Seaside City Council is discussing whether or not to continue allowing a homeless encampment at Roberts Lake.

Last week, the city of Seaside issued notices to residents living in a homeless encampment in the parking lots of Roberts Lake that they were being evicted from the property and had to vacate the area on Monday, July 13. 

After pushback, the eviction date was moved to Thursday, July 16. On the eve of that eviction date, City Council will have a meeting tonight at 6:30pm to discuss whether or not they will extend the suspension of enforcement of an ordnance that prohibits people from sleeping in their cars. It's that suspension that has allowed people to sleep at the lake, which is near Highway 1 and across the street from Home Depot.

Council tonight will discuss the possibility of moving those who are living in the parking lots to another location. 

During the start of Monterey County’s shelter-in-place order, it was an easy decision for the City Council when Anton Hunter, who has been living in an RV in one of the parking lots for a year and a half, approached them about suspending the enforcement and allowing people to shelter-in-place at the lake. 

Their thinking was that everyone needs somewhere to shelter-in-place, so why not provide a designated space, says Seaside City Manager Craig Malin. 

“We had early discussions about how Seaside is an empathetic and caring community,” he adds.  

Portable toilets and hand-washing stations were brought in and city maintenance and utilities crews have been coming to clear out garbage almost every day. 

“It was the park that was the farthest from our residents, and the easiest access off Highway 1. We thought people could spend a couple days or weeks, and then they’ll move on,” Malin says. 

But the moving on hasn’t happened, and once restrictions of the shelter-in-place order started lifting and Seaside residents began wanting to access the park with more frequency, discussions of how much longer they could suspend enforcement began. 

Malin also says that feces has been found in the garbage, which creates an issue of sanitation and safety of city employees. 

To help aid those living in the encampment find place to move, a list of campgrounds throughout the state was handed out. But to Hunter, that seems unrealistic for a number of reasons. 

He has been acting as a representative for the community living at Roberts Lake and meeting with city officials to come up with solutions both long-term and short-term during the pandemic when it comes to the problem of homelessness.

He feels that if people are no longer allowed to stay at Roberts Lake or a new site isn’t offered, it means many of the residents will likely have to bounce from place to place, making it hard for those with jobs to maintain work. “It takes a lot of resources to move around, and we want to become prosperous members of our community,” he says. 

Residents are also worried that if they have to move they will not only lose their place to sleep, but also many of the resources they have been offered since living there.

Different groups of volunteers have been regularly bringing them food, hygiene products and other basic necessities. “If we’re spread out, they’re not going to know where to find us,” resident Mandy Dodson says. 

You can watch tonight’s City Council meeting at 6:30pm here.