Christiana homeless camp to be cleared
A sprawling homeless encampment secreted within a wooded area adjacent to University Plaza in Christiana will be cleared out by week's end, New Castle County officials said Wednesday.
The camp was well-established at one time – and not so long ago –with at least a dozen separate sites, some with timber shelters lashed together with rope, some with large-capacity tents and some with a few creature comforts, including a generator, a small refrigerator, a sofa and some other furniture.
Wednesday, it was clear that some dismantling work already had started. Yellow tent ropes were cut clean. The largest tents and tarps were gone.
But scattered liquor bottles and plastic milk crates still littered the area, a lone machete was stuck in a tree stump, a half dozen cans of vegetables were stacked together in an open-air pantry, several mattresses were piled on top of each other under a tarp, and clotheslines still bore drying clothes. A portable potty chair stood alone, and the remnants of a campfire could be seen among other trash and debris.
A pair of aluminum crutches laid beside one path, and one site may have been "home" to some younger campers, who left a few stuffed toys and a large pink "Hello Kitty" lounging pillow behind.
But no campers were in the woods during several visits Wednesday by News Journal staff members.
County Executive Tom Gordon said he had toured the site – situated on private property in the woods that border Del. 273 and Old Baltimore Pike – last month.
"When we were there, there were fires still smoldering," he said Wednesday. "We're hearing about these tents all over the place, but we just can't throw people out."
Gordon said the county is working to develop a "humane" policy.
Earlier this month, state police supervised as a homeless encampment was cleared out south of Lewes. Onlookers there said the homeless who were evicted deserved better access to help and shelter.
Bill Perkins, executive director of Friendship House in Wilmington, said these types of encampments reveal a deep societal problem.
"It's a perfect storm," he said. "A lot of people are unemployable. Even if there is a shelter bed available to them, they would still be campers. If you're going to run a good shelter, you're going to have to have rules. For them, it's a lifestyle choice."
Perkins said homeless campgrounds are growing partly because of the economy and partly because younger homeless people do not want what a traditional shelter network offers.
Those people raised in a suburban area, such as Newark, Kennett Square, West Chester, Avondale and Elkton, would rather sleep in the woods than sleep in a traditional shelter, Perkins said. He mentioned the large homeless campground behind the Big Elk Mall in Elkton, Md., as an example.
Sean Koerber, of Newark, looked down into the camp through the chain-link fence at University Plaza Wednesday afternoon. He said he knew a guy who lived in the camp below for at least a year.
The guy worked for a local roofing company, Koerber said.
"From what I know, he had it kind of good," Koerber said. "He had a generator, and that gave everybody a little electric."
Koerber said he believed about 20 people lived in the camp.
State police spokesman Sgt. Paul Shavack said troopers became aware of the encampment late last year.
"We understand and sympathize with the plight of the homeless and continually work to assist with providing any services that are available," Shavack said. "But we also understand that there needs to be a balance on the effects that a homeless encampment has on surrounding businesses and communities concerning quality-of-life issues."
Since then, troopers have periodically visited the area – occupied at any one time by two or three homeless people – to see if they could provide them with shelter placement, but they declined troopers' offers, Shavack said.
Most were gone during the winter's major weather events and were later found to have stayed with family members or had stayed in motels with either earned money or welfare, he said.
At that point, there was "no immediate need" to move them. Police were never contacted by the property owner to take any enforcement or displacement action.
According to county records, the land is owned by 273 Land LLC.
When the weather improved, however, they returned to the encampment, and police got complaints about disorderly people, drinking and foot traffic in the area.
State police joined county code enforcement officers in a plan to notify the occupants that they had to leave and clean up the area, Shavack said.
Late last month, troopers visited the encampment and told residents that county code enforcers would be out April 1 to clean up the property. The individuals left, Shavack said.
Troopers, code enforcement and a sub-contractor charged with cleaning the property came out and removed tents.
"They saw the enormity of the encampment and agreed to take down the tarps and the tents that day and planned to come back on Friday to finish the removal," Shavack said.
Richard Haffoney, who has lived in the townhouse community of Hudson Village behind the wooded area for three years, said he was unaware that any homeless were camped out in the woods.
"I would think that a lot of my neighbors do not know either," he said. "I just zip in and out of here and do my walking at the YMCA."
Haffoney, who described the neighborhood as "nice and quiet," said the only things he saw coming out of the woods were a family of deer and some ducks.
On Pitcairn Place in Varlano Village, off Old Baltimore Pike, resident Sam Jackson said he was aware of the encampment but didn't know too much about it. Jackson's home backs up to the wooded area below.
"It didn't bother me any," he said, adding that he did know "one gentleman who was staying there."
Art Lennon, past president of the Varlano Village Civic Association, said he knew the camp was there. It's easy to see from Del. 273 in the winter when the leaves are off the trees.
"I'm usually trying to keep up with traffic when I'm on 273," said Lennon, who has lived at Varlano Village for about 13 years. "But during the freezing months, I always think, 'those poor people.'"
Lennon, a salesman, feels for those facing tough times.
"I just got laid off from my job," he said. "I don't know what I'm going to do. You feel sorry for yourself losing a job, then you see people like that and these poor people on the corners with signs, begging for money.
"There are a lot of people hurting out there."
Contact Terri Sanginiti at (302) 324-2771 or tsanginiti@delawareonline.com. Contact Beth Miller at (302) 324-2784 or bmiller@delawareonline.com.