Mecklenburg declares uptown tent encampment hazard, orders residents to leave
Editor’s note: A previous headline on this article incorrectly quoted from the health department’s order. The director declared the camp a health hazard.
Mecklenburg County has ordered anyone who lives in the sprawling tent encampment in uptown to vacate in three days, citing a need to clear a rodent infestation there.
The nuisance abatement order took effect at 5 p.m. Tuesday, giving residents until 5 p.m. Friday to leave. County officials said they are working with area shelter organizations to make room for people leaving the camps.
“We have taken this action out of an abundance of caution to protect the health of encampment residents,” Public Health Director Gibbie Harris said in a statement Tuesday. Harris signed and issued the order.
The camps, on the edge of uptown in the areas of 12th, Graham and College Streets, have been an increasingly visible symbol of the housing crisis amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While unsheltered homelessness existed before last year, the number of tents in the area has grown.
Some residents at the camps and advocates providing direct aid services have told the Observer that many people are hesitant to enter shelter programs, particularly during the pandemic. Others are unwilling to separate from partners, pets or possessions.
Following a recent COVID-19 outbreak at the Roof Above men’s shelter on Tryon Street, the organization moved more than 200 residents into hotel rooms.
Unexpected order
The clearance order is sure to set off tensions with advocates, who have called on city and county leaders for months to do more to address the growing humanitarian need for those living there.
The announcement was a surprise even for people with the most direct, on-the-ground work with the camps.
Deborah Woolard, founder of Block Love Charlotte, said she was returning from working at the encampment when she read the order. She said the rapid removal — for a problem local officials have known about for months — is not being executed with residents in mind.
“That’s the harm in it,” she said. “You are traumatizing people that are already experiencing trauma, (people with) mental health issues, with PTSD. It’s a lot going on and then you’re going to take away from them what they’re used to. It’s not fair.”
Hotel rooms are available for everyone in the camps as of Tuesday night, Mecklenburg Board Chair George Dunlap said.
County Manager Dena Dioro said officials have not determined how long the rooms would be available, but officials would use federal funding for moving people who are homeless into hotels as long as it’s available.
Tuesday’s action requires several property owners — NCDOT, Roof Above, the city of Charlotte, Morningstar Storage and wireless communications company American Towers — to clean their properties and eliminate infestations.
CDC guidance on encampments
Before this order, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police had said it would not clear camps in accordance with guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the pandemic. That guidance says: “Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread.”
If other housing options aren’t possible, federal health officials advise permitting homeless people “to remain where they are,” including in camps.
The exception, CMPD has said, is if private property owners sought to enforce trespassing orders on their land, as one company did earlier last summer.
But Tuesday, Harris called the order necessary “to protect the health of encampment residents.”
“This type of order is rare, but sometimes necessary,” Harris wrote. “In this instance, it will help us better work with encampment residents to find alternative accommodations, many of whom have been reluctant to seek help because of concerns with COVID-19.”
County leaders said the removal process will include “mental health and substance use services, housing navigation and case management” for residents.
In a briefing with commissioners Tuesday night, Harris said county staff first visited the site in mid-January and found conditions have deteriorated significantly since then, with large numbers of rats, droppings and other debris.
She acknowledged the CDC guidance about not disrupting the camps, but said the infestations pose another health risk.
“The reality is right now we’re looking at a whole other set of diseases that these folks can be exposed to outside of COVID,” she said.
Mecklenburg County has issued only a handful of such orders during Harris’ tenure leading the health department, officials told the Observer last year.
Among the most notable, the county temporarily closed United House of Prayer for All People locations after church leaders failed to respond to public health directives during a COVID-19 outbreak that ultimately sickened more than 200 people and was linked to 12 deaths.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 5:19 PM.
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