Long Beach officials are working on an agreement with Caltrans that would allow city employees to clear homeless encampments on state property, but the cost of cleaning those sites could fall squarely on the city.

A city memo released last week outlined the numerous jurisdictional issues that the city faces when trying to address homeless encampments on sites owned by the state, county or regional rail operators as well as recent guidance from Caltrans developed during the pandemic, which largely resulted in camp cleanups being abandoned in the name of public health.

Eric Lopez, the city’s director of Public Works, said the City Council could vote on a memorandum of understanding with Caltrans by early June that would allow Public Works and other departments to clean up encampments with the hope of connecting those living in them to city services and shelter.

But Lopez acknowledged that the cleanups could also simply displace homeless residents, pushing them into new or other existing encampments.

“Some might not decide to take us up on the offer, but for everyone that does, it’s part of the work that really makes it worthwhile, when someone does accept service,” Lopez said.

Between 2019-2020, the number of people living unsheltered in the city rose by 24%. The city did not count unsheltered persons this year due to the pandemic.

Part of the guidance developed by Caltrans was a ranking system that categorized encampments on a scale of one through four with the tier one and two encampments—those that posed risk to public health and safety—being the highest priority targets for cleanups.

Tier four sites are the lowest priority. There, staff could simply hand out trash bags and sharps containers and schedule trash collections.

The city has identified at least nine locations it considers “hot spot” encampments, including three camps around the Lakewood Boulevard exits near the 405 freeway. But it’s unclear what tiers those camps would fall into.

Lopez said that the way Caltrans categorizes things is different than how the city does, and if the pending agreement is approved by the City Council, it could allow the city more autonomy in cleaning up sites.

“If there’s trash, if there’s a need, we are going to get in there and help clean it up,” Lopez said.

Cleaning sites can cost $3,000 to $5,000 on average, Lopez said, and would be more if they require hazardous material disposal. Caltrans has indicated that it doesn’t have the funding to address cleanups and the city is unlikely to be reimbursed by Caltrans in the future.

The city has already cleaned other sites in the city, some owned by Los Angeles County and others adjacent to Caltrans property. It’s not clear if the city would try to secure the sites to prevent them from becoming encampments again but Lopez said that would require additional coordination with Caltrans.

The city could use part of the $5 million set aside in the Long Beach Rescue Act for a “Clean City” program to pay for the encampment cleanups. The money was identified to help clean commercial corridors, provide litter and graffiti abatement and bolster the city’s efforts to collect illegally dumped items.

Lopez said that the city should be able to still do those things while paying for encampment cleanups but couldn’t provide an estimate on how much of the $5 million would be spent cleaning up Caltrans property because the city has never done this work before.

“Our clean city initiative is obviously really important,” Lopez said. “And people who are coming into our cities, leaving our city, they see these sites and it’s really important to clean those up.”

City officials hope that a recent announcement from Gov. Gavin Newsom that he was proposing an additional $193 million for encampment strategies meant Caltrans would ramp up its efforts, or even pay back the city if the revised budget is approved by the state legislature.

Regardless of the amount of money the state allocates to the issue, it won’t do much without increased coordination, State Sen. Lena Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said there has been “bad coordination among all levels of government,” but she’s hopeful that a bill she’s introduced can get local and state agencies on the same page.

“Thank you for the dollars,” Gonzalez said of Newsom’s proposed funding, “but we need a coordination plan among government agencies.”

Gonzalez introduced Senate Bill 635 in February in an attempt increase collaboration between agencies like Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol with city and county agencies. The bill could develop strategies to clean up sites but also create a database for cleanups, coordinate outreach efforts, and document who is living in the state’s right of ways.

The bill could be taken up by an Assembly committee in the coming weeks and Gonzalez said she’s hopeful that it can pass given the early, bi-partisan support it’s attracted.

Jason Ruiz covers City Hall and politics for the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or @JasonRuiz_LB on Twitter.