War Against the Poor (part 1)

While there were over 100 community supporters to protest the destruction of the homeless encampment on Santa Fe in downtown Fresno, that was not enough to stop Caltrans and the City of Fresno. The encampment, which is spread across a very long block in the old industrial section of downtown, proved to be strategically impossible to defend, with so few people. If there had been 1,000 advocates, the city and Caltrans would have had an extremely difficult time fulfilling their mission.

The north end of the Santa Fe encampment was on Caltrans land and the south half of the encampment was on City of Fresno property. Caltrans was involved because the north portion of the camp is under the highway 41 overpass. When homeless supporters were defending shelters on the far south end, Caltrans and the CHP would start to work on the north end. Ultimately, it was impossible for the advocates, whose numbers diminished over the course of the day to prevail. On the other hand, this was the strongest show of public support for the Fresno homeless - ever!