They’re coming to tear down our camp’: After a delay, New Albany levels a homeless site

New Albany city workers tore down a homeless encampment along Silver Creek on Monday afternoon — three days after officials hit pause after discovering that six people were living there.

New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan said in a statement Monday afternoon that after receiving reports July 26 of people “squatting in an illegal wooden structure on public property” along Silver Creek, investigating agencies decided it was “unsafe and unsanitary.”

Temporary housing has been arranged for those living in the camp, Gahan said. 

“Their personal effects were returned, and the unsanitary and unsafe structure has been demolished,” Gahan said. 

The demolition is the latest of more than a half-dozen camps to be torn down in the greater Louisville metro area. Louisville officials have removed several camps in the city limits because of unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

Homeless advocates complain that tearing down the camps just moves the homeless to different sites and fails to fix the underlying problems that are forcing people into the streets.

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The Homeless Prevention Task Force is planning to put the former residents of the Silver Creek camp into a hotel in Clarksville, Indiana for at least a week, said Barb Anderson, member of the task force and executive director of Haven House Services.

Anderson said the task force was working on moving the families from America’s Best Inn and Suites, a hotel in Clarksville with about 100 full-time residents that closed its doors earlier this month, when she heard the homeless camp by Silver Creek was being cleared.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to work something out with some folks to get them housed again,” Anderson said, “permanently, not on the streets.”

With the decision to clear out the homeless camp, there “has been a lot of misleading information and communication,” said Marcy Garcia, a volunteer with the street outreach group Hip Hop Cares.

Garcia said a police officer told her Saturday that the demolition would be “on hold until an ordinance was set in place, basically to get them (the camp residents) for trespassing.”

The belief was that the camp’s residents wouldn’t have anything to worry about on Monday, Garcia said.

But police returned along with street department employees and a dumpster. Garcia said she received a call from a frantic camp resident. 

“She said, ‘Marcy, they’re coming to tear down our camp. They’re going to demolish it,'” Garcia recalled.

Rachel Townsend, one of the camp’s residents, said that police had strongly suggested that people get their things together.Get the Coronavirus Watch newsletter in your inbox.

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Homeless advocates were supposed to have a meeting with city officials before a decision to clear the camp was made, said Paul Stensrud, director of the outreach group Jesus Cares at Exit 0. 

“This is where it’s important to have a protocol,” Stensrud said. “But obviously, the city (doesn’t) want a protocol. They want to do things their way against the homeless.”

Gary Reed, who lived at the camp for about a year, said he doesn’t know where he’ll go next. 

“I hope it stays warm and dry,” he said, adding that he plans to take his clothes and tools and leave the rest. 

“Gotta pick the pieces up and move on,” he said. “Keep calm and cool.”

New Albany Police Chief Todd Bailey had said in an email to the Courier Journal last week that the city wanted to give the people the camp “the benefit of the doubt to seek other avenues and not simply tear it down.”

Garcia and Jeff Gill, the founder of Hip Hop Cares, told the Courier Journal previously that police were drawn to the camp after a fire burned a shack about one month ago.

While Louisville has a 21-day notice period before razing camps, New Albany has no law requiring officials to notify homeless residents in advance.

Bailey referred the Courier Journal to Gahan’s office when asked for comment.