(5 August 2018, 02:49)CharlesHarris Wrote: [quote='Mortblanc' pid='102628' dateline='1533425168']
Several months ago an identical case in Winchester, VA was handled quite differently. The squatters occupied a wooded lot owned by an out of state real estate developer hoping to find a buyer to build on the commercially zoned property. The city took the land owner to court, the developer begged ignorance and the court gave the owner 90 days to clear and grade the property, evict the squatters, fence the property and submit a soil and erosion control plan. Within 30 days the property was posted and bulldozers pushed all the debris into piles and removed it. The entire lot was hydroseeded and fenced and construction of a new office park will begin next year. The squatters were given bus tickets out of state and will soon be crapping on the sidewalks of sanctuary cities in Maryland.
WINCHESTER — A heavily used homeless camp is being bulldozed.
For many years — no one knows exactly how many — people with no place to live have created makeshift homes from tents and tarps on a 16.3-acre wooded lot bordered by Berryville Avenue, Fort Collier Road and Baker Lane.
Community volunteers who work with the area’s homeless population said Wednesday that 20 to 80 people could be found living in the camp at any given time, depending on the weather and the availability of other shelter...
Frederick County Sheriff Lenny Millholland said deputies have been telling those who live at the camp that they were trespassing and would have to find another place to live because the property owner planned to bring in heavy equipment to clean up the site.
No trespassing signs are posted on the property, which is owned by Kimerly G. Henry, according to online county tax records. Henry is listed with a Florida address and could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Millholland added that the Sheriff’s Office has received complaints from those who live in nearby residential areas about “people moving around in the neighborhood.”
A couple of months ago, the county served the property owner with a zoning violation notice after receiving complaints about trash on the lot, Frederick County Administration Kris Tierney said on Wednesday.
Millholland called the garbage at the site a health hazard. “There’s just truck loads of garbage there,” he said.
Tierney, however, said the notice was “by no means the impetus for the clearing.”
Both he and Millholland said county officials tried to give those living in the encampment ample notice about the need for them to move.
“We’ve tried to be as gentle and graceful as we could,” Tierney said.
On Wednesday, heavy equipment arrived at the site to begin clearing away trees, vegetation and debris.
“It got real with the bulldozer this morning,” said Kim Craig, an area resident who does outreach with homeless people in the community. She said some of the people she knows who lived at the camp told her they stayed there as long as they could, but they had no choice but to leave once the clearing began.
It’s not clear where the displaced people are now living.
Salmon said she sees the “landowner’s perspective, too” about the need to clear away the trash to comply with county ordinances. “No one wants to be in that hot seat.”
Estimates vary on the number of homeless people living in the community.
The 2018 Point-in-Time Homeless count, conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, identified 98 homeless people in Winchester and Frederick County — a 14 percent drop from last year’s count of 114.
But those in the community who try to help the area’s homeless said the count doesn’t accurately reflect the average number of homeless people in the area. Brandon Thomas, who oversees the Winchester Rescue Mission, has said that existing local charities and nonprofit groups are insufficient to meet the needs of the local homeless population.
“All this does is push them to other locations,” Thomas said about the lot clearing. “It doesn’t solve anything.”
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