The callous act of illegally dumping trash for unhoused residents to pick through at a former U.S. Army Reserve Center in Vallejo has turned it into an eyesore and public health concern. As the city collects bids on a contractor to clean up the site, an East Bay grassroots organization plans to clean it up.
The Urban Compassion Project, a nonprofit that recruits and trains volunteers for one-day cleanups without displacing unhoused residents, is planning to do the job the weekend before Thanksgiving without the city’s support. The organization has worked on several sites in Oakland, including an April cleanup of mountains of garbage that had collected around an encampment on East 12th Street.
“This particular location, I have been looking at for two years straight,” said Vincent Ray Williams, the organization’s co-founder and executive director, who was formerly homeless himself. “I have watched the trash pile up and never get cleaned up over two years. I have watched the thing just go to shambles.”
Last week, the city of Vallejo announced that the U.S. Army has asked the city to contract and fund the cleanup with an IOU from the federal government.
“While the Army currently lacks the capacity to perform cleanup operations directly, it has indicated a willingness to reimburse the city for conducting both interior and exterior cleanup of the property,” the city statement said. “Additionally, the Army has requested the City’s assistance in addressing unauthorized encampments currently located on the premises.”
Previously, due to the shutdown, the city said the federal government had retained a contractor to do the cleanup and site hardening, but it had not been able to give the company the go ahead to proceed.
“If the feds come in, I’m just going to be frank, it’s going to be a sh— show,” said Williams. “It’s going to look very bad for the city of Vallejo.” The city’s statement “seems to me like another systemic smoke and mirror that’s being put up. I mean, let’s be honest, the federal government isn’t going to come in and clean up anything.”
Navigating a homeless crisis
Williams said the city of Vallejo operates a shelter, called a navigation center, with 125 beds that is supposed to be a one-stop shop for services, but the city does not offer many homeless services for permanent housing, mental health or substance abuse.
“I can say with certainty that at least 17 people that I know, that are homeless in Vallejo, do not regularly stay in the navigation center because they feel like it is not actually helping,” he said. “That’s not to say anything is wrong with the navigation center. It’s just if you look at the city of the Vallejo’s budget, they haven’t allotted a lot of money to different resources to combat homelessness.”
“It typically takes about three to four hours, but this is a really huge effort, it could take us several cleanups.”
Supriya Golas, Urban Compassion Project
Supriya Golas, co-founder of the nonprofit, said they anticipate probably having about 40 to 60 volunteers on Saturday, Nov. 22. The organization rents Dumpsters and provides equipment for the cleanup, including shovels, rakes, bags, pickers and personal protective equipment.
“It typically takes about three to four hours, but this is a really huge effort, it could take us several cleanups,” said Golas. “We like to finish the job completely so it’s not prone to future dumping.”
Golas said they work directly with the unhoused to connect them with local resources, but do not ask them to move if they do not wish to.
“That goes against our morals and our principles,” she said. “They actually help us sometimes during the cleanups because they don’t want to be living with the trash anymore. They’re just allowed to exist in the way they were existing, and they are appreciative.”
The Urban Compassion Project is registering volunteers for the Nov. 22 cleanup on its website.
This story was updated at 9:45 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2025.
