South Lake Tahoe homeless camp removed by Clean Tahoe and Caltrans

South Lake Tahoe, Calif. - On their rounds of cleaning up around the bike trail behind Meeks Lumber, the Clean Tahoe crew spotted a huge mess created under the Trout Creek Bridge at Lake Tahoe Boulevard.

A homeless man had been living under the bridge, something they noted one month ago. When they returned October 2 the found the man had amassed a large amount of "stuff." They reported to authorities, including South Lake Tahoe Police, Caltrans (the owner of the bridge) and the California Highway Patrol.

On Monday, October 8, Caltrans brought in a crew of about ten people to remove the 30 yards worth of debris.

The homeless man had moved dirt around so he could walk around upright through a series of ditches and had also banked the dirt to keep dry from the river flow, according to Cindy Ochoa, Clean Tahoe program assistant.

Ochoa said Clean Tahoe goes to a lot of homeless camps to clean up. Normally they can remove the found items in their truck, but they had never seen anything like they had under the bridge.

A Caltrans loader and dump truck were brought in to remove the collection of items. The former "resident" was not under the bridge when they arrived.