Eviction notices recently posted at Little Rock homeless camps prompted a protest and debate at City Hall on Tuesday.
Little Rock Code Enforcement posted notice-to-vacate signs at three homeless camps within the past week in response to complaints, said Code Enforcement Division Manager Ed Garland. There were about 10 notices posted in the past month.
The notices state: "This is to advise that you are unlawfully occupying this property. You are hereby being given official notice to remove yourself and your belongings from this property within five days of the date of this notice."
The city would take "whatever action necessary" to clean up the area and remove any remaining items after five days, the notice said.
Protesters asked that there be a solution offered as to where those living in a camp should go, before they are made to uproot their belongings.
"Please stop these evictions until there are legitimate options for these people you are running out of these woods," said Arron Reddin, executive director of The Van, an outreach ministry.
The Van put together a protest of about 60 people on City Hall steps Tuesday before a city board meeting.
One protester's sign read: "If you can't help people, at least don't hurt them. The city is hurting people." Another's said: "Shelters aren't free, like my bed under a tree."
About 12 people spoke to the board on the issue. Afterward, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said the city heard them "loud and clear."
"We know you just can't kick somebody out. They are just going to walk down the street and find another place," Stodola said.
City Manager Bruce Moore told protesters he is willing to talk with them to work out issues, and that the city would look into extending the five-day time frame for people to move out. He made no mention of stopping the notice-to-vacate citations altogether, saying they are typically in response to complaints.
The notices aren't a new initiative in the city. The Code Enforcement Division has put the citations up for many years when complaints come in about a particular homeless camp, Garland said. Notices say the evictions are "deemed necessary for health, safety and welfare reasons."
After a television news broadcast about the notices aired Monday, some officials said that the city's homeless services advocate, Chris Porter, has been getting a bad reputation. Porter took on his new role Jan. 9, though he has worked with the city for a number of years. His name and number were listed on the notices displayed in the TV broadcast.
Reddin told the board Tuesday that Porter isn't being well-received by the homeless people The Van has been in touch with. Officials defended Porter.
"As a courtesy, when we discover those situations, we take the homeless coordinator with us to kind of talk to them about services, see what the needs are and ask them and inform them to remove their personal belongings," Garland said.
Some protesters complained that the city staff discards personal belongings at the campsites. Reddin said he witnessed blankets and other belongings, including a homeless man's wallet, cleared out of a site off West Markham Street.
Garland said the city's goal is to clean up trash.
"The only reason Code Enforcement would visit a homeless camp is if someone has complained to the city. Complaints usually are general -- that there is a homeless camp with a bunch of trash and debris. What the city does 90 percent of the time is go and pick up and clean up the trash and debris after the occupants leave the camp," Garland said. "We do not take tents or personal belongings. That's the purpose of the posting -- to give them time to clean up. If we come back and there are still belongings there, we will typically delay the cleanup."
Screech Lowery, 28, and his girlfriend, Kurstain Rittenhouse, 24, were both kicked out about two weeks ago from a camp in the woods near the Salvation Army on property Lowery said he thinks belongs to a nearby auto body shop. They were told by police that they had 15 minutes to leave, they said.
Lowery has since contacted the shop owner, who told him the camp could return and the shop owner had not made a complaint, he said.
Rittenhouse said she and others at that camp relocated across the street to a parking lot owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, where they were met by police again and given criminal trespassing citations with a March 21 court date.
Not all city officials were aware of the practice of posting the notices at homeless camps. When someone informed the mayor last week, he said, he thought the person was mistaken, thinking the signs couldn't have possibly come from the city.
"I thought it was perhaps Union Pacific who had done that, wanting to get [the homeless] off their land. Or maybe the Highway Department because they've been cutting back a lot of tree growth and shrubbery growth on exit ramps, particularly off of Interstate 630, and that's made these camps more visible," Stodola said Tuesday.
Garland said Code Enforcement officers instruct any displaced homeless person to contact Jericho Way Homeless Day Resource Center for assistance. Porter will also give them other information about where they can get services.
In addition to Porter's contact information, the eviction signs include the cellphone number of Jericho Way Director Elizabeth Greim. She didn't return phone messages Tuesday. Officials said she was out sick.
Reddin and other protesters argued there aren't enough shelter beds to solve the problem and that uprooting one homeless camp just creates another one somewhere else in the city. Reddin said homeless people know they can't just set up camp anywhere on private property.
Stodola agreed that shelters can't solve the problem. He said the city is working with DePaul, the nonprofit organization contracted to operate Jericho Way, to acquire property near the resource center that could serve as traditional housing.
"The reality is, there's two main male shelters -- the Compassion Center and the Union Rescue Mission," Stodola said. "Both have requirements, religious requirements. You can stay so many days, and after that you have to pay. Some don't have the money to pay. It's a real challenging urban issue. It's not just Little Rock, it's every place."
He also noted that the Our House shelter for women, children and families has certain requirements, such as identification.
"Surely after all these years you can see that just moving people from place to place doesn't help," advocate Sandra Wilson said. "Sit down, talk with us and let's work these things through, because this isn't working."
Metro on 02/08/2017