City shuts homeless camp on bank of Kansas River

Gary Crook sits at his campsite just east of the SpringHill Suites by Marriott on Wednesday afternoon. The city sent a Parks and Recreation supervisor to hang a notice telling Crook and other campers to vacate the area.

Gary Crook sat on the edge of a concrete slab under a blue plastic canopy Wednesday afternoon and watched as a Lawrence city employee nailed a sign to a nearby tree. A police officer stood nearby.

Another camp used by homeless people was being shut down.

“I’m leaving tonight,” said Crook, 31.

Crook said he and a friend had been sleeping for a month at the camp – in a wooded area just north of the Amtrak Depot at Seventh and New York streets.

But that area, on a bluff overlooking the Kansas River, also is designated as a city nature preserve. Periodically, city workers and Lawrence police move in and clear out the camps.

“It’s a continuous problem,” said Mark Hecker, director of Lawrence Parks and Recreation. “It’s seasonal.”

The sign on the tree stated that the site had no water and no sanitary facilities. It informed campers that they needed to clear out by 2 p.m. today or their belongings would be cleared out for them.

The site where Crook and his friend were staying was marked by two tents. Clothes and a few shoes were scattered around. Some of the clothes hung on tree branches and wires. On the concrete slab were several chairs and a barbecue grill. A trash can was in the center of the slab.

“Every once in a while we find something missing,” Crook said.

Homeless for two years, Crook said he lived at a shelter in Kansas City for a while. Now he will stay nights at the Lawrence Open Shelter, he said.

There were plenty of signs that more than two people had been in the river bluff area. A short distance from the camp the ground was littered with beer bottles and cans, as well as cardboard boxes and a few adult magazines.

Police and Parks and Recreation employees monitor the areas where homeless people have been known to congregate for years.

There also are areas along the river at Burcham Park and Riverfront Park where homeless camps develop and have to be shut down, Hecker said. Once a sign is posted, he said, most campers leave.

“There usually isn’t a problem,” Hecker said.