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Housing advocates are warning that it could become more difficult to connect unhoused community members who were living in an encampment in Old Town Lansing with resources after a recent court ruling ordering the city to dismantle the encampment.
Jacque Parker helps run a ministry that has supported residents of the encampment with donations of food and new tents.
She said there were nearly 50 residents living in the encampment, but that number has decreased after a judge ruled the city must clear the space within 60 days.
“Probably a third of them have just wandered off into other ones, because they don’t know where they’re going to go and have lost so much,” Parker said. “They were scared and they just left.”
She says some residents have already had their belongings destroyed, including some of the new tents donated by the ministry.
The city filed a lawsuit earlier this year seeking to have the encampment cleared.
While Judge Rosemarie Aquilina ruled this week that the camp must be dismantled, she also ordered the city to find adequate housing for its occupants.
Khadja Erickson is the executive director of the Mid-Michigan Tenant Resource Center. She says the order has left residents with more questions than answers about what lies ahead for them.
“Obviously, the simplest and easiest path forward, probably, for the city, would be to try and put as many people in the shelter as possible,” Erickson said.
But she says there are hurdles to that, including some shelters not accepting members of the LGBTQ+ community or individuals with medical devices.
Other possibilities discussed during the hearing include providing vouchers for hotels or permanent housing.
A spokesperson for Mayor Andy Schor says the city supports the court’s order and is committed to ensuring residents of the encampment are able to move into a shelter or housing.
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