Inside Santa Rosa’s mile-long tent city

Daily Mail

Officials in Santa Rosa are set to unveil emergency proposals to shelter people in fairgrounds as the city – and the state – struggles with a homeless emergency where more than 130,000 people are living on the streets across California.

In Santa Rosa, around 185 people have set up a mile-long camp along the Joe Rodota Trail, next to Highway 12. 

The proposed plan, set to be unveiled on Tuesday, will allow some of those living in the camp and the rest of the 3,000 homeless people in Sonoma County to move into the fairgrounds, The Press Democrat reports.

Leaders in the city, struggling with the biggest homeless camp in its history, are said to have been inspired by how the fairgrounds were used during wildfires and flooding.

The proposals are part of plan to deal with a growing homeless emergency in the state. In downtown Los Angeles Skid Row has become a symbol of the national crisis, while in San Francisco nearly one person in every hundred lives on the streets.

And the problem has left fed-up residents taking extreme measures to keep the homeless out of their neighborhoods.

In San Francisco, residents set up two dozen large boulders along a half-block stretch of sidewalk on Clinton Park to prevent camps from being set up. They were removed about a week later due to safety concerns. And in Oakland, business owners placed 10-foot long logs along a commercial street to stop homeless encampments being set up outside their stores.

Read the rest and see the video here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7798083/Santa-Rosa-officials-plan-unveil-emergency-proposals-shelter-homeless-FAIRGROUNDS.html