A judge is ordering a long-standing homeless encampment in Old Town Lansing to be dismantled.
The city sued two private property owners in July to force them to evict the people living on their land near Dietrich Park. Homeless advocates have harshly criticized that action. WKAR News later reported the city was shifting away from plans to immediately clear the camp.
In August, Ingham County judge Rosemarie Aquilina ordered the property owners to install porta-potties on the land and to ensure people were not using open flames within structures as the case continued in the legal system.
She toured the encampment Tuesday ahead of a Wednesday hearing.
Now, Aquilina is ordering the camp cleared within 60 days but also said the city must find adequate housing for the encampment's occupants. The city will also need to install porta-potties, potable water stations and sinks while people are still living there.
Detroit News reporter Beth LeBlanc joined Aquilina on the tour and covered the hearing.
"She was very concerned about their welfare and where they would go afterwards, but she also recognized they were on private property and creating what she deemed a public nuisance," LeBlanc said.
She says work to find housing for those living at the encampment may be slow-going.
"They noted today in court too, that many of these individuals have already been banned from the homeless shelters in Lansing which kind of landed them in this encampment in the first place," she said.
Advocacy groups have documented police and crews moving some camp residents and their belongings throughout Wednesday.
Interview Highlights
On the judge's order
She ordered a default judgment requiring the encampment to be cleared at the owner's expense over the next 60 days. She also ordered the city to coordinate porta-potties, potable water, some sinks for the folks while that clearing is taking place. And she also told the city, look, I'm putting this judgment in place, but I will rescind it if you don't find housing for the folks who are encamped on this property.
On the two property owners involved in the case
So, one of the property owners has the majority of the encampment on his property, and then the other one has a little bit, and he was dismissed from the case today, so long as he put up a fence to prevent future encampments like this. The property owner who had a lot of folks living on his land, I talked to the property manager yesterday, he said they called porta-potty locations and that they wouldn't supply it because they knew it was for a homeless encampment. And so, he said it was difficult to get help in that sense.
On the state of the camp
It was well-organized in the sense that everybody in that community knew where everybody was. But to an outsider, it was very disorganized and messy and dangerous, frankly. I mean, there was broken glass everywhere, and at one point, we talked to the property manager, and he noted that there was an electrical cord coming from one of the locations, and he noted that person had medical equipment in there with him, and he was hooked up to the business to get his medical equipment to continue operating. So, these are not just able-bodied folks who are living here. They're folks who should not be in this location at all.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: A judge is ordering a long-standing homeless encampment in Old Town Lansing to be dismantled.
The city sued two private property owners earlier this year to force them to evict the people living on their land. Beth LeBlanc has been covering the story for the Detroit News, and she joins me now. Hi Beth.
Beth LeBlanc: Hey, thank you for having me.
Saliby: So, you were at this hearing today in Lansing about the future of the encampment. Can you tell us what happened?
LeBlanc: Yeah, so during that hearing, the judge was deciding on whether to order what's called a default judgment against some of the property owners there. Essentially, one of the property owners whose land this encampment was set up on had not retained a lawyer, had not installed porta-potties or done trash removal there, to her satisfaction at least.
So, she ordered a default judgment requiring the encampment to be cleared at the owner's expense over the next 60 days. She also ordered the city to coordinate porta-potties, potable water, some sinks for the folks while that clearing is taking place. And she also told the city, look, I'm putting this judgment in place, but I will rescind it if you don't find housing for the folks who are encamped on this property. She was very concerned about their welfare and where they would go afterwards, but she also recognized they were on private property and creating what she deemed a public nuisance.
Saliby: So, some of the people living at this camp tried to argue today that they'd gained residency due to how long they'd lived there. I think you talked to someone who'd been there for a decade. How did that ask play out in court?
LeBlanc: Yeah, so one of the residents stood up in court and asked the judge to recognize him having some kind of legal right to the land or to live there because he said he's been there for 10 years. The judge dismissed that pretty quickly, noting he was not a lawyer and that there was not precedent for him to stay there.
I think he was making a sort of squatters right-type argument. But she said, even if that was the case, and there was precedent for it, that land is zoned as industrial, not residential. So, even on a zoning basis, they shouldn't have been living there in the first place.
Saliby: As you mentioned, the property owners had already been ordered to install porta-potties, to clear the camp of any type of open flame. That didn't happen. So, have they explained why they didn't follow the order?
LeBlanc: To be clear, there are two property owners who are pretty differently situated in this case. So, one of the property owners has the majority of the encampment on his property, and then the other one has a little bit, and he was dismissed from the case today, so long as he put up a fence to prevent future encampments like this.
The property owner who had a lot of folks living on his land, I talked to the property manager yesterday, he said they called porta-potty locations and that they wouldn't supply it because they knew it was for a homeless encampment. And so, he said it was difficult to get help in that sense.
So the judge today, I mean her order to the city of Lansing, I think she feels they're better equipped to get these facilities installed in that area for the short term, and I guess we'll see. She definitely is paying attention to it.
Saliby: The judge, Rosemarie Aquilina, was there yesterday. You were also there during this visit. What was your impression of the state of this encampment?
LeBlanc: I was told by the property manager that actually they had made efforts to clean up, that they had brought dumpsters in. But I mean, this was the first time I walked through it, and it was not a great place to live. There was broken glass all over. There was really, really ramshackle lodgings. If they aren't able to have an open flame, it begs the question of how they'll stay warm during the winter. It was well-organized in the sense that everybody in that community knew where everybody was. But to an outsider, it was very disorganized and messy and dangerous, frankly.
I mean, there was broken glass everywhere, and at one point, we talked to the property manager, and he noted that there was an electrical cord coming from one of the locations, and he noted that person had medical equipment in there with him, and he was hooked up to the business to get his medical equipment to continue operating. So, these are not just able-bodied folks who are living here. They're folks who should not be in this location at all.
Saliby: Some advocacy groups have said police and crews were already out this morning clearing the camp. Do you know anything about that?
LeBlanc: I haven't heard an official line from the city about what what occurred there. The one property owner who had very few people on his property, his consent agreement with the city required that they move any tents that were on their property or whatever over the property line, so they could get ready to put up this fence.
There are also some like semi-permanent structures made of discarded plywood or siding or what have you. And those will have to be taken down as well. So, there were some people moved, whether they were dislocated completely or relocated, is a subject of debate right now.
Saliby: To end the conversation, you said there's going to be things happening over the next 60 days. What's next here?
LeBlanc: The city got the go ahead today to basically dismantle this encampment. So, I would assume we'll see more activity of them taking down tents, removing trailers, taking out trash, but it may be a slow process, because Aquilina said today, she made it very clear that has to be coordinated with relocation of these individuals.
They noted today in court too, that many of these individuals have already been banned from the homeless shelters in Lansing which kind of landed them in this encampment in the first place. So, I imagine it's going to be a little difficult to find housing for some of these folks to satisfy Aquilina's order.
So, they have the go ahead to kind of dismantle this community. I think you'll probably see activity there, but it may be slow going because they have to find housing as they do so.
Saliby: Beth LeBlanc is a reporter for The Detroit News. Thank you for joining us.
LeBlanc: Thanks for having me.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
