4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOMELESSNESS In 2019 I experienced homelessness and was living in the Delonis Center where I met my friend Tom (not his real name). Tom was a homeless schizophrenic who was sleeping under the Fuller Bridge located by the University of Michigan hospital. I slept there a few times. The tent was set up on concrete with bricks to hold down the corners. We slept on air mattresses to protect ourselves from the hard ground. They were comfortable until they sprang leaks. The train's roar as it passed under the bridge was startling and deafening. We woke in the morning to the sounds of rush hour traffic and went to the nearby St. Andrews Church/soup kitchen for breakfast. Near the bridge are other encampments. Located in the trails and woods, the remnants of many generations of homeless citizens can be found. I once walked among the refuse. In it, I found things that were once important to someone: nice clothing, tons of personal hygiene items, bikes, camping gear and more, all in usable condition and simply left behind. Some things were deteriorated due to time. It was easy to see how long these places have been used out of desperate need for shelter. Campsites like these are located all over Washtenaw County. There are popular ones that many people know about and use frequently. The Washtenaw County agency PATH (Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness) places people in some of these sites. Still, most folks find them on their own, by word of mouth, or through community action groups like Washtenaw Camp Outreach. Sometimes they are on Department of Transportation property, sometimes on university property, and sometimes on private property. This is because there are no sanctioned and accessible places to camp or sleep when you have no permanent shelter. The Delonis Center is very limited in capacity, given the size of the homeless population. There are no other shelters open year-round for single adults. Sleeping in tents is the closest thing some people have to safe, habitable shelter. Habitable means safe from cold and environmental hazards like bugs and animals. However, in a tent that is at a known location, personal safety from crime and violence cannot be guaranteed. This means tents are not adequate shelter. After an encampment has been noticed by the police or other authorities, they may take action by forcing camp-dwellers to move in what is known as a “sweep.” Sweeps take away even the minimal safety of a tent. People are often forced to abandon their property, including their tents and DECEMBER 15, 2023 Fuller Bridge sweep reiterates need for shelter space JIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 bedding, leaving them no shelter. Because they have nowhere to go, the campers regroup under different bridges or return to the same one after some time has passed. Eventually, the sweep comes around again. Sweeps at Fuller Bridge have happened many times over the years. The most recent time the Fuller Bridge camp was swept was November 7, 2023. This time the sweep was initiated by the Michigan Department of Transportation at the behest of Amtrak. According to the officials who conducted the sweep, the decision-makers for Amtrak were afraid for the safety of their passengers. The MDOT officials also had concerns for the safety of the trains and crews, about the fires campers lit for warmth, but also for the campers themselves. Consider the following quote from the April 2023 revision of the “Trespass & Suicide Prevention Tool Kit” (https:// trespasstoolkit.fra.dot.gov/eLib/) which outlines an action plan for relocating homeless individuals from train tracks to a safer location. However, the approach is flavored by forcible removals, surveillance, and a tone of “homeless people are a nuisance.” “... in California’s Santa Barbara County, a 2019 investigation found that a surge in rail-related deaths was tied to individuals living in encampments near the ROW. Twelve of 20 people killed over four years had been living in encampments, and more than half of these deaths were suicides. Encampments close to the tracks can also cause undue stress for train crew members who witnessed a previous train strike.” Groundcover News editor Cynthia Price was with the residents right before the November sweep, bringing them supplies. She shared with me what the residents said to her about it. “[They] sounded nonchalant and unthreatened, which seemed counterintuitive. They said MDOT bulldozed everything.” What the resident meant by that is they used a Bobcat to doze under all their stuff at the bridge. “But they let [a couple of us] take some of our stuff because we were there after we got the notice. They didn’t bulldoze our bikes,” said Demolished tent underneath Fuller Bridge after November 7 sweep. one of the residents. As this was happening the Ann Arbor police also came on the scene. The AAPD tends to be sympathetic toward the unsheltered people in Washtenaw County. They know where the encampments are and who sleeps in them, and they prefer not to disturb them unless duty calls. In this case, they let the residents know they would have not made them leave. They helped, and told the residents, “If it was up to us we wouldn’t do it, but we have to abide by MDOT.” The residents left the camp; they waited until later that night and went back. Price said, “It's always been my impression that sweeps were a lot less drastic than you would think. A lot of times people just go back right away. Also, some sweep notifications don’t get acted on. In my view, it makes a difference in terms of where the population is and where they are relocated. Personally, this sweep meant it was slightly more dire to make sure they were warm enough. They had fires, which is one of the things MDOT was concerned about. Washtenaw Camp Outreach brought them propane and heaters but there were still fires before and after. Cold is a lot more serious when your only option for shelter is in a tent outside.” People who are homeless seek shelter in tents, cars, abandoned buildings, parks and under bridges and awnings. These places will continuously be sought unless we make a place of respite for unsheltered people. If the citizens of Washtenaw County want to see homelessness reduced and eliminated, then we need to do more than observe the problems. We need solutions and plans to go with them. As reported in Groundcover News frequently this fall, Shelter Now is a community action group that has some ideas. Sparked by the sweep at 16 S. Washington this past summer, Shelter Now was born from a body of activists and neighbors who responded by blockading the sweep. Shelter Now’s goal is to have these demands met by the county or in other ways: 1) Create and fund a dignified 24/7 shelter in Ypsilanti before spring 2024; 2) Open a temporary shelter immediately. Fund and do not interfere with unofficial and temporary shelter spaces. End street sweeps and camp sweeps; 3) Ensure that the houseless and housing-insecure communities have decision-making and veto power in all Ypsilanti shelter spaces and their creation. Homelessness is not going away anytime soon. Neither is the winter weather, nor are the deaths by cold exposure. So neither are these demands. They will be made again and again until the county listens and responds affirmatively. No justice, no peace. www.ypsishelternow.com
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