2009

Complaints from property owners have prompted a plan to relocate about 200 people living in a homeless encampment along the St. Johns River just northeast of Visalia.

An assessment of the needs of the homeless for alternative shelter and social services will begin next week.

Once that is completed, they will be given a 30-day notice to vacate the encampment, said Lt. Keith Douglass with the Tulare County Sheriff's Department.

"We don't just want to push them out," he said.

Concerns about health and sanitation in the encampment also prompted officials to start work on a relocation plan.

Last month, Visalia Mayor Jesus Gamboa appealed to his fellow council members to install portable toilets at the encampment. However, the idea died because the encampment lies just outside city limits.

Encampment residents do have a portable toilet. Waste is placed in plastic bags and is properly disposed, they said. They also have two portable showers. Food and bottled water are being donated.

While the encampment is home to some parolees and drug and alcohol addicts, those living at the encampment say most are homeless because of the recession.

Donny Walker, 39, said he and his wife have been living next to the river for two months. He was laid off from his job as a manager for a home developer about five months ago.

"The economy is so bad right now," Walker said.

Amy Whited, 40, was laid off from her job as a medical office secretary, forcing her and her husband, Mike, to move into the encampment.

"This isn't a choice anybody made," she said. "It's because of circumstances."

Walker said that the segment of residents using illegal drugs and alcohol is small. A Christian ministry center was set up at the encampment discouraging drug and alcohol use, he said.

The owner of the property where the ministry center sits is supportive of the residents, Walker said.

However, others are not.

Some property owners have complained about the encampment, Douglass said.

That spurred a meeting of county officials, local and state law-enforcement officials and nonprofit agency representatives Thursday to work on a plan to relocate the homeless.

Another meeting is scheduled at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the county Board of Supervisors chambers in Visalia.

Among the nonprofit groups participating in the meetings is the Kings/Tulare Continuum of Care on Homelessness, which will spearhead the assessment of residents, said Betsy McGovern-Garcia, the agency's president.