Cops Evicted 70 Homeless People, Now Where Have They Gone?
SOUTH SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Cops and homeless advocates clashed over the clearing of an illegal encampment Wednesday.
Deputies had issued trespassing warnings last weekend and by Wednesday, the camp was cleared out.
"Fear, anxiety, stress, anger," said Jackie Smith, who is one of 70 homeless forced to leave the field where she's camped for more than a month. "I only had a certain amount of time to get what I could and to get out, I got what was important."
Sheriffs deputies raided the unauthorized camp on Stockton Boulevard early Wednesday, at times clashing with protestors and making three arrests.
Sgt. Shaun Hampton with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department says for months organizations have been onto the lot trying to get people help, but not everyone wants it. Now, he says it's time for people to leave this spot.
"We are just getting, 'Get the hell out, go go go,' public property, private property it doesn't matter 'Go!'" Smith said.
Smith carried what she could to a nearby parking lot, hoping to spend the night in a tent with her two dogs, but was told to leave by the business owner.
"I feel bad for them, but there's nothing I can do," said Sherman Poon, who is fed up with the nuisance caused by campers to his business. "I can't have them just camping out here all the time, they leave trash out here."
RELATED: Authorities Clean-Up After Clearing Homeless Camp Along Stockton Blvd
So Smith picked up and moved on once again. It was a similar scene for many others with nowhere to go.
"I'm not sure, that direction, wherever that is," Claudia Knight, said while moving with her boyfriend.
"The fact that now all these people are displaced, I mean we are already displaced, and now we are even more displaced. I mean, where are we going to go? Where do we go?" said Lucille Mendez, who was forced out.
"I don't have an answer for that, I really don't know where I'm going," Smith added.
The gate is padlocked shut and sheriff's deputies will make sure no one is let back inside.
