Oct. 26, 2017 – City crews and contractors have cleaned up four homeless encampments on public property over the past several weeks after police served legal notice on transients to vacate and remove all property from the illegal camps.

In September City streets crews used heavy equipment to clean debris from abandoned camps on City property near the intersection of Wabash Street and Lugonia Avenue and in the Santa Ana River wash at Riverview Drive and Church Street. Cleanup at each location took City crews more than two days to complete.

This month, a contract crew of six to eight Servpro technicians performed cleanup on two sites that included potential hazardous waste in a City orange grove between California and Nevada streets and a storm drain channel that runs east under Texas Street from Jennie Davis Park. Each site took two days to complete cleanup.

The cleanup efforts required approximately 50 hours of staff time and $7,000 in contractual services.

Prior to cleanup of homeless camps, police officers contact transients within the camps and provide notice evicting them from the property and giving them time to remove any personal property from the area, as required by law.

Residents are encouraged to report all issues involving transients or panhandling by calling the Police Department at (909) 798-7681 or by email at homelessissues@redlandspolice.org. Residents can also use the Redlands 311 app available for most smart phone and tablet platforms.

For more information on the City’s efforts to address issues of homelessness, transients and panhandling, visit the City’s website at http://cityofredlands.org/homelessissues.