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Residents of a homeless encampment with million-dollar views in East Palo Alto won a one-week reprieve from a small bulldozer that would have razed their makeshift tent-like homes Wednesday morning.

The 10 to 20 residents, who live in scattered tents, lean-tos and hand-dug caves on a parcel of dry-grass marshland at the end of Demeter Street, off Bay Road, say they received an informal eviction notice to vacate the property on Monday (June 15).

But with a small bucket bulldozer as a backdrop, homeless advocates, the landowner and city officials (by phone) worked out a one-week reprieve after a two-hour negotiation.

Advocates for the residents, some of whom have lived on the site undisturbed by police or the property owner for more than seven years, challenged the short notice as possibly illegal. They said the city has no shelter for its estimated 200 homeless persons. The only available facility is the Lord's Gym, a warming shelter open only during the coldest days of the year and run by Paul Bains, pastor .

"We recognize the property owner's rights but all we are asking for is for 30 days so we can help these people transition to a new home," Bains said. He said he spoke twice by phone to property owner Bob Facciola Wednesday morning to ask for more time but Facciola was unyielding.

Facciola had posted a sign on a chain-link fence Monday instructing the residents to remove their belongings by Wednesday morning or have them removed by force and taken to the dump. Trespassers would be removed by police, the notice said.

Residents fought back, producing a letter indicating they might pursue taking the property by adverse possession under a state law allowing persons to take over a property if they have been living there in a "notorious fashion" for five years -- a remote possibility because of stiff requirements under the law, including making improvements and paying property taxes. Destroying their personal possessions could also be illegal, the letter said.



Patsy Caracter, an advocate for the homeless with Bread Of Life Evangelistic Outreach, said she has heard police tell homeless individuals wandering around town to go to the Demeter Street encampment.

Bains and the Rev. Mary Frazier, senior pastor of Bread of Life Evangelical Outreach, said they want only more time to help move the residents.

Facciola arrived at the site about 9:30 a.m., shortly after the telephone conversations with Bains, He said he is concerned about mounds of garbage and feces and the potential liability if a fire breaks out in the grasslands, which are adjacent to homes, power lines and old greenhouses from East Palo Alto's days as a center of flower growing.

Nearly two years ago, a woman living in a cave dug into the side of a berm died in a blaze when a campfire set the dry grasses ablaze, he said.

"It's a liability. They're lighting fires at night," he said, waving an arm toward nearby homes.

But advocates said the homeless have been allowed to remain there for years and police have never bothered them, the gate remained unlocked and despite the tragedy two years ago Facciola never had the residents removed.

Caracter said she visits the encampment twice a week to bring residents food, water and meal vouchers. The baylands are the homeless population's last refuge, she said.

"Nobody knew they were out here. Our community was pushing them from one spot to another," she said.

She scoffed at the notion that Facciola is concerned about liability. She referred to the woman who died in the grassfire, asking, "Why didn't he get people out then if it was such a liability? Why now?"

But other plans could be behind the move to clear out the unsightly camps.

The 30-acre property is in the city's Ravenswood Business District redevelopment zone and is surrounded by other planned developments -- including Tara Road, a 4.9-acre, 41,000-square-foot industrial condominium development, and 2555 Pulgas, a 78-unit live-work and affordable housing development, according to city plans.

Facciola said about 12 acres of his property is buildable and was in escrow for $20 million until about two months ago. But Trumark, the planned builder, pulled out, citing the slumped housing market. Facciola said he is searching for a new buyer.

Martin Chiechi, senior vice president of Grubb and Ellis, the commercial real estate firm handling the property, said the company and Facciola are in the process of reevaluating the sale price for the current market. The area is zoned light industrial but is designated in the city's master plan for high-density housing, he said.

The land boasts sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay and East Bay hills, with the Dumbarton Bridge creating a silvery backdrop against the water and mountains.

Incongruously, facing the prime views are a half-dozen caves dug into the berm: 8-foot-deep holes, lined with plastic and tarps to keep out the rain. Steps to the caves are carved into the side of the berm. Shopping carts filled with salvaged aluminum cans sit nearby, to be turned in for cash.

"Shorty," a small woman in her 30s whose real name is Annette, pointed to a hole she used to live in before she got a tent.

"It's sort of like a bunker," she said. She leaned down to pet the encampment's resident cat, Pantera, which means panther in Spanish, she said.

"Here Mamma, here mamma," she called, as the cat wended through yellow grass and brushed the woman's leg with her tail.

"She's pregnant. I'll have to take her" if forced to move from the baylands, Shorty said, adding another layer to her concerns, prompting tears. "I've lived here for seven years," she said.

But getting the one-week reprieve was challenging. Parties on both sides made a flurry of cell-phone calls to city officials.

After two hours of negotiating, Facciola, Bains and Frazier came to an agreement: The homeless could stay until Wednesday, June 24, and City Manager Alvin James agreed to let the warming shelter open for 45 days to give residents time to relocate.

As the bulldozer started up, Candice Greenberg, executive director of Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, who said she is looking into the legality of the forced removal, told camp residents to hurry to their shelters. She said she is not representing the residents as of now.

A cleaning crew dug up piles of trash but didn't take down the shelters or remove personal property.

Outside the cyclone fence, Bains pointed to an abandoned warehouse adjacent to the encampment that he and Frazier have been eyeing for some time as a potential shelter. But the city wants the building to be upgraded with plumbing and other amenities that would cost more than $500,000, which the churches do not have, he said.

Facciola turned to Bains, his face relaxed now that the conflict has been resolved for now.

"You've got to use your God muscle," he said of Bains' challenge.