Debris from North Raleigh homeless camp grows as coronavirus pandemic drags on
The N.C. Department of Transportation has received numerous complaints about trash along the state’s highways this winter, but one spot in North Raleigh has come in for special attention.
Trash bags, shopping carts and other debris from a homeless camp tucked between Interstate 540 and an exit ramp to Capital Boulevard grab the attention of people driving by. Several have called or emailed NCDOT urging it to clean the site up.
But NCDOT says for now it will let the camp be, as long as it doesn’t pose a safety risk to the public or the people living there. The department says it is following guidelines from the Centers for Disease and Prevention, which says clearing homeless camps during the COVID-19 pandemic risks spreading the virus.
“Some of our staff have viewed the site from a distance and confirmed there are multiple tents and many shopping carts at the site,” NCDOT spokesman Marty Homan wrote in an email. “But no immediate safety risk to the public has been noted or reported to date.”
The camp at one of Wake County’s busiest interchanges calls attention to the growing but often invisible problem of homelessness. Triangle Family Services, which provides food, clothing and other basics to homeless people, is aware of at least 30 encampments around the county. Homan says NCDOT hasn’t done an inventory but says camps seem to have become more common along its highways, particularly near interchanges where people stand with signs asking for help.
Wake County has about 800 beds available for people who need a place to sleep, says Kim Crawford, executive director of the Raleigh/Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness. But the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic has forced more people out of their homes, Crawford said, and more than 1,000 people are on waiting lists to get shelter.
“COVID just overwhelmed our system,” she said. “Our system is overwhelmed, over capacity, overextended.”
Raleigh City Council member David Cox, who represents the area around the camp, mentioned it twice during recent council meetings, though the site is technically outside city limits. The camp has grown in size, Cox said, and there are others throughout the city.
“I really think in an affluent city such as ourselves it is really unconscionable that we have people who have to live without shelter,” he said. “And I really hope we do something in the very near future.”
Camp is not new, though the attention is
NCDOT says it began receiving calls and emails about the camp at 540 in January. But people have been living there for years, says Seaira Green, who is part of a team from Triangle Family Services that has visited the camp to try to help residents.
“What you see is an encampment that has grown, been active, inactive and now back active. Which is why you see huge debris and trash in this area,” Green said. “But it’s been there, believe it or not, about 10 plus years.”
Green said anywhere from 5 and 10 people live there at any point. It’s secluded enough to offer privacy but within walking distance of a bus stop, food stores and busy intersections at the 540 interchange and around Triangle Town Center and several other shopping centers. Scattered around the camp are dozens of shopping carts from Aldi, Walgreens, Hobby Lobby and Target.
John Peyton, who has a friend living in the 540 camp and has spent time there, points out that there are others all around the interchange, down in the woods behind the strip malls and hotels. Some of the encampments are occupied; others abandoned. As people get arrested, die or leave, their stuff doesn’t go with them, and it accumulates, he said.
Peyton says the residents would clean up the debris if the city, county or NCDOT would provide a place to put it.
“I wish they would just drop a Dumpster there,” he said. “They don’t want the trash. It gets so overwhelming.”
Green, from Triangle Family Services, agrees.
“This is their home,” she said. “They know that the trash is on the city’s radar so they are willing to clean it up. They just need the resources to do that.”
Will the camp be cleared?
Green worries that the camp’s visibility will end with it being demolished.
“I know that it’s coming,” she said. “I know the conversations are coming. I know the Department of Transportation is coming. It is inevitable. Just because of all the trash. All the debris. And all of the buzz that is happening around this camp site.”
NCDOT is not in any hurry. The department was stung by criticism after it cleared a homeless camp under a highway bridge in downtown Asheville this winter and has vowed to get agreement from local governments and others before seeking to have people removed.
In this case, Homan said, NCDOT is working with the Wake County Sheriff’s Office and the Raleigh Police Department, who have contacts with nonprofit agencies and health care groups that can help.
“NCDOT will follow CDC guidelines and will continue to work with our partners who have the training, resources and expertise to help those who are experiencing homelessness,” Homan said in an email. “Should county officials determine that this encampment be removed, NCDOT’s only role will be to remove the debris once people have left the site.”
A police department spokeswoman referred questions about the 540 camp to the sheriff’s office, which did not respond to questions about it.
If you’re driving by at 45 mph, the camp looks like a blur of debris, piled in and around the shopping carts and under trees. An American flag hangs from a tree branch, while a Jolly Roger pirate flag flies from a pole.
Up close, you see an odd assortment of clothing and shoes, plastic pots and other housewares and bags of fruit and bulk boxes of protein bars, hard candies and other food. Peyton said residents pull expired food from trash bins behind the stores but also receive donations.
“People give them so much food they can’t eat,” he said. “Who wants to eat oranges for three days?”
People who call, email or post online about the camp sometimes express concern for the health and safety of the people who live there. But the complaints are mostly prompted by the trash. Crawford with the Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness questions the priorities.
“We complain because there is trash? Why aren’t we complaining because, my God, there are people who have to live there?” she said. “There is nowhere else to go. And we as a community decide it’s the trash that is bothering us.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2021 at 2:30 PM.
