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During the World Surf League finals, the city of San Clemente relocated five unhoused people off the beach and into motels. The move was an effort to make room for parking and remove the unhoused residents from the path of event attendees. However, Voice of OC reports that a group of local activists have penned a letter accusing the city of mistreating the displaced people and ‘effectively abandoning’ them at the motels with no means of returning home or accessing their belongings that had been placed in storage.
According to the letter, the city had a member of its Homeless Outreach team persuade five unhoused people to vacate their camping site, put their tents and other belongings in city storage and move into motel rooms. Three of the residents were transported to a motel in Dana Point and the other two to a motel in San Clemente.
“What followed was a stressful, emotionally painful ordeal for five of San Clemente’s most vulnerable residents, including a disabled senior,” continued the letter. “Rather than organize a carefully planned temporary motel stay for these five people, city staff effectively abandoned them at the motels: The city made no provision for their meals during the motel stay, nor did the city give them a ride back to the campsite or help transport their belongings there from storage.”
The letter goes on to state that the people staying in Dana Point were not informed of how many nights they were expected to stay and were only told that they’d be required to check out at 11:00 a.m. the same day. To make matters worse, the outreach worker also reached the end of their shift at 11:00 a.m., leaving the unhoused people with no replacement contact or return transport back to San Clemente. The residents were only able to return when a good samaritan intervened and offered them a ride back. The same person also helped all five people retrieve their belongings from storage, as the city did not offer any means of transporting said belongings back to the campsite, according to the letter.
“This heartless treatment of unhoused people must not recur,” wrote the activists. To that end, they urged the city to adopt specific protocols that would ensure displaced unhoused residents had adequate lodging, food, and access to their belongings.
However, San Clemente Mayor Chris Duncan defended the actions of the city. “It both assured they would be safe and out of the hustle and bustle of everyone going to the competition and that there was room for folks to park and get to the shuttles down to the finals from that location,” he said in an interview on Monday. When asked about the displaced residents’ reported struggles to return home, Duncan said, “I can’t speak to whatever happened after their stay concluded.”
In an emailed statement on Oct. 10, City manager Andy Hall said that “communication related to transportation could have been better,” adding that his team “did the best they could under the circumstances.”
