Photos: Vallejo encampment residents rush to move out of boat launch lot before vehicles are seized

VALLEJO — A large homeless encampment at the Vallejo municipal boat launch was mostly gone by Tuesday afternoon after city workers cleared the area over two days. Only two RVs, a car and a boat remained.

Notices were posted around the boat launch parking lot on Jan. 8, telling residents that their vehicles would be towed this week. PG&E is close to finishing gas plant cleanup and remediation that is taking place next to it. Part of the clean-up project involves paving the boat launch parking lot. By Tuesday morning, only 6 RVs remained. 

As of Monday morning, many of the encampment residents had already left, and the RV count was down to 16 from 29 the previous week. There was a traffic jam at the parking lot as departing residents struggled to navigate around the city workers removing trash and towing cars at the same time.

The city workers who arrived on Monday morning focused first on removing abandoned vehicles and scooping up trash, while remaining residents scrambled to get their RVs and vehicles running. The city’s “Notice to tow” says that impounded property will be stored for ninety days free of charge, and that anything unclaimed after that time will be disposed of.

Jay Roos, 62, sat in front of his truck on Monday morning. The battery had been stolen from his truck on Sunday night. “They just left me sitting here stranded,” he said. “I’m handicapped, I got a bad back. Sixty two years old and I can barely walk.”

Roos was helped by other camp residents. His truck and his RV were gone the following morning.

Roos said he has been homeless for 5 years. He suffers from  Osteogenesis Imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease. He said he collects disability payments, but it isn’t enough.

Numerous vehicles had to be towed out of the lot. One resident, Robert Harden, used his Jeep to tow another RV from the area. Harden said his focus was on helping his friends move. “It's kind of important if it's your house,” he said.

Harvey Kenny, a senior who lives at the boat launch, said last week that he would have left sooner but his truck broke down. An RV pushed it into the center of the parking lot on Monday so a friend with a tow hitch could pull it elsewhere.

Jim Nelson, his wife and their dog have been living out of their RV on the streets for about two years. Nelson said they lived in an RV Park for eight years prior, but were forced to move out after their rent money was stolen.

Nelson said that his RV’s registration is expired, and that he’s been trying to contact his son to borrow the money he needs to get it renewed.

Nelson’s RV had been parked there for so long it wouldn’t start and sunk into mud and cracked asphalt. When he tried to tow it out, the truck’s tires just spun in the mud.

Nelson’s son arrived later that day and replaced a fuse in the RV, and he was able to start it and drive away.

Vallejo Assistant to the City Manager Natalie Peterson and Solano County Sheriff’s Deputy Dale Matsuoka were present Monday morning but mostly stayed to the side of the project and watched. 

Peterson previously told the Vallejo Sun that a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, Martin v. Boise, which requires cities to have alternative accommodations to remove people living on public property, does not apply when an encampment is in the way of a construction project that may put the safety of those in the area at risk.

The city did not offer alternative accommodations and does not have any available. Housing projects for homeless Vallejo residents have been repeatedly delayed. A planned 47-unit permanent supportive housing project on Broadway which the city said would be open in August remains incomplete. On Tuesday, the  City Council voted to approve an $8 million bid to build a planned navigation center, which has been mired in delays for years. Grant funds for construction have a deadline of June 2026.

Occupants of three of the remaining RVs waited impatiently for a volunteer with the necessary towing hitch on Tuesday. By Tuesday afternoon, two of the three had been moved.

Kim Barrios, owner of the last remaining RV, said she was confident that the man would come back in the morning to tow her out. “I put all my eggs in that basket. I called everybody else off,” she said.