Isla Vista Recreation & Park District Relocates Tent City Residents
Several Move from Anisq’Oyo’ Park into Temporary Tiny Homes, People’s Park
Kimberly Kiefer remembers back when blue herons — large, gangly and graceful — ruled the roost in Isla Vista’s Anisq’Oyo’ Park. Now, she says, the herons have flown the coop. Instead, Kiefer lamented she now watches crows and seagulls duke it out for dominance — and food scraps — in the herons’ stead.
Kiefer took over as new executive director at the Isla Vista Recreation & Park District (IVRPD) just this February, less than a month before the COVID curtain came crashing down. Since then, COVID has changed everything, the human ecology of Isla Vista’s parks even more than the avian brand.
Before the onslaught of COVID, 10-15 homeless people claimed Anisq’Oyo’ Park as their home, many living in tents. Since COVID, those numbers have mushroomed, and last week there were as many as 60. As the park has become a sprawling tent city, Kiefer and others have expressed growing alarm that the congestion and debris posed an immediate health risk to its inhabitants as well as a public health nuisance to the community.
