Arcata Answers Questions About Homelessness and Housing
This is a press release from the City of Arcata:
The City of Arcata has received many questions lately about what is happening in Arcata relating to housing and homelessness, as well as specific interest in cleanups on private property and other public property and seeks to address a few common questions.
Arcata has embraced the challenge of preventing homelessness and providing housing for its residents and has been one of the most successful cities in the state at doing so. Regardless, there is more work to be done and the City will continue to create housing and seek solutions to provide housing opportunities for its residents.
Some of the most common questions and clarifying information are included below:
Question: What is the City doing to prevent homelessness and provide housing?
The City is not in this alone; City staff and elected officials meet monthly with local partners to develop strategies for preventing homelessness and provide housing. The meetings are organized by the City as the Homeless Services Working Group and includes the County of Humboldt, Arcata House Partnership, Open Door Community Health Clinic and other regional providers to align strategies, share resources, and close service gaps.
The City has undertaken many projects to develop housing and preserve residents’ ability to stay in their homes including the following projects and programs:
- Affordable Housing Creation – Supported the development of 552 regulated units for households earning under 80% of the area median income. In just the past five years, the City of Arcata has increased the supply of regulated affordable housing by 65%.
- Valley West Home Key Projects – Partnered with developers to create 140 new units for extremely low-income households focused on the most vulnerable including formerly homeless residents and those under threat of domestic violence. Assistance included grant funding for purchase and construction as well as additional funding for operations.
- Mobile Home Rehabilitation Program – Used the Manufactured Housing Opportunity and Revitalization program to repair and preserve mobile homes for low-income residents, preventing displacement.
- Owner-Occupied Rehabilitation Program – Using Permanent Local Housing Allocation funding to provide loans to low-income homeowners for repairs that improve health, safety and accessibility to help to keep people in their homes.
- Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) Program – Provides rental and deposit assistance for low-income households, prioritizing seniors and people experiencing homelessness. The City launched TBRA in 2020 with a $1 million state grant, assisting 85 households so far. The City just received $1.5 million in additional grant funding to continue the program through June of 2028.
- Housing Choice Vouchers – Partners with the County Housing Authority to transition TBRA recipients into long-term Housing Choice Vouchers whenever possible, ensuring ongoing stability.
- First-time Homebuyer Programs – The City has assisted 129 first-time homebuyers and 89 low-income homeowners with the rehabilitation of their homes since inception of these two programs.
The City provides funding, facilities, and grant assistance to support services operated by community partners including the Arcata House Partnership and other organizations which provide the following:
- Rapid Rehousing – Moves individuals from homelessness into permanent housing quickly.
- Transitional Housing – Offers temporary housing and support services to help residents stabilize.
- Permanent Supportive Housing and Case Management – Combines housing with services for residents with higher needs.
- Youth Support Services – Provides targeted programs and referrals for homeless and at-risk youth.
- Extreme Weather Shelter – Opens emergency shelter during severe weather events to protect unsheltered residents.
More information on the City’s housing program can be found at cityofarcata.org/152/Housing.
Question: Why doesn’t the city let encampments stay where they are?
Public spaces need to be available to everyone. Public spaces such as the Arcata Plaza, Community Forest and other parks and recreation facilities are treasures for Arcata and should be available and enjoyed by all. Encampments can create unsafe environments and encumber spaces in a way that limits public use of shared community resources.
Cleaning up of encampments is critical to protect the environment, including rivers, creeks, wetlands and other waterways. Accumulations of human feces, urine, hypodermic needles, blood, bodily fluids and discarded food can lead to contamination of the environment and health hazards. Disease transmission risk includes hepatitis, E. coli, salmonella and other pathogens. This damage and destruction of vegetation and wildlife habitats can take years for recovery. Illegal dumping of unused construction materials, household garbage and combustible materials and substances can lead to fires, toxic smoke and other serious health and safety concerns.
Private property is protected by law. Property owners have the legal right to request that individuals who enter or remain on private property without permission leave. The Arcata Police Department can assist property owners who complete a Request for Prosecution for Trespassing form.
New mandates from the State. The State of California has been investing in projects and committing grant funds to programs to help the unhoused population find housing. However, the number of unhoused people in California continues to grow. The State is transitioning to requiring the identification and cleanup of encampments to qualify for funding for homeless housing and assistance. Although this has not been required of the city to date, it is expected that more pressure will be put on the City in the future to resolve encampments in order to qualify for funding for homeless assistance.
Question: What is Arcata doing to clean up public spaces and parks?
The City is working diligently to keep our public spaces clean and avoid the accumulation of waste and debris in sensitive habitats and waterways, often associated with unpermitted camping. Priority areas for cleanup have included the Arcata Marsh, the Mad River riparian areas, creeks, wetlands and the Arcata Community Forest.
In addition to City crews conducting cleanups, the City has contracted with John Shelter and People of New Directions. John is an experienced expert on cleaning up illegal dumping and encampments. He takes a measured, patient approach and tries to address each unique situation that he encounters with patience and care. Mr. Shelter has been successful in assisting the city to clean up the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, Arcata Community Forest and illegal dumping and encampments around the City.
Question: What is happening on the property between South O Street and Samoa Boulevard? Is the City conducting sweeps of homeless camps?
There has been a lot of input from the public lately about the property between South O Street and Samoa Boulevard that comprises several large privately owned parcels and the Great Redwood Trail right of way.
The City of Arcata is working cooperatively with private property owners to clean up the illegal dumping on their property and is providing law enforcement assistance to enforce trespassing laws when requested. There are no organized sweeps that have been planned or undertaken by the City.
Some basic facts about the work happening in that area include:
• The private property owners, Great Redwood Trail Agency and City of Arcata have hired John Shelter and People of New Directions to clean up the site and adjacent areas.
• John Shelter has been working there over the last two to three months and his efforts thus far have focused only on cleaning up garbage. He has also let people camping at the site know that ultimately, they will have to leave, and is working with them individually on identifying alternatives.
• So far, over 100,000 pounds of trash and debris have been removed.
• Personal property is not being taken. Should camps ultimately be removed, the City has a duty to store personal property and hold it until it can be claimed by its owners.
• No people camping at the site have been arrested for trespassing or forced to leave to date. Most of the encampments (ranging from one tent to makeshift structures) remain.
The City is working with community partners to develop a plan for occupants of the site to have access to housing and/or rehabilitation and will seek participation from organizations that can be helpful to identify solutions.
Question: What can I do to get involved?
- Volunteer for and donate to service organizations such as Arcata House Partnership, Uplift Eureka, McKinleyville Family Resource Center, Betty Kwan Chinn Day Center, and CASA of Humboldt.
- Volunteer for cleanups with PacOut Green Team, Coastal Cleanup groups, or Humboldt Trails Council.
- Report dumping and unlawful camping. Please call (707) 822-2424 to report non-emergency dumping or illegal camping.
Contact the City Manager or Council Members to share ideas. The City of Arcata, its staff and elected officials, want to work with the community to provide the best service possible to the homeless community. Sharing ideas and engaging in dialogue are always the best ways to achieve meaningful results.
For more information, please visit cityofarcata.org or call (707) 822-5953.
GRTA Right of Way Before Cleanup
GRTA Right of Way During Cleanup
CTJ Property Before Cleanup
CTJ Property After Cleanup
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
Wow, I didn’t realize Arcata had solved homelessness except for the camps between South O and Samoa Boulevard!
But why the kid glove treatment for slobs who have generated 50 tons of garbage?
Why keep providing free trash service for months on end?
These aren’t people temporarily down on their luck — they’re mostly parasitic alcoholics, drug addicts and thieves who are living a lifestyle and aren’t interested in changing.
When they whine “Where can we go?” they need to be told “Good question, but you can’t stay here or you’ll be arrested or cited.”
Many of these misfits have other options but there’s no incentive to do something different as long as they’re allowed to lay around in squalor in their filthy camps doing drugs, assaulting each other and trashing the environment.
Your view of value for money in this situation clearly lacks the ‘i go outside’ aspect of citizen life. How much would you pay to not live in a literal landfill? If they will put it in a dumpster that saves the labor of someone else picking it up, imagine the bill for hand picking 50 tones of trash? Or the unrepairable damage to ecology that microplastics add? Plastic plus UV radiation equals death to life, raw trash in the wetlands is possibly the worst aspect of this issue.
You’re missing the point: no one should be allowed to live in and trash the most sensitive parts of the environment!
There shouldn’t be any trash to take out.
The camps are harmful to the environment, the community and the people who live in them.
The land there is toxic and unsellable due to previous industry having nothing to do with the homeless ( those who have lived there peacefully with the landowners knowledge for over a decade). Your trash as well as everyone’s trash pollutes and harms the environment regardless of location.
No one has given permission to be there they’re simply trying to survive out of sight out of mind
They were there with the owners knowledge for years. You know this John….please don’t pretend to care.
“Illegal dumping” lots of trash dumped there. Large piles and items that had nothing to do with the community that lived there. Also, the city refused to provide dumpsters for them.
I suppose the only option for some people is to make sure that all services are taken away from them and they are forced back into wage slavery.
They need to find two or three part-time jobs and work all their waking hours so that they can share rundown houses or cheap apartments with other adult roommates.
Just see what would happen if others stop their “wage slavery” that pay for all these marvelous programs that Arcata takes credit for. Parasites just don’t survive without control of how much they take from others. They just reproduce more paracites.
Wage slavery? That’s just silly. We must all work for a living and be responsible for our actions. If you believe working for a living is wage slavery you need to check your hand.
That’s similar to the many reverse engineerings of welfare spouted over the years- being paid for being disabled, the State paying someone to raise a child, the State decided (some amount of) dollars are required to live, etc. It’s a subtle rephrasing to imply money to cover someone’s lack of wherewithal is being imposed by the State and not by the recipient.
Yes!
Dearest Truth be Told, ‘Be curious, Not judgmental’ there was never any free trash service offered. The houseless community were already doing everything possible to keep things picked up . Much of the weight in John Shelter’s totals included actual encampments as well as property that weren’t trash to begin with….your judgment lacks empathy, logic, and demonstrates a narrow minded frame of reference. Gonna love you anyway.
Love, Parasite who lounges in Squalor
Your comments like intelligence. If the people out there were really trying to control stuff stuff would have been in bags instead of spread all over. Truth be told
My comments do like intelligence. Did you let the city know you cashed in on all the metal they had collected??
Yup… well… awesome photos of cleaned up trash.
Go back to the bumz areas after a month or so and see what happens.
Best way is to get ’em a bus ticket to SF and LA.
Otherwise they just shift bum camps.
Move ’em in to where Newsom has his $9.1 million… ‘palatial’ house.
My God: FIFTY TONS of trash?
5000 used needles?
I can hear the rats from here…
This is a huge volume of lip service, but how many units of housing for incredibly poor and unqualified residents have actually been created?
I was interviewed the other day for a gig in Arcata, but I still call the place unlivable and also an enormous health issue…
The owners of the mollycoddled homeless camp should be dragged into court for gross negligence and maintaining an attractive nuisance, just for starters…
Arcata is one of the most mismanaged places I have ever been, second only to Garberville, and I would caution all who enter there…
The State College there can barely house a couple hundred out of however many students they still have, so I would like to know how many desperately poor people are actually supported by the Government Of Arcata, right now, today, and why anyone would want them as citizens in the first place…
How much money does the clean ups of these disgusting areas cost the taxpayer? The vagrants just move on to another local spot.
None, it’s private property.
Your trash is disgusting as well. If you want to know how much the city pays contractors to clean up private property, shoot them a CPRA requests and ask for the details.
Hey, leave Garberville alone please.
OH I think you know that there is a large problem in GBV…
At least the bums there have a Bum-Hospital, for when they fall-out or shoot or stab each other…
Arcata is a well funded city, with far more resources than Garberville. Just consider the press release from the city of Arcata and all the parties involved with the homeless issues. Garberville was hit by the smaller lumber mill production in the farther past and in the more recent past when marijuana prices and production went south. Comparing Arcata to Garberville is like comparing peaches to potatoes. The homeless situation is everywhere. Garberville’s good people are there, just not as obvious as the homeless and their issues.
I actually moved to Redway in 2012, worked at JPH a year or so…
That was me, on call, in the ER…
You are welcome.
GBV has a habit of throwing away the people who might help it evolve, but this is another discussion.
Garberville is an unincorporated settlement, with no discernable form of government whatsoever, and there is very little control of the homelessness issue, except to put out the fires and collect the trash at intervals, usually with volunteer labor.
Like many other places, there are many drawbacks to living full time in GBV/Redway, but it is generally quiet and the citizens there don’t fuck with each other…
Nature draws us where we are comfortable, and when retirement beacons, you gotta go where your financial interests lie…
Like Arcata, Garberville Homeless Camps are on Private Property, which I could never understand, and the camps were just too close to my private dwelling for comfort…
When Jesse Taylor came to the Neighborhood Watch meeting and advised us all to “Arm ourselves” when opening our doors, I said “That’s it”, and listed our house.
2 years later, a qualified buyer materialized and I sold out.
Really, nobody ever stole anything, or messed with my place, in 5 years, while I was working at various other Healthcare Facilities in Humboldt and Trinity…
It’s a mess, but it’s your mess, so enjoy…
I say anybody who disposes of household waste should be dragged into court, as their waste is just as bad, if not worse. Even when households pay for trash pickup and think of waste as “gone,” it continues to cause serious environmental harm. It contributes significant greenhouse gases (especially methane). It traps toxics in landfills that can enter soil and water. Plastics in particular persist for decades to centuries, breaking into microplastics that spread through ecosystems. Decomposing trash releases gases like methane and carbon dioxide, but also smaller amounts of other compounds that can impact air quality. Yep, as you sit in your tower judging the poor, your precious trash is just as fucked up as anyone else’s. With all of the city’s clean up boasts, they really just didn’t want an encampment to interfere with their Master Plan. The encampment had been there peacefully for decades. where it still ends up in landfills leaching into streams or incinerators poisoning the air right alongside everyone else’s household waste; before you judge, follow the problem all the way to its source, because the real blame belongs to a society that criminalizes poverty and refuses to hold officials and corporations accountable.
Arcatas success in this regard hinges almost entirely on the fact that Eureka is the county seat and where social services are available.
Why do we keep catering to these folks? Tell them to clean up or get the hell out of the county. They arent wanted here.
I’ll wager that not one vagrant AKA homeless didn’t pick up one piece of trash. They move on to contaminate another area. This is the result of being ruled by delusional democrats that ignore our nations laws.
In truth my friend the homeless were actually helping us bring out trash from their camp so we didn’t have to go in.
Trash pickup is not environmental responsibility. It is waste removal—often shifting pollution to landfills, incinerators, and poorer communities while corporations continue producing endless plastic packaging with no accountability.
Valley West is the Arcata NIMBYs designated dumping ground for those unsuitable for Arcata proper. Been that way for years. Out of sight for proper Arcata Progressives.
Go check out Arcata’s transitional housing on Valley West Blvd. Its transients with apartments that treat them like they are still living on the street. Drug OD’s, fires, fights and garbage everywhere. A good majority of the people are not even from Humboldt County.
The City of Arcata needs to be tougher. You have the “right to *request* individuals leave” your property? I think I would do more than politely request they leave. Dragging naked woman down the street is considered OK? Time to grow a pair city council.
The City of Arcata’s recent statements about the South O Street encampment and the role of John Shelter and People of New Directions are misleading. I witnessed what actually happened, and it was not the cooperative cleanup being described.
Despite the City’s claim that no sweeps or arrests have taken place, encampments were bulldozed and at least one resident was arrested while their belongings were destroyed. Police also come through regularly, threatening residents with trespassing tickets. This is enforcement by intimidation, no matter what it is called.
The “notices to vacate” posted on site were not lawful. Shelter and Arcata Police recycled old notices from a prior sweep on public land and used them on private property, where residents had lived for years with the landowner’s knowledge.
Shelter also broke promises. He told residents they could remain for two months if they helped with cleanup. Many cooperated, but within weeks their camps were demolished, and belongings—including e-bikes, tools, instruments, and work equipment—were lost. Some residents were assured they could return for property the next day, only to find it gone.
Other actions raised serious concerns: after Shelter said he had a “surprise in store,” one camp burned down. Roads were blocked, cutting off access for fire trucks or ambulances. Waste sorting was careless, with no separation of hazardous materials or e-waste, despite Shelter’s environmental claims.
To say no sweeps occurred erases the truth. Camps were destroyed, people displaced, and arrests and threats carried out. What is being called compassion is, in fact, destruction and displacement.
This is all actual lies I’m afraid. And if so we’ve been photographed over the last 2 months pretty regularly. So can you show us some pictures of the homeless encampments that have been bulldozed over please. Other than that. And in truth if anything burned down out there that was the protesters fault which I do have pictures to prove. Anytime anybody would like to see him let me know