Bloomington’s Rail Trail extends 2.1 miles from the south edge of the city. It’s gravel and ground asphalt mostly. If you turn left at the main entrance from the trail parking lot, Running parallel to the east is another trail. One less traveled, rutted and muddy when it rains.
It leads to a series of homeless camps that had become a community of sorts for people with no place to live. Here they have existed in a place they created. The goal is to be hidden away, just far enough off the beaten path to not draw too much attention.
And it works. For a while.
Citing complaints about smells, fights and fires, city officials posted eviction notices nearly four weeks ago giving camp occupants 30 days to move themselves, and their possessions, off the city-owned land between Country Club Drive and Gordon Pike.
Like the three previous homeless camp evictions that have taken place since Kerry Thomson took over as mayor Jan. 1, people living outside are being offered access to local service agencies and already-crowded overnight shelters. City Communications Director Desiree DeMolina said the city is focused on addressing the homeless-camp issue.
"Our administration has been diligently collaborating with housing nonprofits and service providers to develop a tactical plan," she wrote in an email response to H-T questions. "Homelessness is a complex issue affecting the entire nation and the challenges we face in Bloomington are not unique. We acknowledge that significantly more work is ahead."
The reality is many of the two dozen or more most recently displaced people prefer outside campsites to overnight shelters, where they are moved out every morning. Some have dogs, which aren’t allowed at shelters. Some have been banned from those places. Some just want to be left alone.
On Friday, July 19, many were heeding the city’s warning. They were bagging up their belongings — few had a suitcase — and getting out. The time had come to look for a new place to set up camp and call home.
What gets left behind
Not far down this parallel trail, off to the side, sits an industrial 10-yard metal trash receptacle with discarded clothing and bags of garbage spilling out from the open end. Walk farther and there’s the first campsite off to the left down a short worn-down path. There’s something resembling a metal bird cage at the entry, the equivalent of a campsite marker at a state park campground.
Keep going and there are more paths to the left. Clothes strung across a line to dry. A parked bicycle with a basket on the front. A bright yellow grocery cart from Dollar General filled with aluminum cans for recycling. Three dogs tied to trees lolling in the shade.
Did the camp occupants not see the city notices? What will happen to those dogs, a pit bull, a small white terrier and a nondescript hound?
Toward the south end of this trail is another dumpster, this one to-the-brim full of white plastic trash bags, clothes and everything else you can imagine. The people who’ve been living here will be gone in a few days and city bulldozers and dump trucks will scoop up and haul away what is left behind. They will level the earth, maybe lay down gravel and plant some groundcover.
A man with thick braids goes by pulling one of those collapsible cloth-sided wagons hauling trash bags tied shut, wedged in and piled high. Five other people, one a teenager, trudge alongside the wagon. They don’t smile or say hello as I pass by. “Did you get moved out?” They all nod and keep moving. Refugees. Homeless camp refugees.
Southbound and ready to cross Gordon Pike, moving into county turf, a man and woman pull a similar wagon. Two pit bulls on leashes lead the way. “You had to move out?” this reporter asks. “Yeah,” they say, not missing a step.
A college-aged man jogs by. His sunglasses have reflective lenses; an earbud protrudes from the side of his head. He takes no notice of the homeless camp couple and those big dogs, running past them at a fast clip. They are so easy to not see.
'Not a cycle we wish to continue'
City officials continue collaborating with service providers “to address these situations,” DeMolina said. “We are committed to resolving these issues with sensitivity and support, as this is not a cycle we wish to continue.”
She said city leaders will create “a community-driven and sustainable plan to help individuals facing mental health and substance use issues” as a way to lessen the plight of many unhoused citizens.
She called implementing effective strategies “a pressing concern for our entire community.”
The goal?
“Finding both compassionate and lasting solutions,” she said, “to address this complex problem.”
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: For fourth time this year, southern Indiana city urges homeless encampment to move
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