Vallejo begins removing encampments from downtown as residents seek relief

VALLEJO - Vallejo city officials began removing encampments downtown this week, but reportedly delayed removing people living there after several people sought accommodations for disabilities.  

City officials posted notices for removal on May 22 at various camps scattered around Vallejo’s downtown area, including in a vacant parking lot and green spaces along the perimeter of City Hall and the JFK Library, with the removal expected to continue through the weekend. 

But the city held off on removing many of the residents there after they filed requests for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Individuals who file accommodation claims when faced with a removal notice attempt to avoid encampment removals by arguing that they might face injury or other harm. Vallejo officials told the Vallejo Times-Herald on Wednesday that the city is honoring the requests, but it’s unclear how long they’ll be allowed to remain. 

Other unhoused people in Vallejo have sought ADA accommodations recently, including a couple living in South Vallejo who were allowed to stay after the intervention of Mayor Andrea Sorce and a woman living downtown whom a federal judge ordered the city not to remove because the city had not offered her alternate housing or other support services. 

Several unhoused people living downtown told the Vallejo Sun on Tuesday that they’re unsure of what comes next. On that afternoon, several tents had already been taken down near City Hall but many camps remained around the Vallejo Ferry Terminal parking lot. 

Resident Dre Harris, who’s staying in a tent by the lot, said he filed an ADA accommodation claim and doesn’t know how long it could take to be reviewed. He said he has not recently been contacted by county or nonprofit workers about any current housing or temporary shelter options. 

“I’ve been on this land off and on for years and never been moved,” Harris said. “Sometimes they bully you if you don’t know the laws or whatever. But this time, they didn’t leave any housing resource papers. They tend to just come and take everything away.”

Harris said he wasn’t sure where to move to if he gets displaced after about two decades of being unhoused in Vallejo. “I got family out here too, but they’re older and I try not to bring it to them,” he said.

Down the block, a larger group of tents remained in the ferry terminal parking lot, where people gathered around a grill for an afternoon meal of meat and toast. Several, including Coretta Tatu, said the city workers who had arrived in the morning indicated they might return by the next day. 

Tatu said it was the first time she had been approached by the city or county after living unhoused in the area with her two sons for several years. She and others in the area said they all filed ADA accommodations requests to try to avoid removal.

“I’m worried about a lot of things, like why they haven’t opened that center they were talking about,” Tatu said, referring to the long-delayed Project Homekey development, a 47-unit supportive housing project on Broadway which the city has struggled to finish. 

“Everything is done there, but not open. They’re trying to lock us out without anything [supportive] being open,” Tatu said. 

The Vallejo Homeless Union facilitated helping many people like Tatu file ADA requests this week, after criticizing the city’s short notice for removals. Union member Eli Smith said the city didn’t give enough time for nonprofits attempting to reach people who rely heavily on bus transit and the public library. She said she helped numerous disabled people file ADA requests, including a single mother and her severely disabled child, a man with lymphoma and several elderly women with walkers. 

Smith said that as of Thursday the city has not asked disabled people to leave the area while workers remove encampment debris. City Manager Andrew Murray’s office has not responded to questions about the encampment removal timeline.

During a meeting Tuesday, the Vallejo Housing Authority voted unanimously to establish a rapid rehousing program. The vote included allocating $100,000 as short term aid for people experiencing homelessness, covering up to six months of targeted assistance for people seeking shelter, such as moving costs and security deposits.

While discussing the need to finalize the long-delayed navigation center project during a City Council meeting Tuesday, Sorce said that she thinks the city must invite the county to discuss better ways of reaching people who need shelter and services. The Vallejo City Council voted in April to craft a new policy for handling encampment sweeps, including how people are notified about incoming sweeps and how to manage them to protect people’s safety and belongings, although that policy isn’t finalized.

 “I mean, we spent $27 million on Broadway and another $15 million on the [navigation] center,” Sorce said. “Are our unhoused on the streets going to go into these structures? We need to be ready to just do everything we can to get as many of our people off the street and into these projects as possible, because that's a lot of money to spend if we're not.”