Longtime Sacramento County homeless camp asked to move from American River Parkway

By KCRA Staff

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — Dozens of people who have called a portion of the American River Parkway in Sacramento home for years are being forced to leave.

On Tuesday, park rangers gave a 48-hour notice to people living in a secluded area known as Bannon Island. According to those that live there, nearly 45 people call the island home.

“There’s a lot of things there that make it unsafe for people to live in. In order to clear that area and keep people safe it is being closed completely not just to campers, but to anyone who wants to use the parkway so that fire and personnel can get in there safely and do the debris removal, the tree removal that needs to be done in order for that area to be accessed again,” Janna Haynes with the county said.

The county’s goal is to clean up all the leftover damage from the storms back in January. Their concern is another round of storms on the way which could lead to more debris and potentially fatal conditions. Some people have called Bannon Island for nearly 20 years and consider it a safe haven.

“I’ve never been homeless on the streets. I don’t really know what to do and I don’t want to go get in trouble doing the wrong thing trying to survive on the streets,” said one man living on Bannon Island.

The county is aware of the lack of affordable housing and shelter for those living in the encampment but said they will continue outreach efforts.

“There are other areas that they can go. While we don’t want encampments on the parkway, we don’t have a choice at this point. We know that there’s not enough places to put people, but there are safer place for them to be than Bannon Island,” Haynes said.

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