Mayor Kim Ecklund says that wasn’t the case as of Wednesday night. Instead police responded to complaints of loud noise that happened to center on the group of homeless. Ecklund said city police were called to the area Wednesday night after a loud party outside of a Brooklyn Square business. Police told the group to go somewhere else, the mayor said, and that somewhere else ended up being the viaduct – and police were called again to the area a short time later.

“We got a complaint of loud activity,” Ecklund told The Post-Journal on Thursday. “Keep in mind they had been shoved along from a business prior to that. They ended up along the river. There was already a focus on them because someone had turned them in at one business. They didn’t arrest anyone, they shoved them along and they congregated again. Someone had a warrant and an open container of alcohol.”

While police told some of the group to move because of the noise, none of the homeless in the area were ticketed or arrested. The lone issue came from the person who had an active arrest warrant and an open container of alcohol. That person was processed at the city jail.

According to Christal Pollard and Bryan McCloud, two individuals who are unhoused and living in the area, Jamestown police officers dispersed the group and cleared out their encampments.

Brian McCloud, a homeless man has taken up temporary residency along the Riverwalk in the city. McCloud, and several other homeless and unhoused people, reported to Jamestown Police officers allegedly forced them to break camp and move elsewhere Wednesday night. However, less than 24 hours later, the same encampment was rerected again. P-J photo by Chirstopher Blakeslee

“They (JPD) came through last night saying they got a call that we were down here drinking and partying,” said Pollard. “If you’re going to kick us out of an area, that’s fine. But where can we go to get out of the rain? We’re homeless. I’m sorry if I’m an eyesore or I don’t have a car to drive – I didn’t want to end up in this situation, but life kicks you down sometimes and the city just wants us to disappear.”

McCloud echoed some of the same statements that Pollard said.

“We weren’t drinking. We were just socializing. We try to keep it clean and quiet under here. …This is our home. The police came in and made every one of us move,” he said.

Homelessness has become a pressing issue in Jamestown over the past few years. In 2022, $1.36 million was spent on temporary housing of individuals in Chautauqua County, up from $636,000 in 2021. The total number of homeless, and those at risk of homelessness, greatly increased post-pandemic in Chautauqua County, with Chautauqua Opportunities Inc. reporting from over 800 individuals in 2020, more than 1,000 in 2021 and nearly 1,500 in 2022. Figures for 2023 haven’t yet been released, but there has been a visible increase in homelessness in Jamestown from 2022 to now. Jamestown officials said in a news release late Thursday there are an estimated 300 unauthorized campsites throughout the city, including the ones in Brooklyn Square.

While Ecklund says the city wasn’t actively clearing out encampments from areas like Brooklyn Square, that will likely change in the wake of a disaster declaration late Thursday afternoon by the city. Jamestown isn’t alone. Other states are beginning to take action in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in late June that found outdoor sleeping bans don’t violate the Eighth Amendment. Western cities had argued that the ruling made it harder to manage outdoor encampments in public spaces, but homeless advocates said punishing people who need a place to sleep would criminalize homelessness.

California Gov. Gavin Newsome issued an executive order Thursday to direct state agencies on how to remove homeless encampments. Newsom’s order is aimed at the thousands of tents and makeshift shelters across the state that line freeways, clutter shopping center parking lots and fill city parks. The order makes clear that the decision to remove the encampments remains in local hands.

Newsom’s decision has garnered praise from local elected officials and business groups, who said they were left with no options to address homeless encampments before the Supreme Court’s ruling. San Francisco Mayor London Breed recently said the city will start an “aggressive” campaign to clear encampments across the city in August. Her office noted that the governor’s order does not affect the city’s operations.