North Auburn homeless encampment permanently closed after county cleanup, new shelter

One of Placer County’s most controversial homeless encampments was permanently closed last week.

The encampment on the county’s North Auburn government center was cleaned up May 19 after residents were given 90 days to remove their campsites and belongings.

Earlier this year, the county opened a mobile temporary shelter near the encampment as part of a settlement in a lawsuit filed by several people living in the encampment. The plaintiffs alleged they had lost property when the county cleaned the area a year ago.

The shelter consists of 50 cots with “basic bedding,” the county said.

Crews took a day to remove the roughly 70 campsites from the government center, county spokeswoman Wendy Williams said in an email.

More than 50 tons of trash was removed, along with 30 barrels of material deemed hazardous including five barrels of biohazard material.

The encampment has been a hotly debated issue since at least 2021 when county supervisors considered an ordinance to ban daytime camping. Although the ordinance applies throughout the county, it was designed to address the growing encampment at the government center. After weeks of community input, the board decided to do away with the ban. At the time, the site was planned to be the future home of the county’s new health and human services building.

Since then, the encampment has continued to draw attention.

County employees had complained about the camp and harassment from those living in it. The Placer County Sheriff’s Office reported responding to numerous calls at the site, including reports of a stabbing, an instance in which a resident of the camp set fire to someone else and two other cases of suspected arson where county buildings caught fire.

A private company has been contracted to sanitize the site.