Homeless Encampment Results in Cancellation of Sausalito Artwork Competition – CBS San Francisco
SAUSALITO (KPIX) – Officials announced Monday that the Sausalito Art Festival has been canceled for the second year in a row.
Last year it was because of COVID. This year, a homeless camp replaced the annual event.
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It’s a growing problem across the Bay Area, but also in Marin County, where homeless camps have been set up in parks and on public land. Now the popular arts festival no longer has a place to call home.
“We spent a tremendous amount of time with COVID, but when a homeless camp moved into the park we never saw it coming,” said Louis Briones, chairman of the Sausalito Art Festival Foundation.
Briones says it has a license to use Marinship Park for the Labor Day weekend event. However, with the possibility that a homeless camp in Dunphy Park might be relocated half a mile to Marinship, the festival was canceled.
“We are not sure whether we will have a festival location or not,” said Briones.
Whether in Sausalito or Novato, where there is a community called Camp Compassion, homeless camps are becoming more and more visible in Marin County.
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Dunphy Park started with a tent and that camp has grown to around 40 during the pandemic.
“It went full time when I lost my apartment at the start of COVID, and yeah, it sucks,” said Arthur Bruce.
The grounds at Dunphy Park have grown into a well-anchored tent city that includes a makeshift kitchen and mini-gym. Bruce has a small boat moored in Richardson Bay but considers the camp his second home.
“I have a two-year-old daughter and I couldn’t afford rent and daycare at the same time,” said Bruce.
Robbie Powelson, president of the Marin County Homeless Union, said he feared the population at this Dunphy Park location will grow with the eviction moratorium, which is expected to end next month.
“We are disposed of in our communities. Our churches are being stolen from among us by a system that doesn’t work, ”Powelson said.
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The organizers of the Sausalito Art Festival hope that the event will take place again next year. Meanwhile, Powelson plans to hold the Rainbow Bay Art Festival in Dunphy Park instead.
