Marina Police: Stay away from abandoned housing on Fort Ord
A warning from Marina Police: Stay out of the abandoned housing developments in the former Fort Ord area. Police have been getting complaints about people being in the buildings, which they said could be an accident waiting to happen.
The based closed in 1994, so for the last 24 years the barracks have deteriorated, leaving the infrastructure old and unstable.
On Friday, Chief Tina Nieto showed KION how dilapidated the abandoned barracks were.
“They’ve been vandalized, they’ve been graffitied over, you know the stairways are falling down, the homeless folks use it,” Nieto said. “They’re fraught with things that you don’t want to come across. You have drug users out there. These are the kind of locations they are drawn to because it’s little foot traffic, so, it’s just not a place you want to be hanging out for fun.”
Yet people are doing it. Some of the old housing is near Marina High School and is a draw for teens.
“They live like there’s no tomorrow,” Nieto said. “They think it’s fun until somebody gets hurt and we have a tragic ending. So we’re trying to avoid that tragic ending before it even starts.”
Then there are thrill seekers who are looking for a good time.
“It’s called ‘Ording’ and they would go because it’s supposedly haunted, so they would go into the buildings and freak each other out,” said CSUMB student Darby Graham. “But I haven’t seen that many people go in their recently but I know it still a thing.”
People also use it as a shortcut to get easier beach access.
Homeless people will also use the abandoned buildings as refuge. Several weeks ago, crews responded to a fire in one of those abandoned buildings. While the cause is under investigation, police believe a homeless encampment may have been involved.
“We’ve had this cold snap lately, so we’re really asking the homeless folks that don’t have places to live that either they go into safe parking locations or go into the warming shelter in Salinas,” Nieto said. “That’s the safest thing for these folks to do, not take refuge in these old dilapidated buildings.”
While most people know to avoid those areas, out-of-towners don’t. Since ‘No Trespassing” signs and fencing are regularly damaged or removed, adventuring in that area could be dangerous.
“Really for the police department, it’s about keeping the community safe both the people that live here, the homeless folks that live here and also anyone that’s visiting the area,” Nieto said.
People caught in the abandoned housing areas without permission from Marina city leaders or police could face prosecution. The same goes for anyone busted vandalizing or stealing the signage.
Police do patrol the areas whenever possible. They have received complaints about RV’s in town. While they aren’t sure if the RV’s are the ones that used to be parked on Lapis or Monte Roads just outside of the city, they are aware of some displacement.
The county’s safe parking program is located at Supervisor Jane Parker’s Coastal Office in Marina. The address is 2616 1st Avenue. The Salinas Warming Shelter is located at the corner of Church and Alisal Streets.
