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Abundant sunshine. High near 95F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph..
Clear skies. Low 64F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
A homeless woman who gave her name as Stephanie Mathesien, 38, formerly of Oakdale, was the only person before 11 a.m. Monday at a Wigwam Road encampment next to Woods Creek and Twin Pines Mobile Home Park, below Highway 108. Monday she said she was drugged, raped, and left for dead at Wigwam in February 2021. Caltrans and the City of Sonora have been in the process of closing three homeless encampments and trying to help relocate people this week. Tuolumne County health and human services staff have been offering assistance.
A homeless woman who gave her name as Stephanie Mathesien, 38, formerly of Oakdale, was the only person before 11 a.m. Monday at a Wigwam Road encampment next to Woods Creek and Twin Pines Mobile Home Park, below Highway 108. Monday she said she was drugged, raped, and left for dead at Wigwam in February 2021. Caltrans and the City of Sonora have been in the process of closing three homeless encampments and trying to help relocate people this week. Tuolumne County health and human services staff have been offering assistance.
A swift crackdown on homeless encampments south of downtown Sonora and farther down Woods Creek next to Wigwam Road this week had already effectively relocated nearly all the camps’ former residents as of Monday, but it was not clear from city, county or state authorities how many people were forced to move or where they went.
The Tuolumne County Health and Human Services Agency has helped relocate 11 people to hotels, and three or four others said they were making their own relocation plans, Steve Boyack, the agency assistant director, said Monday afternoon. The majority of individuals were relocated to the Gold Lodge at 480 Stockton Road, closer to town than the camps were.
New signs appeared in downtown Sonora on Monday advising everyone that city workers intend to clean up encampments between 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Friday, and anyone who doesn’t comply will be subject to criminal prosecution. City Administrator Melissa Eads said the new signs share information from the city’s new emergency ordinance, among new laws and a new encampment policy passed unanimously by the city council last week.
Caltrans and the City of Sonora were taking part in the effort to close the camps south of downtown Sonora and on Wigwam, and Tuolumne County health and human services staff said they have been offering assistance to the displaced who used to live at the camps.
Each taxpayer-funded government agency has communicated what’s happening in different ways. City of Sonora staff say they are assisting Caltrans in coordination of support services for the closure of three encampments of unsheltered individuals, due to safety concerns including fire risk and excessive trash and debris.
County Administrator Tracie Riggs said on Monday that she wanted to make it clear the camp closures are not county projects — they are city projects in which the county is offering assistance through its health and human services agency.
Strong smells that included wafts of dried urine stung people’s nostrils Monday at the encampment south of Sonora at the Highway 108 overpass above Woods Creek, where contract workers were suited up in impermeable gear, gloves and masks intended to protect themselves from hazardous materials as they cleared tons of trash, waste and debris left behind by recent campers.
Workers in their hazmat suits said they could labor safely 45 minutes to an hour at a time in temperatures approaching 101 degrees before they’d have to stop to rehydrate and rest. Nicholas James, of Tracy, also suited up in mask, gloves and gear to protect himself as he drove a TV380 compact track loader to help other workers shift refuse to cargo containers.
As of Monday afternoon, Caltrans and its contract workers had removed 80 cubic yards of trash during the cleanup, said Warren Alford, the Caltrans District 10 encampment coordinator. That equates to about 800 large trash bags, or eight dump truck loads.
There were no shelterless people around the camp while Caltrans worked with the presence of Sonora police at times and the California Highway Patrol at others. The off-ramp from 108 and the on-ramp to Stockton Road both were closed.
An isolated pocket of tents was situated farther down Woods Creek. Those tents were not on Caltrans property and therefore were not being removed. No one answered to a visitor at the isolated camp.
No injuries had been reported during work underway at the encampment near Woods Creek and the 108 overpass, Alford said.
Down on Wigwam Road, the encampment next to Woods Creek and Twin Pines Mobile Home Park below Highway 108 initially appeared occupied but vacant. Tents and belongings remained. A pot, dishes in a soapy water container, and a cooler were sitting by the creek.
Through the tunnel the creek runs through under Highway 108, graffiti included an alien with a crack pipe or a bong and the words “DRAMACREEK” and “thieves” and “sticky fingers” and “liars.”
Outside on the other end of the tunnel, a homeless woman who gave her name as Stephanie Mathesien, 38, formerly of Oakdale, was the only person around.
She said she’d been living at the camp called Wigwam since December 2020. She said in February 2021 she was drugged, raped, and left for dead at Wigwam. She said she sometimes relied on helpful people at Twin Pines for food, but she often goes without.
“We’re supposed to be out of here by today,” she said. “It’s all ruined now because everyone is so two-faced. No one is completely looking out for each other.”
County behavioral health staff came to Wigwam recently, she said, and she spoke to them but she said she doesn’t trust them. The county people wanted to make sure everyone had a place to go.
“I’m thinking of leaving and going to Texas,” she said. “This county is my home now. and I don’t want to leave, but I don’t really have anything here.”
Eads said Monday afternoon that ATCAA, the Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency, processed the 11 shelterless individuals who went to stay in hotels. ATCAA will also give housing resources for rentals that are currently advertised as available in the county, along with providing contact information for both of ATCAA’s emergency shelters, Eads said.
Eads said she understood county staff planned to visit the Nancy’s Hope community center on Stockton Road on Monday “to continue to support those looking for supportive services or housing options.”
County workers and ATCAA contacted about 15 shelterless people total last week, Eads said Monday. It was not clear what the population of the three camps being cleared and vacated this week was before word of the authorities’ cleanup efforts reached the camps.
Last week, before the council voted on new laws and an encampment policy, Eads said the most recent survey of homeless individuals in Tuolumne County counted 266 unsheltered people, with about half of them estimated to be living outdoors in parts of Sonora.
The city has approximately 50 percent of the county’s chronic homeless individuals, Eads said last week, adding that it’s estimated that recently nearly 25% of calls to Sonora police were “somewhat related to homelessness.”
Turu VanderWiel, Sonora’s chief of police, declined to comment Monday when asked about the cleanup efforts, saying Sonora Police are only helping support Caltrans efforts.
Alford said motorists should expect one-way traffic controls in effect on Stockton Road between the Mother Lode Fairgrounds and Highway 108 this week.
Contact Guy McCarthy at gmccarthy@uniondemocrat.net or (209) 770-0405. Follow him on Twitter at @GuyMcCarthy.