ALERT: Homeless squatters faces eviction in Richmond, CA, USA FWD
Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Tue, 9 Nov 1999 18:03:47 -0800 (PST)
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stories/05/home
less.dtl
FWD San Francisco Examiner - Friday, November 5, 1999
HOMELESS GROUP FACES EVICTION BY UNION PACIFIC
By Matthew Yi
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
Landfill off-limits, an abandoned range served as home, but ejection
imminent [picture]
RICHMOND -- Dan McMullan is running out of places to stay.
He was one of about 50 homeless people kicked out of an Albany landfill in
June after the City Council approved an ordinance prohibiting overnight
camping. Most of those evicted then created an encampment at a former
firing range owned by Union Pacific Railroad at Point Isabel in Richmond.
>But they're being booted again.
Someone called Richmond police Thursday complaining that McMullan and his
neighbors are trespassing on private land. An officer stopped by in the
morning, ordering the homeless to leave within a day.
"I'm getting tired of just being run out," said McMullan, 36, who has been
homeless since 1984, after losing his right leg in a motorcycle accident.
"There's no place for us to go."
The case has been turned over to Union Pacific, which has its own police
department.
"There are many places in our system where people choose to make their
home, but we do the best job we can to remove them gently," said Union
Pacific spokesman Mike Furtney. "Obviously, it's private property and they
can't be there."
Furtney said railroad officers will ask the homeless to leave promptly.
"If they decide to really dig their heels in, we would have to arrest them,
but usually people . . . are very cooperative," he said.
The site is a 10-acre lot just on the other side of Point Isabel Regional
Shoreline, which has a popular trail for dogs.
In the middle is a former shooting range, surrounded by small hillsides
reaching about 30-feet high.
The range was built in the 1970s by Southern Pacific Transportation Co.,
which was bought out by Union Pacific in 1996. It was used by railroad
police as well as police departments in nearby cities.
However, the range was shut down a couple of years ago after complaints
from local residents and has been vacant ever since, Furtney said.
But for McMullan and his neighbors, the space has been a newfound home in
which they had hoped to build a community, like their former one in Albany.
Their old place was more than just an ordinary encampment of homeless
living in cardboard boxes or makeshift tents. They had built their own
version of low-income housing: shacks of plywood, some with windows,
built-in kitchen cabinets and even carpeting.
The new digs in Richmond were nowhere close to that, at least not yet.
Small tents surrounded the edge of the old firing range and a wooden picnic
table and makeshift fire pit made from bricks were sitting in one corner,
serving as a kitchen and eating area.
But it was all coming down Thursday.
"I'm going to put all my stuff in my . . . bike and I'm gonna go up and
down the street bugging the heck out of everybody," said "Stark" Mike
Martin, 49.
He spent Thursday hauling his belongings -- on a dolly attached to a
mountain bike -- to a "secret" location.
"I can't understand why we can't stay here," Martin said. "This place is
isolated, no one sees us and we're not bothering anybody."
Most people didn't know where they would go. Some were thinking of
returning to the Albany landfill.
"We've all talked about it . . . but we're not sure," said McMullan.
"Sooner or later, we'll probably just end up in jail and finally we'll have
a place to go."
That could happen if they do go back, said Albany police Lt. Greg Bone.
"Nothing has changed since the council passed the city ordinance," Bone
said. "They would either be warned, cited or be arrested depending on their
history."
McMullan said he needs a place to stay just a little longer because he's
close to getting government-subsidized housing. But until then, he's not
sure where to go. He said it's frustrating.
"Here we go again, looking for another place where we can be left alone. A
place where we can sleep at night without worrying about going to jail," he
said.
END FORWARD
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