Albert Rodriguez stood at the Pajaro River levee on Monday morning, tears welling in his eyes. He is a worker on a crew that is clearing the Pajaro River levee encampment this week. The job brought him face-to-face with a reality he knew all too well: clearing out a homeless encampment while being homeless himself.
Rodriguez, 55, was recently forced to move his recreational vehicle off Monterey Road in Gilroy and has been struggling to find work or a permanent place to live. An old work contact who hired him on occasion to help set up playgrounds around California and Nevada connected him with a short-term job with Lagestic, an Oakland-based debris removal company contracted to clear makeshift homes from the Pajaro River levee starting this week.
“I’m doing something that I wish I wouldn’t have to do,” Rodriguez said, his voice breaking. “But I’m doing it because I need the money.”…