This story originally published online at NC Newsline.
Hoping to avoid an encounter with Raleigh police, many of the more than 40 people living in a tent encampment on U.S. 70 left ahead of the 10 a.m. deadline they’d been given to vacate or face arrest for trespassing.
Nearly two hours after the deadline passed, police had not arrived in order to force people to leave. Two officers did show up Tuesday afternoon, advocates for the people living there reported, but were not part of the forced eviction.
Throughout the morning, the encampment was a beehive of activity. Inhabitants took down tents, stuffed belongings into large plastic bags and packed them onto borrowed shopping carts.
Friends and relatives arrived in pickup trucks and SUVs to help the luckier ones move from the site, which is owned by the State of North Carolina. Law enforcement officials have deemed it unsafe, citing an uptick in criminal activity.
Shelia Larson drove from Fayetteville to help daughter Hannah Larson and her boyfriend Josh move.
“I’m worried about her,” Shelia Larson said. “If I could do more, I would but I can’t, so I just help when I can.”
Hannah Larson said she and Josh planned to move into a hotel.
“He works, he’s in landscaping,” Hannah Larson said. “We’re going to head toward Capital Boulevard and I’m going to look for a job there. That is our current plan.”
Advocates for the people in the encampment held a press conference ahead of the deadline.
“We never said to anybody, how come we don’t have affordable housing in Garner and Raleigh, how come we don’t have a place to move into a tiny house?” said Patrick O’Neill, who organized the press conference. “All we’ve said is, how about a patch of grass so somebody can pitch their tent?”
Horse Valdez lives in the encampment with wife Kathy. He’s affectionately called the mayor of the encampment.
“We’re not doing nothing wrong,” Valdez said. “They say this is an unsafe area. I make damned sure it’s very safe. Police have been here one time and that was because of people from the other camp coming over here.”
Marcia Timmel, a Garner resident and retired Wake County educator who organized an Easter meal for the encampment, said the encampment is a safe option.
“This is sort of like to last port in the storm, and we’re getting ready to cast them out onto very treacherous seas,” Timmel said.
Mary Rider, a housing advocate and social worker, noted that the order to move comes during the National Week of Action to Oppose the Criminalization of Homelessness.
“Homeless people are not criminals, they’re just people who don’t have homes,” Rider said. “Everyone should have a safe and affordable place to live.”
Rider said that it’s difficult to get into public housing.
“If you put your name on the waiting list in Raleigh or Wake County today, in about eight years it will come up,” Rider said. “So, where are you supposed to live for those eight years?”
Finding affordable rental units is also difficult without a good credit score or good-paying job, Rider said.
“The problem is not the people living in this park, the problem is a state and a country that doesn’t provide for people in need while we provide billions of dollars around the world to bomb people, kill people and help other countries bomb people and kill people.”
Diana Powell, executive director of Justice Served NC, said elected officials will be held accountable for not taking care of the state’s most vulnerable citizens.
“There are children literally sleeping outside,” Powell said. “This is unacceptable. I want to send a message to our politicians. We have got to do better. We will hold you accountable—if we have to call your name out, go to your office.”
The planned eviction from the grassy encampment near bus lines and shopping came one day after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument about the constitutionality of ordinances in Grants Pass, Oregon that bar people who are experiencing homelessness from using blankets, pillows or cardboard boxes to protect themselves from the elements while sleeping within the city limits.
The case could shape municipal homeless policies across the country if upheld by the high court. Advocacy groups for people experiencing homelessness and others argue that allowing cities to punish people who need a place to sleep is tantamount to criminalizing homelessness.
Julia Milstead, a spokesperson for the City of Raleigh, told NC Newsline on Monday that the order to leave the site is a “difficult and emotional situation for everyone.” Milstead stressed that the property is owned by the State of North Carolina. She said the city is working with the NC Department of Transportation to find a solution.
Milstead said the people in the encampment have “consistently declined services” offered by the Raleigh Police Department’s Addressing Crises through Outreach, Referrals, Networking, and Service (ACORNS) unit and the City of Raleigh.
“We will continue to help make connections to programs available through the City and private partners,” Milstead said. “Enforcement is our last option in this complicated situation.
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