Dozens of homeless forced to leave Highway 101 camps

“All the pictures of my children, all the negatives gone. All I have is my memories.” said Sabrina Bell.

Sabrina bell is just one of the many homeless that live along Highway 101.

“Haul your own water. Bathe out of a five gallon bucket. I dare the city council to come out and live like we do,” said Bell.

But the place they call home is no longer an option.

“We worked all night long to get five camps out of here,” said Bell.

Caltrans gave everyone here a 72 hour notice. Meaning they need to pack up all their things.

“I don’t know where I’m going. I’m out of places to stay,” said Bell.

The sudden push to leave is because cleanup begins today on both Laurel Drive on-ramps in Salinas.

“That activity in the right of way is not allowed unless they have a permit to do so. The debris and trash creates an unhealthy environment,” said Caltrans Public Information Officer Jim Shivers.

It also poses a safety risk, not only to the public and highway crews, but also to the homeless. Just last month, in Seattle a car left the road hitting and killing a homeless man who was sleeping in his tent.

“It happens almost on a daily basis where a car loses control and goes off on to the shoulder. Now typically there’s nothing on the shoulder, but now with all these homeless encampments there’s a possibility of a car losing control and running right in to the encampment,” said CHP Officer Oscar Loza.

So the homeless will move once again. According to homeless advocate Jill Allen this is part of a much bigger problem.

“The problem is there is no place for them to go. There is not enough available shelter beds and there are people that have their pets with them, their stuff with them that they cling to. They can’t store it anywhere,” said Allen.

With about 700 homeless people living in Salinas at any given time, the newly opened Chinatown Health Services Center is becoming a vital part in many of their lives.

“The hygiene section is helping lots of people. We’ve had over 50 showers over the last two days since we were open,” said Allen.

But for Sabrina, she says they’ll just move to the next spot, and continue living on the outside.