photo by: Kim Callahan

The Kansas River can be seen from the former site of the Amtrak homeless camp on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024.

The City of Lawrence has finished cleaning the area between the Amtrak station and the Kansas River that was, until Wednesday, a sprawling homeless camp, and it says it has no immediate plans to dismantle other homeless camps that have sprung up throughout the city.

“Currently, there are no plans to clear other camps,” said Misty Bosch-Hastings, director of the city’s Homeless Solutions Division. “With the winter season approaching, our priority is to focus on life-saving measures and provide support to those in need. Our secondary focus remains on building relationships, engaging with individuals, and helping them transition out of homelessness.”

As the Journal-World reported, Lawrence police and city workers did a predawn walk-through of the Amtrak camp Wednesday morning, alerting campers to be gone in preparation for heavy-equipment crews moving in at daylight to haul away years worth of debris and to remediate the land to its natural state. Part of the area in question is a conservation area for bald eagles.

In the lead-up to that walk-through, members of the Homeless Response Team frequently visited and assisted campers, who had two months’ notice to collect their belongings and to be prepared to leave by Oct. 15. The day before the deadline, multiple city workers and volunteers were on site helping people move heavy belongings and fill provided tote bags.

Still, more than a dozen campers seemed surprised by the visit from police a day after the deadline had passed.

“Many of the individuals that were present on the day of remediation returned to Amtrak the evening of camp closure with the belief that if they stood their ground together, the camp could stay open,” Bosch-Hastings told the Journal-World.

But that belief was mistaken.

“To prevent the area from becoming an unsanctioned camp again, our staff canvasses all parks, downtown areas, and previously closed camps during weekdays,” Bosch-Hastings said. “The area behind the Amtrak site has been added to this schedule, and if individuals are found camping, they will be trespassed, consistent with our current practices in parks.”

Bosch-Hastings said many of the individuals who were recently staying at the Amtrak site have moved into housing, and a few are in a substance use treatment facility. Others are staying at The Village (the city’s collection of 50 Pallet shelters on North Michigan Street) or “have relocated to other outdoor areas.”

The city bristles at the characterization that the camp was insensitively “swept.”

“Some individuals present (Wednesday) were advocates, not unhoused persons, protesting what they perceived as a camp sweep,” Bosch-Hastings said.

But the Homeless Response Team will continue to provide outreach at every camp, she said, connecting individuals with resources and housing.

The most recent point-in-time count in Douglas County, a data survey mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, found 414 people were experiencing homelessness in the county on the night of the count — a number up 18% since last year.

In March, the city shut down Camp New Beginnings, a city-sanctioned site on the other side of the river in North Lawrence. That camp and the unsanctioned camp around it had become the site of frequent police calls over violence, drug issues and other criminal activity. Several campers, as the Journal-World reported, had died of drug overdoses and one woman was allegedly stabbed to death.

Multiple Lawrence businesses eventually sued the city in December of last year, contending that city was creating a “vagrancy crisis” and allowing city laws to be “violated with impunity.”

photo by: Kim Callahan

The former site of the Amtrak homeless camp is pictured on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024.

photo by: Kim Callahan

The former site of the Amtrak homeless camp is pictured on Friday, Oct. 18, 2024.