Matt Leslie
The Fullerton Police Department has issued an ultimatum to the homeless people living in a camp near the closed Hunt Library facility, ordering them to leave by 3:00 pm Friday, June 14. Police have promised to store property for the displaced homeless people for up to thirty days, but some have expressed skepticism over the eventual fate of their posessions. Just last week police officers raided the encampment, making several arrests for drug use.
On June 4 the Fullerton City Council approved the beginning of lease negotiations with neighboring Grace Ministries, who want to rent the Hunt Library property for up to two years while their offices are renovated.
A two part video on Youtube by former Fullerton Public Library Trustee Marlena Carrillo shows the encampment of eighty people trying to figure out where they are going to go to avoid arrest. “We’re just out here still trying to live, just like anybody else,” says one camper in the video, who argued that they should have been given at least thirty days to leave. In the second part of the video a police officer states that he “just found out about this yesterday.”
One has to wonder about the timing of both the raid and eviction. The Hunt Library was closed by an emergency vote of the Library’s Board of Trustees three months ago because they were told that conditions had become dangerous for library staff.
At that time Fullerton Rag wondered why the Fullerton Police Department was incapable of maintaining safety at a city facility, one that has their name posted above the front door. Instead, they chose not to enforce Fullerton’s anti-camping laws, allowing the camp’s population to double in the past six months before finally deciding the time was right to raid it. Portable toilets had even moved to the site, and The Coast to Coast Foundation were feeding people there twice a month. During a recent City Council meeting Coast to Coast even invited members of the public to help with the food distribution, and presented awards to City Manager Joe Felz, Police Chief Dan Hughes, and the entire Fullerton City Council.
At that time none of the award recipients mentioned that the city would raid and then evict the camp in the near future. The camp was allowed to remain while police “responded to 460 calls to the site or incidents there,” until just one week after the City Council gave its approval to lease out the property.
If a homeless camp can be evicted now to make it safe for a new lessee of the Hunt Branch property, why couldn’t it have been done while it was still a library? And just where are the homeless people supposed to go with a permanent homeless shelter years away from opening and the police department now enforcing the city’s anti-camping laws?
fullertonrag.com 
Will there be videotaping of the eviction to hold the police accountable?
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You have made an excellent point. If they can manage the homeless now, why couldn’t they manage it when it was such a problem for the library?
Personally, if I hear Flory whine one more time about areas surrounding her neighborhood, I’ll scream. She acts like her council position gives her special privileges. Is it possible for the homeless encampment to be moved to the damn? She’s partly responsible for this current problem, let’s give her some new neighbors.
No one knows where they’ll go. People want to complain about them, imagine when they start showing up in other places. People are so self-serving and stupid. I’m not calling them rats or even comparing them to rats but imagine the stupidity of taking a building infested with thousands and thousands of rats…instead of dealing with the rats first, they start tearing down the building and the rats then scatter throughout the city. They’re not getting rid of the homeless. They’ve only created a bigger problem for those against them and put even greater hardships upon the homeless.
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*dam (not damn)
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Thanks for keeping us informed on this matter. It is important to manage this “problem” the best for all concerned. (Could Grace get involved in the Homeless issue??)
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Let them live in your backyard – problem solved.
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I’m with Henry! You don’t know what your dealing with unless you actually have to and I have for the last 6 months. These people have been up and down my neighborhood leaving drug paraphernalia at our park, digging through our trash, using our water and breaking into our cars. These are not people looking for help or wanting jobs, they just want to drink and drug and live free without contributing in any way to society. They have been told from day 1 they could not stay. The ones offered help that wanted it are gone left are the ones that just want to suck off off us!
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Oh by the way the fullerton rag is just that a rag! No honest reporting here!
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Which part is dishonest? I noted in the editorial that the police had made arrests for drug use.
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Have you met or spoken with any of the individuals? It helps to have a face to converse with instead of painting them with broad strokes. I know it’s harder to dehumanized them that way, but I think it can soften your attitude.
I understand that there’s bad stuff happening, and that the situation is far from ideal, but honestly, let’s try to show a little more grace and mercy.
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Even if they have a place to go, some will prefer to be out on their own. With freedom comes responsibility. With irresponsible behavior, the law must step in. (And yes, often the law steps in when “important” people request it) Often government is imperfect in these matters.
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