photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

A fire burns at the unsanctioned homeless camp behind the Amtrak station near Seventh and New Jersey streets on Monday night, April 24, 2023, in Lawrence.

A fire in the unsanctioned homeless camp behind the East Lawrence Amtrak depot on Monday produced flames tall and wide enough for motorists to see as they drove into downtown from North Lawrence.

The flames have long since been extinguished, but questions about the camp continue to smolder at Lawrence City Hall, with perhaps the loudest being: When will the city require the camp on city-owned property to be disbanded?

Mayor Lisa Larsen told me on Thursday the day of disbandment is getting closer, if she has her way. Larsen said she plans to begin advocating for closure of the camp once the city completes its nearly $2 million shelter village project along North Michigan Street. That project, which will use 75 tiny, prefabricated shelters, could open in June.

“I’m just talking as myself, but that is definitely the route I’m working to achieve,” Larsen said. “That is the route I would like to see happen, and that is what I’m going to be advocating for. Once we get the capacity built and give folks the option to go there, if they decide not to go, they are going to have to find something different and it is going to have to be legal.”

The camp behind the Amtrak depot is almost certainly not legal. Seemingly, the land is not zoned for camping activities, and there are a host of apparent property maintenance and health and safety code violations at the camp, which is littered with large amounts of refuse along the banks of the river.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

A makeshift tent surrounded by debris and possessions at a homeless camp site in East Lawrence on Dec. 8, 2022.

While Larsen knows what she would like to do, the first part of her statement is also important. She is only speaking as one of five commissioners, and she is not sure whether she has the votes of other commissioners to shut the camp down once the shelter village opens.

Another key player in all of this is not a commissioner but rather the city manager. The chief administrator who is responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the city certainly will play a role in any shutdown decision. I began reaching out to City Manager Craig Owens on Tuesday for his thoughts on a path forward for the unsanctioned camp, but as of Thursday afternoon have yet to speak to him.

One of the questions I had for him is whether the city is confident that people who are living in the unsanctioned camp have any desire to move into the shelter village once it is is completed. I asked both Larsen and City Commissioner Brad Finkeldei that question in separate interviews on Thursday. Both said they did not know whether city outreach teams had been asking that question to residents of the unsanctioned camp.

There’s reason to believe the residents of the camp don’t have interest in moving from the spot. The first sign of that came in December when the city opened a Winter Emergency Shelter in the Community Building downtown. After the shelter had operated for about 10 days, the Journal-World asked the city for usage numbers at the shelter. At that time, there were, on average, nearly 30 unused beds available at the shelter. The camp behind the depot continued to have many residents in it during that time period.

The second sign came in early April. In March, the Lawrence Community Shelter expanded its capacity to about 125 people to help accommodate people who were camping outside. When the Journal-World asked for usage information in early April, there were nearly 50 unused beds on average. The camp behind the depot continued to have many residents in it during that time period.

Finkeldei, though, noted that the Winter Emergency Shelter and the Community Shelter both were offering just overnight shelter. He said that may not be what some residents of the camp are seeking.

“We certainly have experience that people who have a campsite have possessions and have some level of comfort that they don’t want to be displaced when the offer is temporary, overnight shelter,” Finkeldei said. “It is hard to displace them when the offer is only temporary.”

I asked Finkeldei whether a primary sticking point was the storage of camp residents’ possessions, because seemingly the city could use temporary storage units to safely store their possessions.

But Finkeldei said to say the issue primarily was one of storage would be an oversimplification. Instead, he said the issues revolved more around how to provide stability and a degree of “community.” He noted that there is an unsanctioned camp right outside the gates of the city’s sanctioned campsite, which is located behind Johnny’s Tavern in North Lawrence.

“Some people feel community right outside our sanctioned camp, and some people find community behind the train station, and there are other places around town where they find community,” Finkeldei said, referencing other unsanctioned camps that exist.

Finkeldei said the fact that many people in the unsanctioned camps haven’t left those camps to use the temporary shelters downtown or at LCS is not a sign that they won’t use the shelter village units, once they are completed. He said those units will be much different than anything currently offered.

But what happens when some people in the camps decline to move into the shelter village, when they are completed? If the city shuts down the unsanctioned camps, what actions will the city take if they find those individuals starting new camps that aren’t allowed under the law?

“If someone wants to camp and they don’t want to accept any other options, we can say ‘you can’t camp here,’ and they will go camp someplace else,” Finkeldei said. “And then we find them someplace else, and we say ‘you can’t camp there,’ and then we find them someplace else.”

At that point, I asked Finkeldei whether the city would be hesitant to cite such individuals for violating city law, even though in his example the individual would be a repeat offender. Finkeldei said thus far, the city has been hesitant to cite people because the city feels like it hasn’t offered enough options for those people to move elsewhere to a legal location.

Finkeldei, though, said his mindset on that issue might change, but he was hesitant to say when.

“Will that hesitancy change as our options change?” Finkeldei asked. “I would say yes, but when we get to that point on that continuum, I think, is a larger question.”

Mayor Larsen also talked about the issue of what the city will do if people refuse to leave an illegal camp once the shelter village is completed. She said if people are given a viable option to move out of an illegal camp and refuse to do so, she expects the city to use its laws to gain compliance.

“If that option is not taken up,” Larsen said of voluntarily moving to a city-approved location, “then we are going to address it through more ordinance-related issues.”

Whether a majority of city commissioners feel that way, though, might be the biggest question smoldering at City Hall right now.

“There is going to be a point, as far as I’m concerned, that we have to make that decision,” Larsen said. “That is definitely the route I’m looking to go, but have to build that capacity first.”