FREMONT — When Fremont city workers descend upon the Isherwood Park and Quarry Lakes homeless encampment on Monday, their orders will be to clear environmental hazards along the nearby watershed and creek — but in the process, they will displace dozens of unsheltered residents living there.
Related Articles
Newsom ordered California agencies to close more homeless camps last year. Then sweeps declined, data shows
Lacking funding, Proposition 36 puts burden on most defendants to find drug treatment
Haunted house at Santa Clara County Fairgrounds helps the homeless
‘It’s gonna make things a lot worse’: Gilroy’s largest homeless encampments to shut down
Garbage truck runs over man sleeping in San Jose alley
The city passed a controversial ban earlier this year that criminalized camping anywhere in the city with punishment of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. However, the city says Monday’s sweep is not aimed at enforcing the ban.
Instead, Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan said he wants the city to improve the area so families can walk safely through the park. He said there have been many community complaints about contamination of the waterway, and reports of fires throughout the park.
“The creek is very dirty,” Salwan said in an interview. “There’s not a week that goes by where we don’t have some call for service (at the park.)”
When asked where the city plans to relocate the dozens of homeless residents of the park, he pointed to the city’s Navigation Center and the Winter Relief Program, two services which provide temporary shelter and other resources to homeless and extremely low-income residents.
The city placed a sign on a fence announcing an upcoming closure at the Isherwood Park homeless encampment in Fremont, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. The city will close the park on Nov. 3 to clear vegetation and environmental hazards along the nearby watershed and creek way. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Marisa Ornelas, an Abode Services associate director who regularly visits the encampment and its residents, said that many of the residents who receive temporary stays through the relief program will spend 90 days off the streets before they likely return back to homelessness. If they return to Isherwood Park to try and setup a camp again, the park will be closed and fenced off, and if they tried to get back in “they would be trespassing and would face, especially with the camping ban, ticketing and jail.”
She said the dozens of residents in the Isherwood encampment have built a community over the past decade of its existence, with campers regularly cooking and barbecuing together and building friendly relationships with the workers who visit them. Kicking them out of the park is going to significantly impact their lives for the worse, she said.
“In general, we don’t want people to be relocated, especially after residing in an area for so long. That could be traumatic for some people,” Ornelas said. However, she added, “I understand the concern for cleanup, being that it is near residential and there have been fires there before.”
City Manager Karena Shackelford did not respond to a request for comment on the clean-up effort. A city website detailing the plans for the sweep note that city workers have visited the park weekly since May 2025 in efforts to connect homeless campers with housing and shelter resources and other services. The website also says that after the park closes to the public on Monday, the city will construct temporary fencing, and all homeless residents must be out of the park by Nov. 14.
Jo Quinto plays darts at the Isherwood Park homeless encampment in Fremont, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. The city will close the park on Nov. 3 to clear vegetation and environmental hazards along the nearby watershed and creek way. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
“The goals of the temporary park closure and the work being done are to improve and protect the park’s waterway from environmental hazards, reduce fire risks, and restore access to the park and trail for visitors,” Fremont spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said in a statement.
Bosques said the city is offering temporary housing and shelter to everyone uprooted by the move, and that the initial sweep is expected to cost the city $40,000, including landfill dumping costs. The Winter Relief Program budget is about $907,000; $680,000 of it is expected to be used for the residents residing in Isherwood, she said.
Union City, the Alameda County Water District and the East Bay Regional Park District will all be involved in the sweep, Bosques added. She also said the last time the city swept the area was in 2018, when unhoused residents were offered months-long stays in hotels after getting moved up and out of the creek.
“At that time, hotel vouchers were provided to the unhoused individuals. The length of time and level of support was very short, and people quickly returned to the site, including the waterway, before significant remediation could occur,” Bosques said.
Jose Zermeno drinks water on a hot day at the Isherwood Park homeless encampment in Fremont, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. The city will close the park on Nov. 3 to clear vegetation and environmental hazards along the nearby watershed and creek way. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Jose Zermeno, who said he has lived in the park for a couple years, said city workers did not personally visit him or his friend and fellow homeless neighbor, Fernando Gallo, who has lived in the park for eight years, he said. He questioned why the city is planning to clear the park.
“I don’t see why. We’re not bothering anybody. We’ve been here for years,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s peaceful.”
He also said he would take a temporary stay in a shelter or hotel if offered, but that others might struggle gathering all their belongings and trekking them out of the camps.
Rudy De La Cruz, 55, who grew up in Union City and has camped in the park for two years, said park dwellers “should be put at the top of the list for housing.”
He’s been swept out of different camps in both Fremont and Union City before, he said, and he worries it’ll happen again.
“Why would you move us? We have nowhere to go,” De La Cruz said.
He also said he would take housing if it is offered, noting “I’d rather not sleep in the street. I’d rather take the hotel.”
Caris MacDougald hangs out at the Isherwood Park homeless encampment in Fremont, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. The city will close the park on Nov. 3 to clear vegetation and environmental hazards along the nearby watershed and creek way. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Caris McDougald, 59, said in an interview that “the city can do better than they’re doing right now.”
“The city should come here and talk to us,” said McDougald, who lives in a double-dome tent in the park. He said city workers had not personally offered him any shelter housing. “You’re the city. Help the homeless. It’s not going to kill you. I pay taxes, too.”
But Rich Jerome, who moved into his home near the park on Barnard Drive in 1983, is looking forward to the cleanup effort. Jerome said he hasn’t walked or biked through the park’s trails behind his home in the last 10 years.
“It used to be serene,” Jerome said, adding that he used to regularly see deer and other wildlife running through the park. One deer even fell into his pool once, and he scrambled to get it out safely. Jerome said he doesn’t see deer anymore. “My biggest thing is it’s going to take a while to restore. It’s sad. I think there’s going to be issues getting everybody out.”
Rudy DeLaCruz and David Becerra, from right, hang out as clothes dry on a line at the Isherwood Park homeless encampment in Fremont, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. The city will close the park on Nov. 3 to clear vegetation and environmental hazards along the nearby watershed and creek way. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
A crucifix adorns a tree at the Isherwood Park homeless encampment in Fremont, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. The city will close the park on Nov. 3 to clear vegetation and environmental hazards along the nearby watershed and creek way. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Jose Cermeno and Fernando Gallo, from right, hang out at the Isherwood Park homeless encampment in Fremont, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. The city will close the park on Nov. 3 to clear vegetation and environmental hazards along the nearby watershed and creek way. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Zeus, who belongs to camp resident Rudy DeLaCruz, takes a rest after playing fetch at the Isherwood Park homeless encampment in Fremont, Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. The city will close the park on Nov. 3 to clear vegetation and environmental hazards along the nearby watershed and creek way. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
