Homeless horror: Councilman launches drive to disperse ‘Tent City’

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, May 10, 2001 | 10:41 a.m.

Just one block away from Maya Angelou Street, named after the famed black poet who writes of civil rights and hope, lies an area filled with homeless people in a community known as "Tent City."

Hope isn't visible for the 80 men living in tents or cardboard boxes near Union Pacific Railroad tracks at Owens Avenue and A Street. An entire community lives there with no running water or bathrooms. Garbage is heaped in mounds and human waste is strewn about.

This is home for the men of "Tent City."

In light of the ongoing negotiations between the city and MASH Village, City Councilman Lawrence Weekly says there's an even bigger problem, a problem he pointed out during a tour of the area Wednesday.

While he is quick to say "this can no longer be tolerated," he admits he has no immediate answers of how to solve the problem. He hopes to find solutions in the coming weeks, meeting with agencies such as Metro Police to try to clean up the area and relocate the homeless people sleeping near the tracks.

Police for years have tried to assist the homeless, rather than arresting them for trespassing. Weekly said that may soon change. He wants the homeless men who live in "Tent City" evicted.

"I want to bring awareness to the public, to pull back the covers and let everyone see what's going on here," he said. "Someone's going to have to tell us how we can clean this up. This is unacceptable."

But where will they go?

Officer Kendall Wiley, who is part of Metro's Homeless Evaluation Liaison Project, or HELP, spends her days working with the men living near "Tent City" and in the nearby homeless shelters.

Her job, as she describes it, is to help the homeless people living near the tracks find shelter, a place to go where they won't be victimized. She and her partner, Chris Crawford, don't arrest the homeless people, who are technically trespassing on railroad property.

"Homelessness is not a police problem, it's a community problem," Wiley said. "All I'm trying to do is I want people to be safe, I don't want people to get hurt."

Many of the men she meets don't want to enter a shelter or take part in the services provided by nearby Salvation Army, MASH Village, or Catholic Charities.

Robert Broadhead, who has been living near the tracks for two months, says he won't go to a shelter because he can't take his dog with him.

"What am I going to do, abandon this dog so I can sleep on Salvation Army's floor?" he said. "It's a free country. We just want to be left alone."

Other men nearby complain of the shelters' strict schedules, being told when to eat and when to get up.

"They treat you like you're an animal, like a prisoner," one homeless man said.

Weekly said services must be set up directly near the tracks, where the homeless people can have direct access to information about services. He also said he will work with code enforcement and call in the Clark County Health District to clean up the health hazards. If some of the homeless people refuse to take part in the services, Weekly said, the city can no longer allow them to live there.

"Because it's their choice, should they be allowed to live like this?" Weekly said. "This is a major health issue, and this is not the way people should live."

Heather Guillen, president of the national organization End Homelessness Now, said cities are attacking the problem in the wrong way, trying to find a solution to a problem that is complex.

Around the United States, she said, governments try to shut down areas like "Tent City," but the end result is that they move into nearby areas and the problem never ends.

"Arresting homeless people isn't going to stop being from being homeless," she said. "Kicking them out will just disperse them."

Unsure of a solution, Weekly said the residents in his ward can no longer allow "Tent City" to exist.

"I'm not anti-homeless," Weekly said. "But we can't continue to turn our heads, like this doesn't exist. Everyone has to take responsibility for this."