Half Moon Bay plans to clean up homeless encampment

By Samantha Weigel

Nestled in the brush against the Pilarcitos Creek, more than a dozen people have been residing in a homeless encampment behind a Half Moon Bay shopping center.

In the coming months, they will be forced to move as the city plans to clean up the environmentally-sensitive habitat. 

Tents, wooden pallets, mattresses and even makeshift gates have been pieced together to form what the encampment’s residents say is some semblance of a home they call their own. With the region’s steep housing prices out of reach for many who’ve lived on the coast for years, as well as others who are just passing through, the encampment has been a known spot for the homeless on the coastside.

[I]t’s a diverse group and several of them even hold jobs but can’t afford the area’s high cost of living, said Bob Stebbins, leader of the Coastside Homeless Collaborative. Stebbins is working to help those at the encampment with the transition. With a dire lack of affordable units on the coast, he hopes to work with government officials to identify land or properties that can house the homeless.

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