The city manager, Amy Cunningham emailed me and said it costs “thousands of dollars” to remove an RV (meanwhile the city gave 1M to the Habitat project by The Days Inn). She also said the RV has moved for several weeks. False.
I have consulted with an attorney regarding the RV parking indefinitely on Binford City Side.
I sent her the following city ordinance link and photos of the NO RV Parking Sign and said RV.
I am not overly optimistic as she said unless I am personally damaged by this I can’t make the city do their job.
I will get a second and third opinion of course, but it is frustrating and so unfair.
The city did remove the tent that popped up on the left hand side of the city side as you drive to Gnoss Airport. However, two large cuts were made for access in the chain linked fence.
An RV resident based out of Binford Road, a heavily populated area for unhoused people in Marin County, obtained a temporary restraining order against a Marin County Sheriff’s Deputy hours before a planned tow on Friday.
Marin County has received the green light from a federal judge to keep managing an encampment of recreational vehicles along Binford Road by removing residents’ personal property for storage or disposal.
Legal representatives for encampment residents filed a request for a temporary restraining order last week seeking to stop the county from clearing the area.
The county contends it needs to ensure water quality at the Rush Creek Preserve and maintain safe public access to the two-lane road and its unpaved shoulder north of Novato. It runs parallel to U.S. 101, between the preserve to the east and businesses to the west.
A county program collects property that cannot be safely stored either inside, underneath, or on top of an RV at the site. Property is stored or destroyed with permission from the owner, according to the county.
“County staff removes dangerous or excess materials accumulated along the public right-of-way that present safety concerns or are environmental hazards,” said Marin County Sheriff Jamie Scardina.
County records show the encampment began with about a dozen vehicles in 2020 as people’s income and living situations were challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. By August of last year, it had grown to 115 residents and 150 vehicles, including personal vehicles.
Efforts to provide services and rehousing options were adopted by the Board of Supervisors in August. By December the encampment had been reduced to 101 residents and 132 vehicles. As of Friday, a county spokesperson said there were 90 people living at the encampment at 50 sites.
“Our goal all along has been to help individuals attain safe housing and provide key supports and services with a coordinated, compassionate and service-oriented response.”Lisa Warhuus, Marin County Health and Human Services
A grant in April for more than $3.7 million from the state’s Encampment Resolution Fund is bolstering the county’s plan to house residents. The county is seeking to rehouse at least half of the residents at the Binford encampment within two years and the rest within three years.
Lisa Warhuus, director of the county’s Health and Human Services Department, said the county has helped provide other housing for 25 former encampment residents since August, with 12 more already identified for other housing.
“Our goal all along has been to help individuals attain safe housing and provide key supports and services with a coordinated, compassionate and service-oriented response,” Warhuus said.
District 5 Supervisor Eric Lucan, who represents much of Novato, said the county was prioritizing both rehousing residents and protecting local water quality.
“We must focus on helping residents transition to safe housing while working to protect the sensitive habitat along the water,” he said. “We’ve made progress, but our goal remains to identify housing options with an open, collaborative and humane approach.”
A federal judge has denied a request by three homeless campers in Novato for a court order to prevent the county from removing and destroying belongings in the public right of way.
U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín told the petitioners during a hearing on Thursday that they could pursue other legal remedies but that the restraining order they requested was improper.
Regarding the destroyed property, Martinez-Olguin said, “That may be something you want to continue litigating in this case, but it isn’t a proper basis for a temporary restraining order, because it is something that has already happened.”
The plaintiffs live along Binford Road, the site of a cluster of inhabited recreational vehicles. In their filing, they asserted that the Marin County Department of Public Works disposed of some of their property before the expiration of a 90-day grace period. County officials denied the allegation.
“The county works hard to support those living in RVs on Binford Road while also ensuring safe travel and protection of the environment by removing excess or hazardous personal property along this busy roadway,” said Assistant County Executive Dan Eilerman.
Homeless people began congregating at Binford Road during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2023, after receiving a $1.6 million Encampment Resolution Fund grant, county staff announced a three-year plan to abate the camp. At the time, the county estimated 80 to 90 people were living there using more than 100 vehicles.
“The plan is working, with 25 former encampment residents having been housed since August 2023, and an additional 12 on an identified housing pathway,” said Lisa Warhuus, director of the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services.
There have, however, been new arrivals to the camp since August, and 90 people are living along the road at fewer than 50 sites.
In the county’s reply to the filing, Jenna Brady, chief deputy county counsel, wrote, “Binford Road is a two-lane county maintained road with no sidewalks that is surrounded by the bay to the east and commercial buildings to the west.”
“Individuals living along Binford Road store personal property within the county right-of-way close to the road and bay,” Brady wrote. “This creates an obstruction to the use of the county road by the public, prevents individuals from safely walking on Binford Road, and has resulted in personal property and trash accumulating in the bay.”
Brady added that the county initiated routine cleanups on Binford Road last year to protect health and safety. The county provides 15-day written notice of cleanups, which state that property will be removed and stored for 90 days. The notice also provides a phone number to call to retrieve property. A cleanup scheduled for last week was canceled, Eilerman said.
Bonnie Silveria, a plaintiff, said she called to recover a number of items that were confiscated on Nov. 20, 2023, before the 90-day period had expired, and was told that they had already been thrown away.
In a declaration, Silveria wrote, “I had a really nice yard around my trailer where my dog would play. They took my fencing, my potted plants, my awning, my artificial grass, which is real expensive, a little gate and a new chipper motor that was worth about $250 dollars.”
“A few weeks after they took the gate, my dog Chupa was run over and killed on Binford Road because he ran out into the street,” she added.
Silveria, 53, said that she has been living in her 23-foot recreational vehicle since February 2020 but only arrived at Binford Road a little over a year ago.
Originally from Fremont, Silveria moved to Rohnert Park to care for her mother and became homeless when her mother died in 2020. Before settling at Binford Road, she said, she moved her RV from place to place about every three days.
Silveria said she subsists mainly on about $390 in monthly state cash aid and food stamps. She said it is difficult for her to find employment, even though she was once a certified nurse, because she suffers from narcolepsy.
But Julia Barnes, a public works program manager tasked with coordinating the retrieval of personal property from Binford Road, wrote in a declaration that “Ms. Silveria did not contact me to retrieve her property. Her property was destroyed on February 21, 2024.”
Andrea O’Malley, a social services worker for the county, wrote in a declaration that if the plaintiffs had called the phone number listed on the notice, their calls would have been routed to her.
“I am not aware of any dogs being killed on Binford Road,” O’Malley added.
Like Silveria, the other two plaintiffs, Sean Derning and Elgio Limeta, said their property was confiscated and destroyed before the 90-day deadline for reclaiming it had passed.
Limeta, who lives in a tent next to Binford Road, wrote in a declaration that he lost a refrigerator, a cooking burner, two solar panels, a bike frame, bike rims, a glass blower, jars of water in which he keeps drinking water and the fence around his tent to keep his dog safe.
Sean Derning, who has lived in an RV on Binford Road since spring of 2022, wrote in a declaration that he lost bicycles, bike parts and a bike trailer. Derning said he needs the bike trailer to transport food and water to his RV.
Derning wrote that working on bikes serves as occupational therapy for him. He stated that he has an injured left hand due to a staph infection and suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety attacks.
“Working on these things keeps me healthy and sane,” he wrote.
Derning also said his puppy was run over by a car. “I did not have a gate on my fence at the time,” he wrote.
Regarding Limeta’s claims, Barnes wrote that her records “do not show that the county removed the various items listed in the complaint such as a glass blower, burner for cooking or bike rims.” Barnes added that the county still has some of Derning’s property in storage, but “Mr. Derning did not contact me to retrieve his property.”
Silveria said Robbie Powelson, a local housing activist, helped the trio with their legal filing.
Powelson said the plaintiffs’ desire to retain fencing to protect their pets bears a similarity to a 2022 case in Sausalito in which a federal judge ruled that a homeless man, Phil Deschamps, could share his personal tent at Marinship Park with two cats.
An assault suspect allegedly tried to carjack a driver while fleeing from authorities in Novato.
The suspect, who is described as an unhoused resident on Binford Road, attacked a neighbor with a pole on Monday morning, Marin County sheriff’s Sgt. Adam Schermerhorn said. The suspect might have been suffering from mental health issues and also had ingested fentanyl, Schermerhorn said.
A deputy deployed a Taser on the suspect after he allegedly threatened deputies with a golf club. The Taser was ineffective, and the suspect ran away.
Authorities found him on Highway 101 near Atherton Avenue after he allegedly attempted to carjack a driver in a moving truck. He was taken into custody after a struggle and later assaulted a nurse at a hospital, Schermerhorn said.
Owen Eugene Powell, 37, was arrested on suspicion of attempted carjacking, obstructing an officer, exhibiting a deadly weapon, committing an assault with a deadly weapon and trespassing on railroad property.
Powell was booked into the Marin County Jail. He remained in custody Tuesday in lieu of $150,000 bail, according to jail records.
Apparently there was a fire on Binford yesterday as shown in these photo’s.
They are cleaning up today.
She also called NPD to get rid of RVs and people sleeping in vans and cars. There were two out of state license plates.
Toni continues to keep the pressure on the local authorities to do their jobs. But it can’t just be Toni calling all the time, please make your voice heard if you see something illegal going on.
