Sheriff’s helicopter video shows rat problem at Santa Rosa homeless camp

The escalating public health crisis at Sonoma County’s largest homeless camp has been documented in countless images that show people in squalid living conditions on the Joe Rodota Trail in Santa Rosa. The arrival of rainy and cold winter weather last month compounded the misery for the 210 people who call the trail home.

Now, newly released video footage from the Sheriff’s Office is shedding light on a troubling byproduct of the camp’s growth. It has become infested by a burgeoning rat population.

In a 42-second nighttime video shot Dec. 12 from the Sheriff’s Office helicopter Henry 1 and obtained this week by The Press Democrat, rodents are seen scurrying about a stretch of the camp, which sprawls along a half-mile of the public path linking Santa Rosa to Sebastopol.

The infrared footage at first focuses on a pair of rodents moving along outside several tents. As the camera zooms out, more rats pop into view, moving about seemingly undetected by camp residents just feet away on the trail.

“It just clearly shows the urgency of the situation,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who saw the footage before she and her fellow board members voted Dec. 23 to spend nearly $12 million on short- and long-term measures that officials hope will allow them to disband the camp and shelter its residents elsewhere, although not for many months.

“It’s a completely unacceptable situation on the Joe Rodota Trail,” Hopkins said. “It’s obviously a public health hazard.”

Sgt. Juan Valencia, the Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said the video was taken during a routine nighttime flyover.

Its public release comes as county and city officials face rising calls to confront a widening array of health and safety problems at the camp, ranging from the uncontrolled disposal of drug needles to the risk of warming and cooking fires.

On Monday, a propane tank exploded on the trail near Brittain Lane, torching one make-shift shelter before residents in a nearby home used a garden house to douse the flames. It was the second such blaze in nearly the same spot in as many months.

Park officials who oversee the trail have authorized work to begin next week to address the rat problem. On Monday, Pestmaster Services will begin trapping rats and baiting them with a nontoxic substance that reduces female rats’ ability to breed, thereby slowing population growth, according to an email from Sonoma County Regional Parks spokeswoman Meda Freeman.

Traditional poisons weren’t approved for use because of their potential to harm trail residents and pets.

Female rats can raise 20 or more babies each year, and the rodents can spread a variety of diseases, including plague.

The state’s integrated pest management program cites sanitation as the key to rat control. Without proper sanitation, the benefits of population control will be lost and rats will quickly return, according to the program website.

Barbie Robinson, the county’s health services director, said county officials recognize the immediate need to address the public health concerns on the trail, and touted the county’s actions to date. Those include the placement of 11 portable toilets, two hand-washing stations, regular garbage pickups and nightly security patrols for the safety of trail occupants.

“Pest control services and needle disposal services are also scheduled to begin next week,” Robinson said in an emailed statement.

The recent steps are cold comfort to neighbors like Francie Simonson, who has for a couple of months noticed the growing rat incursion into her Casa del Sol neighborhood just west of the shopping center at Stony Point Road and Highway 12.

Simonson and her neighbors continue their efforts to trap rats, but recently have noticed an influx of small mice which are able to trigger the traps without getting caught themselves, meaning fewer rats are being caught.

“I’m 69 years old, and I have never lived in a place that has rats. Period,” Simonson said. “This is a health hazard. Why are we being hindered by bureaucracy? Nobody’s doing a freaking thing!”

Hopkins, whose district encompasses the trail camp and who is facing perhaps the strongest political blowback over its growth, struck a similar chord while also defending her call for more urgent action.

“I’ve been pushing for a solution on the public health concerns for weeks,” Hopkins said. “This is slower than I would have liked, but I am glad it’s moving forward Monday.”

You can reach Staff Writer Tyler Silvy at 707-526-8667 or at tyler.silvy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@tylersilvy.