Antioch residents worried over growing homeless encampment

ANTIOCH, Calif. ( KRON ) – Tensions are high in Antioch about a homeless encampment. Residents say it’s been growing for years, and they feel unheard.

Within the last two weeks, they say there’s been an increase in car thefts, property theft, and two incidents of unhoused people flashing weapons.

Wednesday morning, they woke up to another tent in the field in their neighborhood.

Residents in the area of West 5th and J Streets say the land being taken over by the unhoused has been for sale in the last four years. They say the vacant land is dry grass — a tinderbox — and it led to a fire a few months ago.

They’ve called police and advocacy groups but they say they haven’t helped improve the situation. One resident told KRON4 she feels unsafe.

“The first night they were there, I woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning to ‘pop pop pop pop pop.’ It was a good 10 shots. And then the night before last, somebody was out here. Pop pop pop pop. Shooting. It’s horrible,” said Antioch resident Erika Raulson.

One neighbor says she’s called the police 25 times, and when she brought up the issue to one crisis team, a member replied by saying “Where can they go?”

KRON4 has reached out to Antioch police but did not hear back as of this report.

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