The Juneau Police Department cleared a homeless encampment on the side of a Mendenhall Valley road Tuesday morning. That’s after the department gave people living there a notice to vacate the area last week.
On Monday, a row of tents sat across the street from Juneau’s Glory Hall homeless shelter. People living there were packing up their belongings and waiting for police to arrive and tell them to leave.
Monika Jay Escajeda was about to pitch her tent when she heard police would dismantle the camp. She said she thinks there needs to be a place for her and others to go.
“If they don’t have a place, I don’t feel like they should be like, ‘Well, you guys can’t pitch a tent,’” she said.
City officials decided to clear the encampment in response to safety concerns. But police and city officials say they’re looking for better solutions as camp residents seek a new place to stay.
Escajeda is from Juneau, but she said she’s run out of places to go next. She’s considering going back to Seattle, where she used to live. She heard many of her friends don’t know what they will do, either. She said she wished she could bring them with her.
“It’s sad to be honest,” she said. “If I was able or capable, I think I would want to snatch and take everybody that I could. But I’m trying to figure it out.”
Juneau Police Chief Derek Bos issued people at the encampment a 48-hour notice to vacate with approval from the city manager’s office on Friday. The move was prompted by increased public outcry from nearby homes and businesses. For months, residents have testified at Assembly meetings that the area — near the shelter and the airport — has become dangerous.
Glory Hall homeless shelter director Kaia Quinto said that her staff have been threatened and assaulted by people camping nearby. Many of them are people who have been banned from the shelter for behavioral problems.
“With a large encampment comes lots of issues,” she said. “While some people are being very respectful and camping, I think there are some that are causing issues for sure.”
Per city code, Juneau police are allowed to clear encampments outside of official campsites after 48 hours or if the encampments are more than three tents large. But Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the city does not always enforce that code because people need to sleep somewhere.
“As long as the impacts are low on the rest of the public, on the surrounding neighborhood area, our enforcement action is going to be low or non-existent,” he said.
On Tuesday morning, four days after Juneau police posted notices, officers came to clear the encampment, accompanied by heavy machinery.
Juneau Police Officer Jeremy Weske directed the effort. He said police can’t direct people where to go next, but they can give a general outline of what’s allowed — public property is OK as long as tents are not on a right of way or impeding others from using the land.
“We’re really trying to allow people to find a space to be and be left alone,” he said. “There are just times where the sites get a little bit beyond that, and we have to come in and clean them up.”
Weske said he doesn’t enjoy enforcing the policies even when safety concerns are raised.
“I hate it, but we have to keep the area clean, and hopefully we can continue to work together for a good end,” he said.
Tyler Johnson lives at the Glory Hall. He came out to help people pack up as the excavator scooped up the things people left behind. He said that without assigned campgrounds like then one the city closed last year, people will end up in this situation again and again.
“I mean, there’s no real alternative,” he said.
Barr said the Assembly plans to discuss homelessness in Juneau in general at an upcoming committee meeting. But he said he’s not expecting a solution anytime soon.
Copyright 2025 KTOO