Over 50 volunteers gathered Thursday along Dorsey Drive to clean up a piece of real estate that offers temporary shelter to some of Nevada County’s most vulnerable.

The cleanup marks the first since before the pandemic, said Joseph Naake of Hospitality House, noting that the effort is not to be confused with homeless people “getting moved along.”

“This was an on-and-off again camp,” Naake said.

Leah Flores, 58, said the private, wooded property punctuated by cement remnants of a retired mine off Dorsey Drive has been her home on and off for the last year.

She lives in a red-and-gray, four-person tent pitched under a blue tarp. Her kitchen — a stove and grill — is set up on a fallen log 8 feet from the tent’s entryway.

Flores said she makes a point to keep the area clean, but noted areas where neighbors stacked and stored trash while under the influence of methamphetamine. Flores herself transitioned from various locations about the property based off changes in need, season and availability of supplies.

According to a press release, Hospitality House and the HOME Team tending to the needs of homeless people in the Brunswick Basin routinely dispose of garbage on rural properties and encourage people living in the forest to be fire safe and remove debris.

“To aid this endeavor, staff refrains from distributing tents or sleeping bags, and has an agreement with Nevada County Code Enforcement to immediately confiscate and dispose of any items discovered on county land that pose an immediate threat to community safety,” the press release states.

The cleanup falls in line with social workers’ missions, Naake said, adding that the sites that were cleaned were discovered by social service providers trying to do their job.

HOME Team supervisor Kristin Glanz said the camp cleanups are mostly for the “larger community because of fire danger,” noting that some of the trash left behind by homeless people is more flammable than the dried pine needles and decaying wood around it.

Glanz said the HOME Team tries to meet the needs of those unhoused, even if the people prefer to live in the woods as opposed to a shelter. Even those trying to avoid participating in society require medical services.

“Some people are concerned about being judged,” Glanz said.

Numbers from February’s point-in-time homeless count are not yet available to the public, Naake said, but the last count conducted in 2019 tallied 410 people without homes.

Naake said the shelter generally houses people who have medical needs, but “some poeple are ”home-free as opposed to homeless.”

Flores said she is recovering from cellulitis on her foot, an infection she believes came from an insect bite on the top of her foot. Getting to the SPIRIT Freed Center in time for the noon to 12:30 lunch hour has proven challenging since she acquired the limp this past month.

Flores was not asked to leave camp during the cleanup, but noted that she is one of the few who finds refuge on the property compared to large groups of the past — some of whom still have wooden forts built into the shade of manzanita and insulated by torn T-shirts and rags.

Casey Davey, the behavioral health nurse for the county, said she has been working to build trust between social service purveyors and those in need for years.

Davey is currently trying to connect one pregnant mother with housing and rehabilitation services, and noted how last year at this time she was tending to the needs of over seven pregnant women without safe and consistent housing. Davey said she was able eventually to house the future mothers in their second and third trimesters, but said that is how severe the distrust of institutions are.

Barb Skillings has lived in the area for five years and said she chose to come to the event because it was “good for the community” and “keeping clean is being safe.”

“My brother has bipolar disorder,” Skillings said of her out-of-state sibling who reminds her why it’s important to care for the unhoused. “He deals with mental illness.”

Skillings said she’s done serious work this season to clear defensible space on 10 acres she has along McCourtney Road. Her personal clean up process has taught her that even those with homes that could burn can be irresponsible when it comes to fire safety.

“I’m a smoker,” Skillings said, adding, “it’s unacceptable how many cigarette butts I find on the half-mile of my property along the main road.”

Rebecca O’Neil is a staff writer with The Union. She can be reached at roneil@theunion.com

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