Novato campers seek legal remedy for seized property

Three homeless plaintiffs sought a court order to prevent the county from removing and destroying belongings in the public right of way.

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.