What's at stake:
As city and county officials prepare to enforce their new laws on public camping, unhoused people don't know where else to go but the streets, especially when homeless shelters are at max capacity.
Rabbit and his neighbors woke up early on a recent September morning, knowing they probably wouldn’t be sleeping in the same place that night.
The notice a week earlier said the City of Fresno would clear the homeless encampment, and that police and sanitation workers would toss out anything left behind. Encampment residents spent the morning helping each other pack as much as they could carry.
It was Rabbit’s third forced relocation in the last two months and, he said, prior experience doesn’t make restarting elsewhere any easier.
“I’m a fairly optimistic person, and sometimes it’s just like, ‘Man, why even try?’” Rabbit told Fresnoland. “Why try to get these things again, just to have it taken away or thrown away or lose it?”
Fresnoland agreed to identify unhoused residents by their first names or street names if they requested out of concern for their personal safety.
On the morning of Sept. 4, police strung up yellow caution tape to cordon off the encampment site after the last residents exited the property. Most stayed close to watch as four city garbage trucks, a fleet of police vehicles, city-marked pickup trucks, a front loader and a cluster of sanitation workers cleared what remained of the homeless encampment, with a police helicopter circling overhead.
The makeshift encampment had sprung up on private property owned by the San Joaquin Valley Railroad, neighboring the Dry Creek Canal near North Clark Street and East Floradora Avenue.
It’s a common scene around California cities, but unhoused residents who spoke with Fresnoland expect things to get even harder in the coming days.
Beginning Sunday, city and county officials have pledged to crack down harder on similar encampments on public spaces. Both local governments created new laws banning encampments, with violators facing fines of up to $1,000 and a one-year jail sentence.
The city also recently introduced a law covering private property.
Officials introduced the laws less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Grants Pass ruling, which reversed a prior court ruling preventing unhoused people from being arrested if they had nowhere else to go.
With those protections now erased, unhoused people are contending with a very familiar question yet again.
“It’s always kind of been that way, but now it’s really like, ‘Where the hell can we go?’” Rabbit said. “It’s illegal to be on public property. It’s illegal to be on private property.”
A Fresno police helicopter monitors the clearing of a homeless encampment on private land owned by San Joaquin Valley Railroad. Omar Rashad | Fresnoland 
A front loader dumps what remained of the homeless encampment into a garbage truck during a Sept. 4 clearing. Pablo Orihuela | Fresnoland 
A resident rides out of the homeless encampment on a bicycle, with a small trolley in tow Sept. 4. Omar Rashad | Fresnoland
Fresno profits from some encampment clearings?
City spokesperson Sontaya Rose told Fresnoland the homeless encampment next to the railroad had been cleared by the City of Fresno at least five other times in the past, all at the request and payment of San Joaquin Valley Railroad.
“The nice thing about this is this is not taxpayer money,” Rose told Fresnoland. “The private property owner has asked us to intervene, and we’ve been paid to conduct the clearing of the property.”
Over the span of a week, Fresnoland repeatedly asked how much the City of Fresno was paid to clear the homeless encampment on railroad property this month.
Rose did not answer the question. Neither did San Joaquin Valley Railroad spokesperson Tom Ciuba.
Elected officials have criticized unhoused people for remaining on the streets and refusing to accept services. Yet they’ve also acknowledged that even if every unhoused person accepted services there aren’t enough emergency shelter beds in Fresno.
There are about 3,200 homeless residents in the City of Fresno, according to the most recent count in 2023, with about 1,800 people being identified as unsheltered.
“There’s no doubt that there’s enough people on the streets to have more shelter beds available,” said Zachary Darrah, the CEO of the Poverello House — which provides supportive services including free meals, showers, shelter beds and drug rehabilitation programs for unhoused people.
The Poverello House operates 269 emergency shelter beds, but they’re all at max capacity “pretty much 99% of the nights in a year,” Darrah said.
Other homeless shelters in Fresno include Fresno Mission, Mental Health Systems, Turning Point of Central California and Elevate Community Services, some of which are specifically for families, single women or youth.
“It’s very difficult to be an outreach worker when you don’t have a shelter bed available,” Darrah said. “So then really all that outreach workers have to offer is water, a snack, maybe dog food for their dog.”
While there are many critical steps to reversing homelessness, Darrah said one factor is increasing the number of homeless shelter beds in the Fresno region.
“I think it’s vital to end homelessness for people,” Darrah said. “The more shelter beds that we have available, the more people we are able to help.”
At the first news conference for the city’s ordinance in late July, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said that the city has grown the overall shelter bed count to over 800, and acknowledged that the number is still not enough for everyone living on the streets.
“Regardless of the availability of bed space in this community,” Dyer said at the July introductory news conference, “we will hold our unsheltered population accountable and that could and will include arresting and taking them to jail if in fact they are in violation of the ordinance.”
As a Fresno city employee cuts down a tent with a knife on Sept. 4, another employee records with a camcorder. Omar Rashad | Fresnoland 
As a Fresno city employee cuts down a tent with a knife on Sept. 4, another employee records with a camcorder. Omar Rashad | Fresnoland 
As a Fresno city employee cuts down a tent with a knife on Sept. 4, another employee records with a camcorder. Omar Rashad | Fresnoland 
As a Fresno city employee cuts down a tent with a knife on Sept. 4, another employee records with a camcorder. Omar Rashad | Fresnoland
‘They’re just digging a hole for us’
The day before the encampment clearing, Fresnoland spoke with a handful of its residents, including Rabbit, who has been homeless since 2018.
In triple-digit heat on Sept. 3, Rabbit huddled under a tent for shade with his encampment neighbors, Ty and Christina.
Ty was shirtless and sweating while drinking some warm soda. Christina kept to herself as she washed her body with paper towels and water from a recycled soda bottle. Rabbit shared cigarettes with the group.
The three charged their electronic devices by connecting some wires to a car battery. Their tent was surrounded by several stray dogs, and even more bugs — making it hard to tell the difference between trickling beads of sweat or crawling insects.
In the wake of the high court’s Grants Pass ruling, a range of Fresno community members — including housing advocates, unhoused people and city residents at public meetings — have questioned the strategy of punishing the homeless with criminal convictions, which they say only makes it more difficult to apply for jobs and apartment rentals.
“There are people who are restricted by the judicial system,” Ty told Fresnoland. “Because of their background, they couldn't pass stuff like a renter's history or credit check.”
Ty added that homeless encampment sweeps hold back unhoused people, especially when they lose their belongings or have to restart elsewhere. With homeless shelters at capacity, too, he said it makes it harder to survive in the streets.
“I would say they're just digging a hole for us deeper than we could dig on our own,” Ty said.
Thor, another encampment resident, said he has been unhoused for at least five years. Thor said he didn’t know much about the new ordinance, and said unhoused people need support and help.
“New rule, jail, they can follow us, kick us out anywhere — but where we gonna go?” Thor asked.
Rabbit and Ty said it is possible to get out of homelessness, but there are caveats.
“It’s about making sacrifices,” Ty said.
“I guess to be real with you, like, give up drugs, get a job,” Rabbit said. “You know, the normal things that you have to do to sustain a life in normal society. A lot of people don't want to do that. That's why they're out here.”
Rabbit said he's just trying to survive. He’s also trying to get some shade and cover from Fresno’s triple-digit heat. While there are unhoused people who cause trouble for others, Rabbit said those people don’t make up most of the homeless population.
“They judge all of us by the actions of those few,” Rabbit said.
Businesses, homeowners ‘thank God’ for Fresno’s new laws
Dozens of homes make up a residential neighborhood east of the Dry Creek Canal, a stark difference from the homeless encampment to the west.
Homeowners Byron and Elaine Ralston, a retired couple, have lived in the neighborhood for more than three years. They stood in their front yard on Sept. 4 watching police clear away the homeless encampment.
They saw front loaders discard tents into garbage trucks, a police helicopter circling the homeless encampment’s clearing and over a dozen city workers in orange vests and masks sweeping up the garbage left behind at the site by its former residents.
City of Fresno sanitation workers rake trash into piles for a front loader to scoop up and dump into garbage trucks on Sept. 4. Omar Rashad | Fresnoland 
A group of city sanitation workers clear the homeless encampment with rakes on Sept. 4. Omar Rashad | Fresnoland 
Trash left behind by the residents was cleaned up by city employees on Sept. 4, Pablo Orihuela | Fresnoland 
Trash left behind by the residents was cleaned up by city employees on Sept. 4, Pablo Orihuela | Fresnoland
“When that’s what’s left of them, it’s hard to feel sorry,” Byron said.
The retired homeowners want to feel “proud” of their neighborhood. The homeless encampment, they said, makes it hard to do that.
“To me, it’s a quaint neighborhood, you know? But then you look over there and it’s like ‘oh boy,’” Byron said. “Where’s the pride of ownership, you know? You want to go out to fix up the yard, you go out there and hear ‘Hey you fucking bitches!’ I mean, oh my God.’ Where is their responsibility to the people, to the public, to the homeowners?”
Elaine wears a respirator for health reasons. She said she’s “lucky” that the smoke caused by the fires started at the homeless encampment tends to blow away from her home, but that’s not always the case.
“Thank God,” Elaine said of the new anti-encampment ordinances. She hopes the laws will be a motivating tool for some residents that she feels are making the conscious decision to reject supportive services and continue to live on the streets.
“That is their choice, but those are able-bodied people,” Elaine said. “They might not get the greatest job, but nowaday fast food pays you $20 an hour! You know how long it took me to make $20 an hour when I was working? How many years? Shucks!”
That sentiment is shared by some business owners as well, who joined city and county news conferences to voice their support for the new laws. Though hearings at both levels of government saw overwhelmingly vocal opposition from public commenters, local leaders maintain that it’s people like Byron and Elaine that comprise a silent majority that felt helpless before the Grants Pass ruling.
Where’s the next stop for Fresno’s homeless by the railroad?
On Tuesday, Sept. 10, six days after the city cleared the homeless encampment, there was substantially less trash, fewer stray animals and almost no bugs at the encampment site.
There were, however, six new tents up at the same plot of privately-owned land next to the railroad across the canal.
In a voice message to Fresnoland on Thursday, Elaine said that she and her husband were “disappointed” to see the residents immediately return, adding that it’s the same group of people who were there last week.
“It's really sad,” Elaine said. “Apparently they did not take advantage of the shelters that were offered to them. Just shows how obstinate they are.”
Elaine also said the residents have become more aggressive.
“One of them actually came over on our street on Sunday and asked us, ‘What was our problem?’ and then threw a rock at my husband,” Elaine said. “We called the police and we left a message with them.”
The Ralstons said they reported the incident and have requested the city clear the encampment again through its 311 service. Elaine's experience with the neighboring homeless community leads her to believe that the residents choose to live at the encampment — a belief that frustrates her given the recent incident.
“There's nothing wrong with them. They're able-bodied people,” Elaine said. “They just do not want to go to a facility where they would not be able to do their drugs because that's what's going on over there. That's what we see.
“We're looking forward to them being gone again because, as I said, it appears that things have escalated…the guy comes across the canal and takes exception with us…you know, we had nothing to do with clearing the encampment,” Elaine said.
At the encampment, all but one of the current residents declined to speak to Fresnoland on the record, but most — some proudly — confirmed that they were part of the same group of people that were there the day it was cleared. Some said they just waited for city workers to leave and returned to the encampment that same night.
One woman who declined to be identified said that she doesn’t know what comes next for her once the new laws take place.
“I guess we’ll be out sleeping on the literal streets now,” she said. “Where everybody can see us.”
Peter Vang, 40, grouped up with two other unhoused people farther west into the homeless encampment. Like everybody else at the encampment, he is concerned about what the future has in store for him.
“They can’t just take everything away from somebody or some place, right?” Vang said.
A Fresno native, Vang said he has been on the streets for about 10 years. He has no home or family to turn to.
Vang still clings onto his “dream” of having a home and a job where he can make money and be reintegrated back into society.
Residents at the encampment site told Fresnoland that staff from Poverello House came earlier Tuesday to offer services to residents. Vang signed up.
When asked if he believes there is a way out of homelessness, Vang said yes. He said he believes that with enough effort anything, including living in a home again, is possible.
Vang added that if he ever got out of homelessness, it'll be similar to “reincarnation” for him. The start of a “new life.”
“I’ve been through the streets. Living here so long,” Vang said. “It’s kind of hard to live through, y’know.
“I wouldn’t wish this on anybody.”
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