On Aug. 25, Brenda Duarte was standing alongside a pile of her belongings in between the train tracks and the Pajaro River Levee. The 27-year-old wondered where she was going to sleep that night.
Surrounding her were scores of recently abandoned campsites that had peppered the levee, including tents, lean-tos, shanties and even a small platform containing a tent perched precariously in the branches of a tree.
Most of these had been abandoned in the early morning by people who were evictedโofficials at the scene estimate 150 people lived in unsanctioned encampments along the leveeโto make room for the upcoming Pajaro River Levee reconstruction project.
In their wake were heaps of things the residents had accumulatedโtarps, tents, cooking equipment, mattresses, clothes and a profusion of trash.
โIt sucks,โ Duarte said. โThey told us we had to leave, but they didnโt give us a place to go.โ

Pajaro River Flood Management Agency Director Mark Strudley said that homeless services advocates are working to find places for the evicted people to go, including providing bus tickets so they can travel to friends or family.
Still, with few local shelter options and with all 34 spots in Recurso de Fuerza already taken, thatโs no easy task.
That village of 34 tiny homes at Westview Presbyterian Church in Watsonville was created to house the people living on the levee while the work takes place.
โI think itโs universally known that there isnโt enough shelter space available for everyone out there,โ Strudley said.
Strudley said that various nonprofit organizations have been giving notice about the impending eviction over the past two months, and there was a โsoft noticeโ on Aug. 14 and 15.
Law enforcement began giving โhard noticesโ on Aug. 19, he said.
As workers used heavy equipment to toss it all into waiting dumpsters, groups of people stood on the fringes, few with a plan of what to do next. Some, including Juan Tejeda Isiordia, had no plans to leave.
โI have no family, no kids,โ said Tejeda, 62, through a Spanish translator. โI donโt have much, and I have nowhere to go.โ
Monika Tone, president of the Pajaro River Homeless Union, said that the cleanup and eviction was another blow to the homeless community that only recently had recovered from the floods that inundated the Pajaro region when the levee breached in 2023.
She said that recovering after such a sweepโincluding replacing tents, blankets, identification cards and medical recordsโis a daunting task.
โAnd now we have everything took again,โ Tone said. โThe most disrespectful thing they can do is come out here; they bring bulldozers and snatch up everything and just displace it. Theyโre taking away peopleโs shelters.โ
Tone also wondered why the cleanup was happening now, with construction on that portion of the river not expected to happen for two years, and with ongoing construction of Recurso de Fuerza not expected to be complete for at least three months.
Strudley explained that the encampments endanger both the integrity of the levee and the safety of the staff and other people who must enter the levee.
This includes the shelters dug into the earth, he said.
โWe canโt tolerate dugouts in the levee because it weakens it,โ he said. โWe canโt get people and our consultants and staff in and out of there.โ
In addition, many residents and businesses have complained about vandalism and theft that occurs in the area.
โItโs not just a maintenance issue for us, itโs also a public nuisance issue,โ Strudley said.
Monterey County Board of Supervisors chairman Glenn Church agreed.
โThis is an effort to address the longstanding homeless problem on the Pajaro River levee,โ he said in a text message. โThe encampment is a threat to the stability of the levee because of digging and other activity. The Pajaro River Flood Management Agency is developing a long-term plan to prevent any further encampment so that people and infrastructure on both sides of the river are protected.โ
The work is being conducted by Oakland-based Lagestic, LLC, which was awarded a $262,222 contract for the cleanupโexpected to finish by Sept. 30โand $238,340 for vegetation thinning, which will be finished by Oct. 15, according to a report by flood management agency staff.


















