Last week, Wes Manning’s sole belongings were a tent, some clothes and an old guitar.

“When you’re poor, you don’t have much,” he said while rolling a cigarette behind the Community Drop-In Center, 214 W. 10th St.

Manning lost everything last week when city workers rousted homeless campers from three sites in the woods along the Kansas River between Constant and Burcham parks and leveled their make-do shelters with earth-moving equipment.

“It’s all gone, everything,” he said. “I know a grown man ain’t supposed to cry, but this is the last straw. Ain’t nobody read the Ten Commandments, the part where it says thou shalt not steal? That’s what they did, they stole everything I had.”

Manning and others are upset because the campsites, they say, were cleared without warning. The city lacks a policy for such action.

“If they didn’t want us there, they should have said something. We would have moved,” said Randy Guffey, who, with his girlfriend, Heidi Pennywell, was camped about 30 yards east of Manning.

“Wes was way up in the woods,” Guffey said. “You wouldn’t know he was there unless you went looking for him.”

10-minute warning

Guffey, 46, and Manning said they were downtown when city workers cleared the campsites. Pennywell, who had stayed behind, said she was given 10 minutes to gather Guffey’s and her belongings.

“When we got back, we found (Pennywell) sitting on the trail, crying,” Guffey said, adding that she had salvaged his toolbox, his guitar and some photographs of her mother and granddaughter. She wasn’t able to save Manning’s guitar.

In recent weeks, Guffey and Manning said they had played their guitars for tips outside the Antique Mall of Lawrence, 830 Mass.

Heidi Pennywell, left, Wes Manning, center, and Randy Guffey are among homeless people who no longer have campsites near the Kansas River between Burcham and Constant parks. Their sites were leveled last week by city heavy equipment, which also destroyed personal items such as medical prescriptions and a guitar.

“I have no way to replace my guitar,” Manning said. “I can’t work. My back is bad, I got a bad heart. I have no money.”

Manning said he came to Lawrence from Mississippi about six weeks ago.

“A woman asked me to help her drive an RV up here,” he said. “And then instead of going back, she decided to stay. So I stayed, too. Up until this happened, I liked it here.”

Guffey and Pennywell said they came to Lawrence from Wichita. “I thought maybe I could find a job up here,” Guffey said.

It’s not known who was at the third campsite, though Pennywell said she thought someone was there when city workers arrived.

No-camping area

City Manager Mike Wildgen said he ordered the campsites cleared after he walked the trail between two parks.

6News video: Homeless have been removed from campsite

“It’s not a camping area,” Wildgen said, adding that he assumed the campers would be given 24-hour notice to vacate the sites.

Parks director Fred DeVictor said Pennywell and another camper were told to gather their belongings and leave the area.

“It was short notice,” DeVictor said. “It wasn’t a day’s notice.”

Giving 24-hour notice is considered a courtesy rather than a hard-and-fast policy, DeVictor said.

“We are trying to be more alert to concerns being raised about certain activities going on in the parks,” he said.

Police spokesman Sgt. Dan Ward said police reports indicated two campers — most likely Pennywell and someone at the third site — were given some time to gather their belongings.

Dignity shelved

That the city lacks a formal policy for breaking up illegal campsites has the attention of the Lawrence Coalition on Homeless Concerns.

“I’m not going to defend somebody’s right to camp where they’re not supposed to camp, but I do think these things ought to be handled in a way that respects the dignity and humanity of those involved,” Steve Ozark, co-chairman of the coalition.

Manning agreed. Leaving the cleared campsite Thursday, he pointed to the locomotive in nearby Buford M. Watson Jr. Park.

“See that?” he said. “That’s America. Every time I see it, I think: America was built by people who camped.”

Manning said he slept on the ground Wednesday behind First Christian Church, 1000 Ky. Guffey and Pennywell said they slept beside the railroad tracks in Constant Park.