An angry Jonathan Lamb worked at a feverish pace to collect an empty water jug, cooler, rug, bicycle and other items.

“This is my house,” Lamb said.

Johnathan Lamb collects his belongings as Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team prepares to dismantle the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Johnathan Lamb moves his belongings as Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team prepares to dismantle the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

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Johnathan Lamb moves his belongings as Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team prepares to dismantle the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Johnathan Lamb collects his belongings as Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team prepares to dismantle the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team clean up a homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)



Workers stand near the California Native Garden display at the Waterwise Community Center for the Chino Basin Water Conservation District in Montclair on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2019. Established in 1949, the Chino Basin Water Conservation District services Chino, Chino Hills, Montclair, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and Upland, as well as some unincorporated areas of San Bernardino County. The public agency features programs such as; a Water Wise Demonstration Garden, education programs, professional landscaper training and water conservation resources for homeowners, according to their website: https://www.cbwcd.org/ (Photo by Jennifer Cappuccio Maher, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)

Johnathan Lamb moves his belongings as Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team prepares to dismantle the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team clean up a homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

A Riverside Public Works employee cleans up a homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

A Riverside Public Works employee picks up a used syringe while cleaning up the area of Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)



A Riverside Public Works employee cleans up a homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

A Riverside Public Works employee cleans up a homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Riverside Public Works employees clean up a homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

A woman leaves with her belongings as Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team dismantles the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Riverside Public Works employees clean up a homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)



Riverside Public Works employees clean up a homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

A man gathers his belongings as Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team dismantles the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Kirk Marquis, 56, packs his belongings as Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team prepares to dismantle the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Kirk Marquis, 56, holds a kitten while packing his belongings as authorities prepare to dismantle the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Kirk Marquis, 56, leaves with some of his belongings as Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team dismantles the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)



Johnathan Lamb collects his belongings as Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team prepares to dismantle the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Kirk Marquis, 56, struggles while pulling a cart full of belongings as Riverside Public Works employees dismantle his camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Matt Pow, 32, looks back as his neighbors pack up their belongings at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team clean up the area which has been the site of a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Riverside Public Works employee Sal Murillo clean up items left behind at a homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

People pack their belongs as Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team prepares to dismantle the homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Hole Lake was emptied of water decades ago and reportedly has had problems with crime, drug deals and prostitution, along with a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)



Besides piles of bedding and garbage, a sign is left behind at the base of a tall eucalyptus tree at the Hole Lake homeless camp after Riverside and Riverside County officials dismantle the camp on Wednesday, Aug. 21. (Photo by David Downey, Staff)

A resident leaves a note behind at a homeless camp in the area called Hole Lake in Riverside on Wednesday, Aug 21, 2019. Riverside’s Public Safety Engagement Team clean up the area which has been the site of a massive homeless encampment. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Then he walked away fast early Wednesday morning, Aug. 21, towing possessions on a tarp, as Riverside police officers and public works employees prepared to dismantle a homeless camp at a place called Hole Lake.

“This is cleanup day,” said Natalie Profant Komuro, Riverside County’s assistant county executive officer of homeless solutions. “This is the culmination of over seven weeks of outreach to notify the folks living here that we will be coming, and to offer services and the pathway to housing.”

Komuro said county and city officials planned the cleanup in response to complaints from neighbors and businesses, and concerns about the threat mounting trash posed to public health.

County spokeswoman Brooke Federico said 31 public employees — 24 from the city and seven from the county — teamed with 13 heavy equipment vehicles to scour the area near Doolittle Avenue and Morris Street in Riverside, just west of the Riverside Municipal Airport.

“I’m glad they’re moving them out, because it’s a problem,” said Ernesto Starri, owner of the nearby Delta-Sigma manufacturing plant. “And I hope they don’t come back.”

Starri said his company’s building had been vandalized on a weekly basis, so it built a fence. When someone tried to break the fence, he reinforced it. Then he said people began piling trash up against his fortified fence, creating a fire danger — and he is hopeful this will turn things around.

At the same time, Riverside Mayor Rusty Bailey said officials weren’t just moving people out.

“We are offering them housing and we are offering them services,” Bailey said. “We are here to offer them a way out.”

Federico said officials talked to 55 people living at the camp during the two months leading to the cleanup, offering mental health and substance abuse treatment and veterinary services for their dogs. She said 24 were expected to get a roof over their heads.

One of the residents, Kirk Marquis, 56, said he applied for housing and was preparing to meet with a county official on Thursday, Aug. 22.

Marquis, though, was in a hurry — like everyone else — to take down a pop-up shelter and pack up a tent and bicycle parts.

“It was home,” he said.

That seemed to be a common thread in the extensive tent-and-tarp camp spread along a tree-lined creek behind an industrial building. A wooden plaque propped up against the base of a tall eucalyptus tree read: “Home is where the heart is.” The “o” in home was depicted by a heart shape.

It was home for two years for Caleb Fuentes, 44.

Fuentes and others said they knew this day was coming, that they were going to have to find another place to live.

“They’ve been telling us,” Fuentes said. “They gave us a warning about a month ago.”

Still, Fuentes didn’t know where he was going.

“No clue,” he said.

And unlike many of those being compelled to move out of the Hole Lake camp, Fuentes didn’t pile belongings on a cart or tarp, or in a friend’s car. Wearing tennis shoes, jeans and a white T-shirt, he walked away with a small backpack on his back — and nothing else.

“I left everything,” Fuentes said.

Hole Lake is one of many encampments in a county that saw its homeless population swell by about 22% over the past year.

In an annual one-day survey conducted on Jan. 29, volunteers counted 2,045 people living on the streets and 766 others staying in shelters, for a total of 2,811 persons countywide. In the city of Riverside, the number of people seen living on the street was 439, up from 366 in 2018.

Komuro said Hole Lake has been a camp for a long time and officials encountered one person who had lived there seven years.

“It’s appealing to people who are homeless because it’s secluded,” Komuro said.

Bailey, the mayor, said there will be a need to monitor the site to prevent another camp from setting up.

“They’re going to come back and they’re going to try to rebuild,” he said.