City crews clear out Merced homeless encampment, residents ask for permanent solution

MERCED, Calif. (KFSN) -- Clearing pile after pile, Merced Public Works crews worked for hours to dismantle a homeless encampment along Highway 59, calling it the worst they've seen in the city.

"It's horrific. Everything's soiled. Mud. Nothing's salvageable," said Solid Waste Supervisor Dan McComb.

A crew of about 10 people got to work at around 7 a.m. Wednesday morning to clean up the site.

Merced Police Sgt. Robert Solis says they've received multiple complaints about the site, and it was becoming a health and safety issue.

Solis says campers were warned about the cleanup weeks ago and advised them to put aside what they wanted to keep.

"You see the property that we're throwing away. That's property that's been abandoned and left behind. Some of the property they want to keep, we'll store it for them for 60 days and store it at our facility," he said.

Folks who live nearby, like Kathy Wright, says she would find transients going through her trash.

While she's glad the area's clean, she's now hoping for a more permanent solution.

"It's scary going down that way; I have compassion for them. But they're taking away from our city, and people don't want to come here," Wright said.

Merced County officials are working on converting the D Street homeless shelter into a temporary navigation center, which would help connect the homeless with available resources.

The city of Merced is planning to create an affordable housing facility along Childs and B street that would include 30 units for supportive homeless housing.

Candice Adam Medefind with Healthy House was at the site, looking for elderly residents that may qualify for some help.

She says this same cleanup happened 10 years ago and this is just history repeating itself.

"We have to stop this kinda vicious cycle of moving back and forth to a property, and creating a mess because there aren't adequate facilities and services. It's a problem," she said.

The Human Services Agency was also at the site speaking with transients and working with them to hopefully get them some type of housing or help.

Police aren't sure where they are going to go next but do say they'll be patrolling this area and possibly have some fencing to keep folks from camping.