A drone video of the PalCo Marsh, known to some as “The Devil’s Playground,” shows camps still firmly entrenched in the wooded area just behind the mall, an area where the Eureka Police Department is preparing to cite and arrest campers. EPD is encouraging people to move north, to the flat area adjacent to the Bayshore Mall’s overflow parking lot, which would provide easier access for medical and police personnel. The policy is in response to what EPD Chief Andy Mills has called an “an unbelievable amount of violence in and around the homeless camps.”
Mills said that they want people “to be in an area where they have services, have help.”
“We don’t have adequate housing for everybody who’s houseless,” he said. “I have directed officers to move people towards pole shed area, where we have more access for police, fire and medics.”
In a letter to a local homeless advocate, EPD Capt. Brian Stephens said the department will be doing enforcement operations in certain areas to crack down on illegal camping. “We have identified one area where we will be doing less enforcement, unless there is a rise in violence, that we are telling people to go,” Stephens wrote, describing the greenbelt at the foot of Vigo Street north of the mall. “This area will still see police presence but will not be a focus area of enforcement.”
EPD Capt. Steve Watson said the agency is taking a zero tolerance policy towards camping in city parks, such as Cooper Gulch or Sequoia Park.
But Councilmember Kim Bergel said this is not a call for campers in other parts of the city to move to the marsh, where they are trying to “move people out.” Watson also said he doesn’t want the marsh to become known regionally as “the spot to go.” A woman whose camp at the corner of Sixth and T streets was served notice by EPD officers last week said she was told to “move to the Devil’s Playground.”
The Eureka City Council will revisit the issue Oct. 20, at which time Bergel and others plan to present a definitive “exit plan” for marsh campers.
On Saturday, Sept. 19, the Eureka Police Department and Humboldt Bay Fire were called to the greenbelt area near the foot of West Hawthorne Street, north of the marsh area, for reports of a dead body. The Lost Coast Outpost reported on scanner calls about a deceased male, but the coroner’s office has no further information at this time. Watson confirmed that the man was found by a fellow homeless person, and at the moment no foul play is suspected.
Both Watson and Bergel said they are opposed to use of the name “The Devil’s Playground.” Bergel said it “demonizes” residents. Watson said his department is discouraging the sense of ownership and “entitlement” some marsh campers have developed.
Facebook activism group “Operation Safe Streets,” in which users post updates about crime and homeless issues in Humboldt County, is encouraging people to attend an anti-crime rally in front of the Bayshore Mall on Oct. 4.
A service fair will be held in the north end of the parking lot, this Friday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Watson said EPD officers will not be doing a “sweep” of restricted camping areas, but will be continuing enforcement at the south end of the marsh, and those who refuse to move from the area will be arrested under the city’s camping ordinance.
This article appears in Humboldt Then and Now.
Ok I get it I do but putting everyone down in the same exact spot is not the answer seriously some of us have children with us n are by no means are we the problems but yet I’m told I have to move my child down by all the fighting violence n heroine use forget that I’d rather go to jail than move from a spot that I know is needle free and drama free
I don’t blame you for not wanting to go to the Palco/Bayshore area! Have you asked CWS or Betty Chinn for help? Your child is lucky you’re doing your best to keep safe, and that’s what they are there for! Maybe you could let us know how it goes if you do/did ask for help? Sending my best wishes that you and yours find a way to thrive in what for many is a wonderful community!
With the police chief and city council member decrying the bigoted and demeaning title “Devil’s Playground”, all that’s left is for the media to follow suit.
Please?
While you’re at it, homeless people are not “camping”. They don’t have a house! Stop misusing the English language to heap more violations and stigma onto the destitute.
The “unbelievable crime” in Eureka is hardly limited to the homeless. Eureka, and Humboldt County, lead the state in an array of record-high statistics in property crime, murder, child abuse, suicide, police shootings, domestic violence, psychotropic prescriptions, infant mortality, overdose fatalities, the lack of affordable housing and mental health services, among numerous human services failures.
Please do this community a huge favor and start reporting the approximate dollar costs of this failure: homeless sweeps, citations, arrests, courts, attorneys, and the other related costs of avoidable emergency services; Emergency room, incarceration, mental health and drug rehabilitation admissions for the homeless. (Don’t worry about the ancillary costs of lost productivity, and the needless human suffering from treatable illnesses, loss of dignity and the traumatic mental impacts, especially on youths. Too many people around here are unaccustomed to having empathy for the poor).
How, exactly, is the public supposed to believe local law enforcement, our health and human service providers, or elected official’s, repeatedly telling us we can’t afford to provide modest housing when no one has a clue what the current practices are costing us?
Cash is king, cash is to be spent on drugs only, eat from a garbage can, sleep in the doorways, have kids they can play with sticks. as long as YOU marks MAKE YOURSELFS feel good by giving cash to the beggars on corners they will never seek help, For them it feels so good to be stoned before anything else kids, family, health. Sure mental issues are involved. If you MARKS had a relative robbed and beaten to death in a homeless camp or die liver , heart , lungs failure to drug abuse you would stop giving cash. Shame on Reagan for closing the mental hospitals, shame on us for building more jails instead of mental facilities. DAMIT QUIT KILLING THEASE PEOPLE BY GIVING THEM CASH, THEY WILL DIE SLOW HORRENDOUS DEATHS it make take 5 to 10 years and 100 of thousands of dollars in medical expenses but they will all die as long as you people give them cash for drugs. ( I wish there was an ordinance that you can not give cash from a car unless is not stopped and legally parked) – if you watch long enough you will see all they have to do is stand there and people will give them cash , they don’t even have to leave the corner, their drug pusher will cycle by to see if they have enough cash for the next high, If they don’t have enough cash he might bring a puppy by so the can increase your gilt , so YOU can give cash to make YOURSELF feel better poor starving dog remember cash is king.