Dirty fingers wiped a furrowed brow as a cautious smile graced Katherine ‘KC’ Cody’s face. She knows she’s safe for tonight. Tomorrow the fears will build once more, as again she must worry where she will spend the night.
“I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I really don’t,” said Cody while sweeping bright pink hair out of her eyes as she surveyed her makeshift outdoor kitchen, complete with benches and an umbrella. She has been calling a bluff-side section of the Albany Landfill’s Bulb home for the last eight months, since an eviction left her and her 3-year-old dog Chompy homeless.
Cody’s days at this location may be numbered, as the City of Albany began a two-week cleanup project for the landfill turned park, Monday. The city wants to widen trails for better emergency vehicle access, remove of trash and abandoned camp sites, and enforce the city’s no camping ordinance.
Dirty fingers wiped a furrowed brow as a cautious smile graced Katherine ‘KC’ Cody’s face. She knows she’s safe for tonight. Tomorrow the fears will build once more, as again she must worry where she will spend the night.
“I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I really don’t,” said Cody while sweeping bright pink hair out of her eyes as she surveyed her makeshift outdoor kitchen, complete with benches and an umbrella. She has been calling a bluff-side section of the Albany Landfill’s Bulb home for the last eight months, since an eviction left her and her 3-year-old dog Chompy homeless.
Cody’s days at this location may be numbered, as the City of Albany began a two-week cleanup project for the landfill turned park, Monday. The city wants to widen trails for better emergency vehicle access, remove of trash and abandoned camp sites, and enforce the city’s no camping ordinance.
According to Assistant City Administrator Judy Lieberman, the coming of winter, and a recent medical situation that left one Bulb resident immobile and in need of greater ambulance access, were motivators for beginning the project now.
A similar clean-up project in 1999 was met with harsh public criticism and lawsuits pertaining to the removal of the Bulb’s homeless population, at the time much larger than today’s. Concerns focused on Albany’s lack of a homeless shelter or useful infrastructure to help residents deal with the move.
The city, wary of similar complaints this time around, sent two police officers to escort two Berkeley-Albany Mental Health Mobile Unit staff members around the island Tuesday afternoon. The goal was to offer support and resource availability information to the Bulb’s illegal residents who were notified over the last three weeks, in person and by notice, that they must leave.
When the deadline to move passed Monday, bulldozers and an East Bay Conservation Corps of 11 began the lengthy clean out process. While the group of Albany police officers and Berkeley mental health care staff walked the Bulb, residents who ignored the eviction deadline attempted to stash important belongings and hid in the trees as they dodged detection and forcible removal.
A forcible removal that, according to Sergeant Bettencourt, is not scheduled to come any time soon. “Contrary to what some people think, we’re just here to offer help. Because it seems like that is what people want,” he said. “We’re here to accompany mental health workers and to offer aid and services to occupants.”
No tickets have been given, nor any arrests made. Currently, there are no plans for physical eviction of any kind. Instead, police officers are reminding Bulb residents they are breaking Albany city laws, and telling them to leave.
Sergeant Bettencourt and the rest of the group visited a dozen campsites and didn’t find anyone to speak with. The group has plans to return again in the coming days.
For now, a momentary peace has been granted to Cody and the other Bulb residents. They have won another night in the cat-and-mouse game between island squatters and Albany officials. Although the future remains uncertain, Cody has another day to get her life back on track. “It makes it impossible to be anything else when you’re stuck on survival mode everyday,” she said.
Cody moved to the Bulb attempting to leave behind the trappings of street life by sequestering herself away from the draw of drug dealers, liquor stores and panhandling. Clean for five years, Cody has found a like-minded community on the Bulb where, above all, she feels safe. Although fighting the effects of Hepatitis C, Cody is trying to get back into the job market as an in-home caregiver, and hopes to live on the Bulb until she can move on with her life. “There’s people who need me. It’s time to get back to work,” she said.
For park users, the clean up project is welcomed. “It’s great,” said John Danielewicz of Berkeley. “It’s just nice not to see all the trash.” Danielewicz has been visiting the Bulb for 15 years, and has never had a problem with the homeless population.
Other park users, including Kathleen McPhereson, echoed a similarly accepting attitude towards the Bulb’s homeless population. McPhereson was walking her two dogs when she passed bulldozers filled with blankets, bicycles and other personal effects. “It’s very sad,” she said of the removal of people from public property. “It’s another sign of where we are as a society, especially with homeless people.”
McPhereson then added, “Treating human beings like they’re throw away is sad – and you never know when you might be there. These are someone’s kids. They were not born to be destitute.”
