When officials began talking about clearing the park, they cited concerns for the safety of tent residents. City Councilwoman Jenn Fleisher had volunteered to lead the transition, explaining it was not safe for people to live by the river in as many as 70 tents.
“We do have flooding and flash flooding that has happened here. Other safety issues – just the nature of living outside, exposed not only to the environmental elements but to anyone who walks by," she told RadioIQ. "The public health piece – there is not a lot of sanitation support down here.”
And Police Chief Michael Kachess said it was tricky to protect a neighborhood lacking in streets and house numbers.
“Because of the way it was spread out, when we would get a call, we really wouldn’t know exactly where the incident was.”
On August third, Assistant Manager Samuel Roman assured city council that a building it planned to renovate and use as a long-term shelter could quickly be furnished to serve as an emergency residence.
“We are actually shooting for September first," he said. "We are working feverishly to try to make that happen.”
But less than two hours later, during public testimony, the situation wasn’t looking like a sure thing. Donnas Chambers, who said he’d been living by the river for about a year, said he was unwilling to move.
“Y’all just building a shelter to throw us in there. There’s no way we’re going to be lying side by side on cots at a shelter. There are people with dogs. There are couples. Someone may be allergic to dogs. Someone may have mental health problems. They can’t be around people. They need their own space.”
Andrew Gray, who said two of his uncles were homeless, echoed that sentiment.
“They hated staying in shelters. They told me directly they preferred living outside to the close company and odors of some of their companions in the shelters.”
And Isis Neumann argued forcing people to camp in more remote locations might put women in greater danger. She had once lived in a tent in some woods with an abusive boyfriend.
“I remember one day we were in that tent. He was mad that I was doing prostitution. He started choking me, yelling in my face," she recalled. "No one could hear him. If I could have gotten his hands off my throat long enough to scream, no one would have heard me. If I could have made it out of the tent, it’s very unlikely I would have made it to help before he caught up. Luckily he let go.”
The city has stepped up police patrols in the area, added lighting and security cameras, but Jennifer Grant said that had made residents even more uncomfortable.
“We have a lot of people now who have barricaded themselves inside their tents and do not want to come out to get ice and water, because they are so depressed -- because they have gotten shipped from one place to another to another.”
City resident Donna Tietjen told council that other communities had crafted plans informed by an understanding of trauma – something she says is common among people who are unhoused.
Trauma’s not simply a difficult experience. It’s what happens when a person’s brain and body are overwhelmed by fear, loss, violence and instability. It changes how people respond, how they cope and how they survive. For many people experiencing homelessness, trauma did not begin with losing a house. Many have survived abuse, violence, serious illness, untreated mental illness, addiction and profound loss. Now another layer of trauma is being created. The threat of forced displacement and arrest, combined with 24-hour surveillance cameras, increased police patrols, bright lights throughout the night and on-going public harassment and threats is already causing harm.”
And Anne Coughlin, a professor at UVA’s law school, wondered if plans to clear the park were even legal.
“What is the crime for which you are going to arrest folks? Being homeless in public? Sleeping in public?”
Police have said residents of the encampment could be charged with a misdemeanor – trespassing, but the local prosecutor declined to say what the penalty would be for that, and Coughlin warned the city might be sued.
“You would want to think about what those lawsuits would involve –- the amount of resources that they would take, the attention that they would garner, and the way that would distract from the really important thing that we need to do, which is to provide housing.”
The city has now set aside $4 million to prepare and operate its temporary shelter. In November, a coalition of government agencies and non-profits will open a permanent facility at a cost of $26 million. Vista 29 will provide 80 small apartments for low-income people, along with social workers who can connect residents with assistance finding jobs or training, mental health care and substance abuse programs.
