Rosendo and Josefina live in a trailer in an encampment on the Tule River levee near Porterville. (Photo: David Bacon)
It was after midnight on Jan. 21 when Tulare County sheriffs walked into the encampment of unhoused people on the levee of the Tule River. «They parked on the highway,» remembers Rosendo «Chendo» Hernandez, who shares a small trailer parked under a tree with his partner Josefina. «I heard them walking around in front, and then they called out to me to open my door. They said we were trespassing on private property and we had to leave.»
Sheriffs made him sign a notice, Hernandez says, giving him a week to remove his possessions and find another place to live. Deputies then went to other levee residents who have set up shacks or impromptu shelters along the river. Mari Perez, co-director of the Larry Itliong Resource Center in nearby Poplar, estimates that includes about 150 people. «They said they’d arrest us if we didn’t sign,» Hernandez recalls, and one officer, he charges, drew his gun. «People are on edge, especially because of what happened on the St. John’s River.»
UNHOUSED, THROWN OFF THE LEVEE, NO PLACE TO GO
By David Bacon
Capital and Main, 2/16/21
https://capitalandmain.com/
tulares-homeless-to-be-thrown-off-their-levee-sanctuary-0216
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thrown-off-levee-no-place-to-go.html