Bear Creek cleanup displaces Merced homeless

Employees from Merced’s Public Works Department spent Monday cleaning up homeless encampments along Bear Creek, where people live under bridges or in makeshift shelters among the reeds.

People living along the creek on Monday said they got a warning a few days ago, but they had nowhere to go before a crew began clearing the area that morning.

City Manager John Bramble said crews will continue to clear the north bank of the creek from McKee Road to Highway 59, where reeds and other brush need to be cut to mitigate the fire hazard and allow water to flow.

Joe Edwards, 48, of Merced gathered up his belongings from the reeds and sat across West North Bear Creek Drive from the Public Works crew as he waited for them to finish the cleanup. He said he’s lived on the bank of the creek “on and off” for the past 11 years.

Finding a place he can afford in Merced is difficult, he said, so he puts up with being displaced by the cleanups. “I like Merced, though it has its ups and downs,” he said. “I think they should ease up on the homeless.”

About 10 workers cleared trash and any belongings left behind Monday by those living on the bank. Some used rakes while others used heavy machinery to clear out debris. A separate crew will be charged with cutting down the vegetation.

Bramble said the cleanup was not an effort to specifically target the homeless people who live along the banks, though the city often receives complaints about those people.

He said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees work done along those banks, permits the city a chance to clear brush once a year though not always on the north bank.

“It had nothing to do with the homeless,” he said. “It has to do with the capacity of the creek and the danger that bamboo and other vegetation that gets dry and doesn’t have irrigation can create.”

The city occasionally removes homeless people from encampments along the creek, Bramble said. Homeowners in the area and those who use the irrigation water that runs through the creek have been known to complain about people living on the waterway illegally, he said.

Merced County Rescue Mission CEO Bruce Metcalf, whose organization provides services and housing for the homeless, said he saw nothing wrong with the city displacing those living along the banks of the creek. He called it unfortunate, but necessary.

Another advocate for the homeless, Renee Davenport, disagreed with Metcalf. “What do they expect these people to do?” she asked.

For Davenport, who serves on Merced County Continuum of Care committees, the displacement of those homeless people highlights the city’s lack of a daytime shelter. The housing for the homeless in Merced is limited, she said, so Merced’s city leaders should invest in a shelter.

Davenport said the city is essentially criminalizing homelessness. She pointed to the recent removal of park benches from downtown’s Bob Hart Square, a move to discourage panhandling.

Bramble said the city isn’t taking a stand against homelessness, but rather needed people to leave the north bank as it prepares for water that could flow down the creek.

“I don’t think we’re trying to criminalize anything,” he said. “I just think it’s not the best place to reside.”

This story was originally published November 24, 2014 at 9:38 PM with the headline "Bear Creek cleanup displaces Merced homeless."