Oxnard clears out homeless encampment near Edison Canal

Oxnard removed cars, tents and other debris left behind at a vacated homeless encampment near the beach in the Oxnard Dunes area last month.

The site is located on private property along the Edison Canal, south of Fifth Street and east of Harbor Boulevard.

City staff shut down the encampment on March 1 and relocated 50 people into motels, shelters or permanent housing, said Emilio Ramirez, the city’s housing director.

The camp, which formed in summer 2022, had been home to upward of 70 people, Ramirez said, though the number of occupants fluctuated. The city finished clearing up the site on March 21. No one has since moved back onto the property, Ramirez said.

Another camp, on McWane Boulevard in south Oxnard, was cleaned up in November. Between 25 to 55 people lived at the tightly packed encampment, Ramirez has said.

A $4 million state Encampment Resolution Fund grant paid for the relocation, case management and provisions for those removed from the two sites, Ramirez said. Case management services are provided by city, county and local nonprofit staff.

Cleanup of garbage and debris at the encampments was funded by Oxnard's general fund, Ramirez said. The city spent $161,000 to remove 258 tons of trash from the Fifth Street site. It cost $101,000 to remove 280 tons from the McWane camp.

At both camps, occupants built plywood structures, set up tents and brought in cars, furniture and other objects.

When the city cleared out the Fifth Street site on March 1, at least 30 people moved in from other parts of the city and county in the following days, Ramirez said.

Because the city only applied for enough money to relocate the people who originally inhabited the two camps, there wasn't enough funding to help the transplants, Ramirez said. So, they were asked to leave.

This isn’t the first time the Fifth Street camp was cleared.

In July, the city held a four-day preliminary cleanup that cost nearly $14,000, Ramirez said. Twenty-five people were placed into a shelter and case management program. It wasn't clear how many individuals now remain in the shelter and program.

In August 2015, a major cleanup operation at the site was pegged as Oxnard's first large-scale effort to dismantle an encampment. One resident had called the camp home for 30 years. The biggest campsite had been standing 14 years.

Organizers at the time estimated the 2015 cleanup cost $250,000. NRG Energy Inc., which was leasing the property, paid for it. Case managers, social workers and staff from two dozen or so service agencies took part in the effort. Workers tried for months ahead of the cleanup date to assist residents and direct them to services.

About 70 people lived in the encampment at that time, Ramirez said.

A long-term goal of the 2015 cleanup was to avoid having a built-up camp return to the site, something that would require a security plan, organizers said at the time.

Jenn Harkey, director of the Ventura County Continuum of Care, said the Edison Canal encampment springs up after cleanups because homeless individuals gravitate to areas they’re familiar with.

The camps tend to appear in remote areas, such as riverbeds, away from businesses and neighborhoods, Harkey said. They’re formed as a result of people wanting to living in a community, she added.

Brian J. Varela covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo. He can be reached at brian.varela@vcstar.com or 805-477-8014. You can also find him on Twitter @BrianVarela805.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Oxnard clears out Edison Canal homeless encampment