Posted signs at the Santa Ana River Trail warn that the end is imminent. Six shipping containers have been placed strategically, ready to store tons of personal belongings once the mass exodus begins.

And police and outreach workers have increased their foot patrols in recent weeks, urging many of the nearly 500 inhabitants of Orange County’s largest homeless encampment that it’s time for them to leave.

Live coverage 1/22: Orange County begins clearing Santa Ana riverbed homeless encampments

All that’s left now is for county workers to begin the onerous process of clearing out the notorious, three-mile-long tent city.

A woman and her dog bike past a sign on a tent in the Anaheim Stadium homeless encampment. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A homeless man wipes his brow while moving items out of his tent in the Honda Center homeless encampment. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Lacey Piercy filled up a stroller with bags of cans and bottles to take to a recycling center. She lives in the Honda Center homeless encampment. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A homeless woman pushes a stroller full of her belongs along the Santa Ana river trail. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Brodie Lowe gives a greeting from his tent in the Honda Center homeless encampment. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)



A homeless man ponders his situation outside his tent in the Honda Center homeless encampment. The people living in the encampment are being forced off the river bed.(Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

An ironic sign lays along the river bed trail in the Honda Center homeless encampment. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A bicylist makes her way down the path through the Honda Center homeless encampment. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A homeless man named Jesse took a shower in the Showers of Blessing van parked in the Honda Center homeless encampment. Van owner Armando Olvera gives free showers to homeless people. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Armando Olvera’s “Showers of Blessing” mobile shower vehicle makes frequent visits to the Honda Center homeless encampment. Homeless people there can take free showers in the vehicle. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Dave Wise visited the Honda Center homeless encampment on January 17. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Dave Wise accompanies two women from the Orange County Public Health Department as they walk through the Honda Center encampment. They were offering flu shots and shots to fight off Hepatitis A. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Abcesses are common for people living along the Santa Ana river trail. The lack of a clean water source is one of the main causes say Orange County public health workers. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A man from the Honda Center homeless encampment rides his bike with an empty electrical wire spool. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

This man said he worked for Disneyland before getting laid off and moving to the Honda Center river bed. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)



A kitten crawls on top of a storage container in a tent in the Honda Center homeless encampment. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A cat watches over a couple of her new kittens outside a tent in the Honda Center homeless encampment. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Orange County Public Works employees deliver storage containers to the Honda Center homeless encampment. The containers are on loan from the United States Marine Corps. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A homeless man in the Honda Center encampment poses for a photo with his dog. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Lucinda Clarke, right, was able to find permanent housing and move out of the Anaheim Stadium homeless encampment. She came back to the encampment to visit with friends last week. (Photo by Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Contractors pickup trash as rumors the homeless encampments along the Santa Ana Riverbed will be forced to leave, from Orange to Anaheim, CA, on Monday morning, Jan 22, 2018. (Photo by Ken Steinhardt, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Orange County public works personnel clean garbage along the Santa Ana River Trail on Monday, Jan. 21, 2018. (Bill Alkofer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

David Padilla cleans up in front of his camp along the Santa Ana River Trail in Anaheim on Monday, Jan. 22, 2018. County officials plan to move the homeless out of the area over the following weeks. (Photo by Ken Steinhardt, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Broadly speaking, this is the county’s strategy to set the plan in motion: At 9 a.m. Monday, Jan. 22, dozens of sheriff’s deputies and other county workers will descend on the encampments that stretch along the flood control channel from Ball Road in Anaheim to the I-5 freeway in Orange.

But exactly when the camp’s inhabitants will be forced to leave or where they’ll go remains unclear.

That uncertainty has left homeless people, their advocates and neighboring residents wary, and in some cases fearful, about how the next couple of weeks will play out.

“I’ll probably end up back in the streets of Anaheim,” said Matt Sileski, 34, a San Clemente native who has been homeless in the riverbed for six months.

“Just like everybody else.”

The county’s plan

County officials estimate their plan to clear the last and most entrenched riverbed homeless encampment could take anywhere from several days to a few weeks. Yet public officials have been reluctant to specify a deadline for the camp’s most steadfast residents to leave, instead saying that the project will be “slow and methodical.”

The first week of action will employ a softer approach, officials say. After that, the pressure will ramp up.

“Monday is our kickoff date, but we’re not coming in Day One and saying, ‘OK get out,’” OC Public Works spokesman Shannon Widor said. “We’re not trying to strong-arm anyone. We’ll come back the next day, and the next day to see if the person is still there.

“There’s no answer to what is the perfect amount of time.”

Teams of deputies, health professionals and work crews plan to gather Monday morning outside Angel Stadium and slowly trek through the encampment, talking to residents along the way. The goal is to get people out so the county can begin cleaning the area of waste and hazardous debris, which county executives have said is needed to allow the flood control channel to serve its intended purpose.

They’ll ask people if they want to store, trash or relocate their makeshift homes and belongings – offering to kennel pets and stash items for up to 90 days. They’ll refer people to pickup locations, where vans will transport them to local homeless shelters.

And they’ll remind the homeless that they won’t have the option to remain behind.

Sheriff’s Department Lt. Jeff Puckett said deputies will begin by asking for “voluntary compliance.” They want inhabitants to make an effort to leave. If they don’t, deputies eventually will begin issuing citations and possibly making arrests. But they hope that’s not necessary, Puckett said.

“Our goal is not to arrest people,” Puckett said. “The Sheriff’s Department will be approaching this project with a reasonable understanding that requesting voluntary relocation will take time.”

“Don’t know where I’ll go”

With Monday’s plan looming, the mood along the riverbed has been dark.

Many encampment inhabitants don’t know where to relocate, pointing out that there isn’t enough space in year-round shelters. As of Wednesday, the county had 250 shelter beds available. But more than three-quarters of those beds were in the two armory shelters, which don’t allow people to stay during the day and limit the amount of belongings they can bring.

Angela Peifer, 32, an employed caregiver who has lived at the riverbed for more than two years, said she is close to getting into permanent housing through a county program. But in the short-term? “I don’t know where I’ll go,” she said.

Nick Trullench, a former IT worker who lost his job due to health problems, wondered aloud if he could successfully camouflage his tent and stay put on the riverbed. Trullench, 36, is on the list to receive a Section 8 housing voucher, but has no faith that’ll pan out. So he said he’ll most likely head where many other homeless people say they plan on going: the streets of Anaheim or Orange.

“Where else am I going to go?” Trullench said. “They just don’t want to see us. This is an issue of aesthetics for the county.”

The county has said it has made a good-faith effort to help people find shelter. Recent county statistics show that of the 623 people outreach workers have encountered since July in the Anaheim and Orange encampments, one-quarter have been sheltered, about the same number is still waiting for housing, and half declined any services.

Elected officials expect the county will be sued during or after the riverbed clearing. And encampment habitants say legal advocates for the homeless have been canvassing the area since the county announced its plan, seeking potential plaintiffs. No lawsuit had been filed as of Friday.

Lacey Piercy, 42, is holding out for a last-minute reprieve to continue staying at the river bed, where she and her husband have spent the last 14 months. The couple has moved eight times to different spots on the riverbed while Piercy’s husband was being treated for skin cancer, she said. He is now in remission.

“I’m hoping we get an extension,” Piercy said. “That’s what I’m praying for.”

If that doesn’t happen, the Huntington Beach native wants to get her two cats certified as service animals to bring them along into a shelter. Long-term plans call for a possible move to join her sister in Detroit.

Many riverbed inhabitants say they expect that law enforcement officials’ notion of “voluntary compliance” will be rougher than it sounds.

“They’re gonna come over and intimidate us,” said Conrad Alcaraz, 40, an Anaheim native who said he hasn’t been able to work since he was injured in a car accident a couple of years ago. “To me, this is home. How are they gonna kick us out? What shelter is open?”

“We’re just in survival mode,” said Jennifer Bartolotto, 33, Alcaraz’s longtime girlfriend. “Ninety-two percent of us don’t want to create problems. This is just what we know.”

Neighbors on notice

This past week, the Orange Police Department posted notices in local neighborhoods, warning residents that hundreds of riverbed inhabitants would soon be vacating their tents and could end up on residential city streets. A flier urges residents to report any suspicious person or activity they see to the department.

In Anaheim, officials bracing for an influx of homeless people have reiterated that their city – like 32 others in Orange County – has an anti-camping ordinance that forbids pitching tents on sidewalks or in public parks.

“We’ve been addressing homelessness for years now and … we’re ready to handle any additional demand” for services or enforcement, Anaheim spokeswoman Lauren Gold said.

But some residents – even those who support the county’s plan – say they’re worried about how their neighborhoods might change when the riverbed encampment is emptied.

Elissa Goodwin, who lives in Anaheim about a mile north of the homeless camp, said she thinks clearing the riverbed is a step in the right direction. Goodwin said there have already been packages stolen and car break-ins, and she doesn’t let her daughter ride her scooter alone. Her neighbors have installed video cameras outside their homes.

“I’m thankful because I feel they shouldn’t be there in the first place,” Goodwin said.

But on the other hand, she wondered, “Where are they going to go now?”

Orange plans to beef up private-security patrols at parks after hours. City police officials said their homeless-engagement team will continue to patrol the riverbed, parks and other places where homeless people gather, attempting to link displaced people with resources to get them off the street.

Anaheim officials have a similar plan, saying they’ll continue to offer people living along the river trail assistance, such as hotel vouchers and bus tickets to rejoin family. But they’ve also hedged against the homeless settling down in city parks by hiring private security to patrol them, especially when closed.

“We can’t allow the camping on the riverbed to be moved to other parks in our city,” Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait said. “The plan is that we won’t just tell people ‘You can’t stay here’ without having a place for them to go.”

Kevin Sorkin, who lives in an Anaheim neighborhood that abuts the river trail, said he’ll be vigilant in coming weeks as the exodus begins.

When Monday arrives, if he sees people creating a new camp, he knows what he’ll do.

“We’re going to be on the phone very quickly.”

The Register will be at the Santa Ana River homeless encampments on Monday, Jan. 22 to provide live updates from the scene.

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Homeless man ponders life at Santa Ana River Trail from a helicopter

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