Moving begins at Kennedy Park homeless encampment in Napa

At the start of this week, the Napa Valley Register visited the riverbank to check on the progress of the move. Few encampments had been moved, but 15 black pop-up tents with plastic windows had been set up in the new enclosure near the park’s entrance.

On Monday, Kennedy Park resident James Brosch said he has no problem with the move and came down to the riverside a few weeks ago as a way to get noticed and into services.

“I’ve been homeless for a while now and I haven’t been housed,” he said. “I haven’t had anyone come up to me, but it seems like a lot of other people have.”

Brosch is from San Luis Obispo and moved to Napa in 2004. He arrived at Kennedy Park a few weeks ago with his girlfriend and their dog after escaping an unsafe living situation on Salvador Avenue. 

“We were renting a room and it just got funky,” said Brosch. “(The landlord) was a slumlord. He quit paying the bills, and the garbage got piled up. It was just nasty. I told him, ‘I've seen homeless camps cleaner than this.’”

Brosch said he, his girlfriend and their pet came down to Kennedy Park after noticing people getting off the waitlist for services faster than they were. He is a bit weary of what the dynamics may be in the enclosure. 

“It's kind of all weird. It's kind of like, they're isolating people with mental health, drug addict(ion)… to just a small little circle,” he said. “I don't know what's gonna happen next. Putting all the fish in a barrel or something.”

Brosch said the gated area, about 110 feet wide and 300 feet long, looked like a concentration camp, with opaque black tarpaulins covering the chain-link fence. Ultimately, though, he likes the idea of having somewhere stable to go to. 

“I just want somewhere comfortable, somewhere stable, somewhere I can shower,” he said. “It's hard to do things, you know, without that stability like that.”

Brosch believes the city has been respectful so far.

“So far, so fair, you know?” he said. “With the deadlines here, we’ll see. I know it’s against the law to be homeless in Napa now.”

City Deputy Manager Molly Rattigan manages local homelessness services and outreach. She said in an email on Tuesday that the city is working to complete the move of unhoused people away from the Napa River by the end of the week, whether a person goes to the temporary site or leaves the park entirely.

Within the temporary site, each person will have a 10-by-12-foot area, and the city is providing storage units for their belongings. Dogs on leashes and cats will be permitted so long as they are not a danger to others. Security has been contracted through the company Signal 88 to surveil the park. 

Rattigan said there has been little resistance to moving.

“We have had people move slowly, but change is hard and that is expected,” she said. “We have moving resources available to them all week to assist with moving items to storage, or the new camps.”

As of Tuesday, Rattigan said 10 people have asked for a tent at the city-made site. Four people moved on Monday, and Napa will continue to add additional assigned tents as people express interest.

In the last two weeks, four people moved into transitional housing at North Napa Center, which operates out of the former Motel 6 on Solano Avenue, according to Rattigan. 

There are two spots open for Kennedy Park residents, and Rattigan said those moves should begin this week. 

Rattigan said when Monday comes, the park's riverbank area will be closed to camping. That means that any further encampments will be noticed for removal under city policy.

“We always try to seek cooperation and compliance with our park rules and city policies before turning to more punitive actions like trespass noticing,” she said.

Rattigan also referred to rumors of some Kennedy Park residents moving across a canal to a former rock quarry site, which is Napa County property.

Henry Wofford, spokesperson for the Napa County Sheriff's Office, said the agency does not believe in arresting people who aren't inherently doing anything wrong.

“We don't go around threatening to arrest people if they don’t have a place to go. We want to get them all the help,” he said. “We're not trying to arrest someone who is not committing a crime.”

Wofford said if unhoused people do move to the old quarry, the county has learned a compassionate approach usually yields a more positive outcome, and would work to help get those people into social services as well.

Napa’s move to address unhoused people camping in Kennedy Park comes on the heels of state and federal action that prompted local governments to crack down on encampments.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court's Grants Pass v. Johnson decision save cities and counties more control in handling homelessness. The following month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom directed cities to be more aggressive in addressing homelessness. 

The city of Napa announced a plan to take action in November. Rattigan previously explained to the Register that the city plans a four-month process to move about 25 homeless people from Kennedy Park into shelter and connect them with social services. 

Victoria Elder, a formerly homeless resident who now lives at Heritage House, lived at Kennedy Park twice in the past two years. She believes those currently being asked to move aren’t being treated fairly by the city.

“The freedom to choose where they want to go, that is being taken away from them,” Elder said. “No one truly knows what those people are going through unless they were there themselves.”

Elder, 31, moved to Napa from the Lake Tahoe area to live with her grandparents after a divorce. Before moving into Heritage House with a friend, she had been in and out of the South Napa shelter. 

Elder said that she was attracted to the freedom Kennedy Park afforded her after she had been in an abusive relationship. 

“Try to put yourself in their shoes,” Elder said. “These people did not choose to be where they are.”

Elder said doesn’t trust the city’s intentions, and believes city leaders are more concerned with Napa's image than in helping people camping at the park. 

“My concerns are for their mental health,” she said. “They go out there to be alone and a lot of people out there are actually afraid of cops.”

The temporary site will remain open until March 31. Starting in April, camping will no longer be tolerated at Kennedy Park.