by Molly Montgomery, Searchlight New Mexico Six months ago, Española officials moved roughly 30 unhoused people into an encampment on a city-owned lot beside the Rio Grande. Last week, those same officials ordered the residents to leave or face trespassing charges. The move marks the latest development in an ongoing saga concerning the encampment. As […]

by Molly Montgomery, Searchlight New Mexico

Six months ago, Española officials moved roughly 30 unhoused people into an encampment on a city-owned lot beside the Rio Grande. Last week, those same officials ordered the residents to leave or face trespassing charges.

The move marks the latest development in an ongoing saga concerning the encampment. As reported by Searchlight New Mexico in June, some locals, angry about crime and drug use, have been relentlessly harassing the people living in tents there — honking as they drive past, screaming obscenities, throwing fireworks and ice, and even firing guns in the air. 

It’s a problem that has vexed local officials. City employees originally moved the unhoused people onto the riverbank in February and, with help from Rio Arriba County, provided them with basic services, such as toilets and trash pickup, as well as needle exchanges. But officials began threatening to make them leave in late May, after Española residents voiced loud complaints at a contentious town hall meeting.

On July 29, the city acquiesced to those complaints, issuing an order to close the plot of public land. The site “is adversely affecting the public health, safety and welfare and must be vacated,” the order asserts — though city officials previously told Searchlight that the encampment was making the city safer, saying it had decreased the number of 911 calls and the amount of trash on the city’s streets.

Shortly after the order was signed, residents report, the city government sent a front-end loader to pick up trash at the camp and posted no trespassing signs outside the perimeter.

Police arrived at the encampment on Aug. 1, issuing warnings to the residents for criminal trespassing and arresting two people with outstanding warrants. The officers said that they would arrest those who didn’t pack up and leave in the days ahead. 

Española Police Chief Mizel Garcia, who had previously told Searchlight that he did not want to intervene in the encampment, accompanied his officers as they issued warnings.

“I don’t make the laws,” he said. “If there’s an ordinance that’s being violated and I’m told to enforce it, I legally have no option but to do it.”

As police told people to leave, a crew of workers sawed and clipped brush and branches from around their tents. City Manager Eric Lujan said the growth was a fire hazard. But the foliage also provided crucial shade coverage on a bank where the temperatures can surge above 100 degrees.

Most residents don’t know where to go. Around a dozen people were still at the encampment as of Wednesday afternoon. City Social Services Director Michelle Fraire said that she didn’t know where those who left the site had gone.

Those who can’t carry their possessions — furniture, tents, mattresses — will be forced to leave them behind. They’ve formed a tight-knit community on the riverbank, but several interviewed by Searchlight said they don’t think they’ll be able to stick together or find a safe place to stay, given the lack of space in the city shelter and the violent harassment they experience from passersby. 

After being promised various long-term services and handed shifting directives over the past several months, they said they are experiencing a deep sense of betrayal.

Carol Draper, who has lived in the camp since February, recalled officials guaranteeing that the city would find land where people could stay in the long term.

“Nothing ever followed through, and now we’re getting kicked out of here,” she said. “A lot of us don’t have no idea where we’re gonna go, don’t really have no help. We’re doing it all on our own.”

The actions in Española come after a June ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that allows local governments to penalize people for sleeping in public places. That ruling prompted California’s governor to order state officials to remove homeless encampments in major cities, and other states are poised to do the same. 

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham recently said she’s “looking at [California’s approach] carefully.” The clearing of the Española encampment coincided with a town hall she held last week in the city, where she heard concerns about the unhoused population and endorsed a local ban on loitering in medians.

This article first appeared on Searchlight New Mexico and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.