Officials assisting residents with finding new housing
Blogmaster's Note - At Missouri River Relief's 2010 river clean-up in St. Joseph, we delivered a bunch of trash bags to the extremely nice folks living at St. Joseph's Tent City, right on the banks of the river by the old railroad bridge. They filled those bags with trash and asked for more. This is another bit of sad news.
Originally published by St. Joseph News-Press on March 26, 2011
Click here for original link
by Kim Norvell
Kenneth Paxton, who has lived on the river adjacent to Tent City for more than a year, was busy cleaning up some of the trash left in another encampment Friday afternoon. Mr. Paxton will soon be leaving his own tent as have all but two other Tent City residents. The Social Security Administration will pay for a motel room, Mr. Paxton says, until permanent housing can be found.
The official answer as to who owns the territory inhabited by homeless men and women remains unclear. However, the process of finding permanent housing for Tent City residents has been expedited, because the Union Pacific railroad believes the land belongs to them.
A few weeks ago, an anonymous citizen alerted Union Pacific authorities to the homeless encampment by the Missouri River, said Mark Davis, director of corporate relations and media for the railroad’s northern region.
Mr. Davis said it is unclear if the territory is in fact owned by Union Pacific, but is “close enough” to the railroad that the company felt something needed to be done. On top of that, city officials are concerned with health and safety issues of the men and women living there, and felt a change needed to be made.
Railroad officials surveyed the territory. Because the remaining three residents were a safe distance from the tracks and were not defacing equipment, Union Pacific agreed to give them until May 1 to find alternative housing, rather than force them off the property immediately.
“It’s the right thing to do as long as their safety is not in jeopardy,” Mr. Davis said.
Ashley Howery, a homeless advocate, said the Continuum of Care for Homeless Services asked the railroad for an extended amount of time before any action would be taken, in order to “quickly and effectively carry out plans to meet the needs of the citizens remaining in Tent City.”
“For a long time now, agencies and other advocates like myself have been reaching out a helping hand to extend our efforts in reducing homelessness in St. Joseph,” Ms. Howery said.
A former resident of Tent City, Lynne, said she got help finding an apartment by the Continuum of Care after living by the river for nearly three months. She said she was not interested in living at a shelter because of the established rules, which is why a lot of homeless people choose to stay in the area.
While she admitted the area was unkempt, she believes it’s best to have an established spot for the homeless to live outside of the rules of existing shelters.
“The way I look at it, people are going to be living all over town, underneath bridges and in parking garages,” she said. “That’s not really good. They’ll have to go somewhere.”
Mr. Davis said the railroad’s real estate department is working on verifying that the area is in fact owned by Union Pacific. A representative of the Buchanan County assessor’s office said they have been asked by several people in the past week who owns the patch of land, but the answer remains unclear.
If it is found that the land is the railroad’s property, anyone remaining after May 1 will be removed by Union Pacific police. The land will be cleaned up and, depending on the size of the property, closed off with a fence. If the land is too small to configure boundaries, the area will be patrolled by railroad and local police, Mr. Davis said.
“If it would be determined that it’s not our property, then any action taken would be up to the owner,” he said.
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