Fargo clears out homeless camps

If anyone doubted whether Fargo meant business after recently passing an ordinance banning homeless camps in public places, their doubts were put to rest this week. The city moved in heavy equipment and crews to break up what Forum called the biggest remaining encampments in place, after repeated warnings to the occupants.

Public works crews using bulldozers and dump trucks cleared out one of the city’s largest remaining homeless encampments Wednesday morning, Oct. 30.

The camp was situated on the banks of the Red River just southwest of the Main Avenue bridge.

Several people who had been living in the camp looked on as front-end loaders, along with larger tractors and bulldozers, hauled out loads of blankets, tarps and mattress pads, emptying them into waiting dump and garbage trucks. Officers in two Fargo police cars sat atop the hill monitoring the operation.

The new ordinance requires city staff to notify occupants two days in advance of razing a camp in order to give them time to remove their possessions and make other arrangements. Social service agencies work with homeless individuals to find housing and other assistance they may qualify for.

But then city employees move in with bulldozers if necessary, getting rid of anything left behind and sending a clear message.

Assistant City Administrator Brenda Derrig said city staff has cleared camps that are out of compliance with camp expectations as established by the ordinance every week since it was passed. She said the camp by the Main Avenue bridge was one of three such encampments cleared Wednesday, and that one woman was arrested for an unrelated warrant during the effort.

Trevor Alberts and others living in the camp said city crews showed up at 9 a.m. Wednesday and gave them about a half-hour to pack up. Still, one man said he did not have time to take his tent down before a bulldozer hauled it away.

Fargo joins a long list of cities tackling the issue of homelessness more decisively in the wake of a June Supreme Court decision giving communities more leeway to enforce local standards. It will take more than a few months to find out what works and, if necessary, to revamp policies.

Critics point out that when one camp gets removed, another one often takes its place nearby. But in Fargo that doesn’t include crossing the bridge into Minnesota.

Alberts and the others who saw their campsite bulldozed Wednesday morning said they did not have a plan for where they would sleep going forward. Varno said he would look for another spot along the river. He said no one wanted to move to the Minnesota side of the river because he believed Moorhead police gave tickets for sleeping along the river.

Capt. Deric Swenson of the Moorhead Police Department said the city has an ordinance against camping, but police collaborate with the city’s public works department and Lakes and Prairies Community Action Partnership to tag any camping sites and give residents two weeks to clear out before removing them.