Residents of a San Rafael encampment say they’re sleeping uneasily over worries that blaring music from a business next-door might return at any moment.
“It’s been on for the last four days,” said Anker Aardelen.
Aardelen lives at the homeless encampment next to East Bay Tire on Lincoln Avenue, near Second Street. The music itself might be nice, but not when it’s blaring on a loop all night.
“They're saying they can’t sleep,” Aardelen said. “It’s just a little alarming, considering that nobody knew about it.”
NBC Bay Area contacted East Bay Tire for a statement, but it had no comment.
The East Bay Tire has been in that location for decades, and the encampment over the fence has already been there for several months. NBC Bay Area asked the president of the Marin County Homeless Union what might have led to the escalation.
“I think, right now, the property owner is trying to facilitate, is being emboldened by the city of San Rafael’s antagonism toward camp integrity,” said president Robbie Powelson. “Trying to help facilitate the city’s mission of forcing everybody out.”
Powelson said that the city is trying to dissolve the preliminary injunction that protects the camp from being disbanded. NBC Bay Area was not able to get in contact with the city successfully.
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On Tuesday, attorneys for the encampment plan to be in court to seek a restraining order against more of the nighttime noise.
