ESCONDIDO, Calif.—A day after city workers cleared out a creek bed homeless encampment, some homeless people lingered on nearby sidewalks with carts loaded with their belongings on Dec. 17, attempting to return.

Police secured the site as public work crews continued cleaning up trash and waste left behind at the site.

On Dec. 16, the city council voted unanimously 5–0 to ratify a local emergency declaration regarding a homeless encampment in the city’s Harmony Grove creek bed area, citing a 166 percent increase in regional fire department calls to the area from 2023 to 2024, water and soil contamination, and increased crime in surrounding neighborhoods, among other reasons.

“We expect that there will be attempts for people to return to the area. That’s why we are going to have continued police department presence,” Deputy City Manager Christopher McKinney told The Epoch Times after the vote.

The proclamation ordered the cleanup of the encampment site and requested $4 million in funds to address health and environmental risks and secure the area, including adding a perimeter fence and removing invasive vegetation and debris.

“They’re going to go right back, or they’re going to end up on every Escondido street corner or community park, so wherever they can find shelter to get out of the weather,” said licensed clinician Kymberly Moon-Walker, to The Epoch Times, referring to the displaced homeless individuals.

Moon-Walker said she has been doing street outreach for the past few years in northern San Diego County, including Escondido, and she saw this cleanup as “no different from others.”

According to McKinney, the fencing at the creek bed area could take weeks or a few months to build. During this time, the city will continue to assess the situation and take appropriate security measures in an effort to prevent people from going back.

A day after the city cleared a creek bed homeless encampment site, homeless individuals linger along nearby sidewalks in Escondido, Calif., on Dec. 17, 2024. (Courtesy of Kymberly Moon-Walker)

As cited in the proclamation and also in McKinney’s briefing to the council, the homeless population in the creek bed area largely came from a recent cleanup effort by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) along a nearby highway for safety reasons.

Caltrans then installed fences to prevent re-entry to the state property, and the homeless people found a new place to stay at the city’s creek bed area.

Hawkins Sellier, a medical student at the University of California–Riverside, told The Epoch Times he didn’t understand why officials were moving the homeless individuals from one site to another.

“This is very perplexing to me,” he said. “This community is in this position because someone else did the exact thing that we’re about to do.”

Escondido Mayor Dane White told The Epoch Times that the city is limited by state law and county policies regarding homeless issues.

“We’re just going to keep playing ‘Whack-a-Mole’ until they decide to change something,” he said, “Specifically, with people struggling with addiction, we need to be forcing those people into treatment, instead of giving them needles and crack pipes in the creek.”

According to Moon-Walker, the creek bed area had about 64 people living there when she and other organizations came to do a checkup a week ago, and some may have left after they received the 24-hour notice of the cleanup.

McKinney said during the Dec. 16 cleanup, about 52 people were on site, 36 asked for services, and only five asked for shelter space. All five were placed into emergency shelter, he said.

For others, he said, “We can’t compel them into shelter now.”

The City Council votes unanimously to declare a local emergency at the creek bed homeless encampment site, in Escondido, Calif., on Dec. 16, 2024. (L-R) City Manager Sean McGlynn, Councilmembers Consuelo Martinez and Christian Garcia, Mayor Dane White, and Councilmembers Joe Garcia and Judy Fitzgerald. (Jane Yang/The Epoch Times)

McKinney said the city has more beds available. However, Mayor White said at the council meeting that the city needs more shelter space.

“Escondido needs to start directing more of its efforts to finding additional shelter space,” White said, “That is my commitment to you all and the community.”

Sellier, who grew up in Escondido, was one of three public speakers at the council meeting. He raised concerns about the cleanup decision and said he hoped the council would strive to “[treat] human lives equally regardless of finances or personal possessions.”

“These are human beings, many of whom have been through incredibly traumatizing things ... so I would just say, just finding the courage and the compassion to ask, why? How can we be better?” he later told The Epoch Times.

Other residents spoke at the meeting and thanked the city for taking action on the homeless encampment.