SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A group of about 30 unhoused Sacramentans were moved Monday from Howe Avenue and Fair Oaks Boulevard.
The city of Sacramento said they had to do it to honor a lease agreement with a local group. The city didn’t say who that group was.
Asia Pugh watched as the area she called home was torn down Monday morning.
“They allowed us to be here for a while, but then they came and kicked down our flippin' tent doors like SWAT this morning,” Pugh said.
Neighbors said the encampment had been growing and saw vandalism problems for the past two years.
“It can be a little scary to be in a position like this because you don’t know what’s to come and what’s to not come and what’s to happen,” Pugh said.
Pugh said she still doesn’t know where she’ll go.
“I’m a little worried. Hopefully, we get housed in the next few hours, maybe. It’s not likely,” Pugh said.
Yet, she said she’s seen the frustration of the local community and knew it was only a matter of time.
“For the most part, it had to happen. You know, it was looking a little messy. And my community people and their faces, they don’t like to drive by and see the mess or feel like it’s a mess,” Pugh said.
Michelle Belcher is one of the neighbors who lives next to the now-cleared encampment.
“In a way, I’m happy. In a way, I’m sad because I found out they have nowhere else to go,” Belcher said.
She said she was mostly worried about the safety of her kids.
“It’s gotten worse with the garbage, with the drug use. My children have seen it multiple times,” Belcher said.
Nonetheless, she’s torn because she knows moving the unhoused is not a solution.
“I’m sad because it’s like, where are they going to go? They’re just going to go to another place and eventually end up back over here,” Belcher said.
The city’s Department of Community Response said they’ve visited the encampment around 60 times and have offered outreach, services and alternative shelter.
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