SACRAMENTO, Calif — A North Sacramento property with a growing homeless encampment was cleaned up this morning after multiple complaints from nearby residents and the land's owner. ABC10 has been following this story for weeks and, Thursday, people living on that property said this sweep was traumatizing.
"We're moving out because that's what the owner wants us to do," said Tina Bengler.
For four months, Bengler has lived on a privately owned piece of land along Ripley Street in Sacramento's East Del Paso Heights and Hagginwood neighborhoods. It's been a rough journey getting to this point.
"To be honest, drugs and not paying attention to what I should've been taking care of," said Bengler.
While being evicted was difficult, it's also been frustrating for Grigoriy Polyak, one of three owners of the land.
"We're doing a cleanup here for the second time in the last two and a half years. We've literally done it once we've kept the grass down, we kept property clean. We have a fence around the property. However, people break the fence, people move on the property. And we cannot keep them out," said Polyak.
The lands' owners said they have plans to start developing it into 17 parcels to build homes.
"We're small individual owners trying to build, trying to develop the land to make the community better. The neighborhood is falling apart and this is one of the problems. There's a house for sale right across the street, and they're selling because of this," said Polyak.
Even though Bengler understands she shouldn't be on private property, she said the eviction came as a bit of a surprise.
"They gave us one day notice. When they came yesterday, they told everybody. I'm glad I came home yesterday. I wasn't going to come home for a couple of days. I would've came home to nothing," Bengler said.
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However, Polyak said they've been working within the city to make the cleanup happen and believes there was plenty of notice.
"They've had more than three days," Polyak said.
Sacramento Police Department and the city's Incident Management Team also showed up at the eviction. The City of Sacramento told ABC10 people were offered places to stay at the Roseville Road Campus and the Outreach and Engagement Center. As people were told to leave, ABC10's camera caught a tense moment with Polyak and a man on the property holding a box cutter.
Moving forward, Polyak said there will be an RV placed inside the property for someone to keep an eye on it at all times. As for Bengler, she's hoping for the best.
"For a little while will probably still be in my tent, but somewhere else, I'm trying to get into a program," she said.
Homeowners in this neighborhood told ABC10 they're thankful for the cleanup, but they're not hopeful it'll stay this way.
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