Columbus serves trespassing notices at dozens of homeless camps

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- This year, the City of Columbus has seen more than 25,000 eviction filings. 

On Wednesday, a different kind of eviction happened across the city as dozens of people were forced to move off land some of them have called home for years. 

NBC4 Investigates was there as multiple homeless camps packed up their belongings to avoid arrest. The city is having several camps move out, but activists said they are worried these people will have nowhere else to go if the trespass notices keep coming.

People said they ended up living in a tent after bad breakups, losing a job, and getting evicted: a risk dozens of central Ohioans face every day. They’ve made a home, but now say they are faced with fear and uncertainty once again.

Jared Hashimoto received an eviction notice at his campsite a few weeks ago. He is the site leader at the camp near Olentangy and North High streets in Clintonville. 

“No one knew there was a site back here and we were down in the ravine, and I was just kind of scouting out, you know, a place for us to be safe,” Hashimoto said. 

He has worked for the last two years to make the space a place for others to feel safe. 

“If we just focus on eliminating the three things they're going to think of us, which is drugs, crime and trash. We eliminate those three. I think we can be all right,” Hashimoto said.

He and others built a place to cook food, ways to keep tents warm and even bought security cameras with donations.

“You're in a world that it feels like the housed, the police, the city, the world is against you and I want to put all that at ease,” Hashimoto said.

He has made the space a place people can get a second chance. 

“One of my missions of doing this was just to prove that there is a solution. It's not the solution but it is a solution. And, you know, I had a system, and it works, you know, with 16 getting into some kind of housing,” Hashimoto said.

After the city served the group with a trespassing notice, he says he isn’t sure what comes next. 

“I've seen people end up at shelters or warming centers and they end up with far less than what they came in with,” Hashimoto said. 

The notices were sent to multiple sites, affecting around 40 people. Another camp by the Scioto River and West Moler Street was also cleared.

“We found out 15 days ago and I absolutely, really couldn't believe it,” Juanita, who lived in the Moler Street Parkland camp, said. 

Activists say these sweeps felt different.

“Normally, police will be on scene; there will also actually be contractors, they'll be city workers that come in. And then we had our eviction in 2020 at Heer Park, that's what happened,” Heer to Serve Founder Emilly Myers said. 

Heer to Serve is a mutual aid group working to support people in Columbus without housing. Other groups who came together to help include First Collective, Goldheart Outreach and Mutual Aid Street Solidarity. These groups have been working for the last few days to get people inside before the city's deadline. 

“This experience was different because we've been doing outreach for three to four days prior to this, and we did have hotel rooms that were made available,” Myers said. “It's great that we were able to coordinate and get way ahead of what is normally a very traumatic day. But the reality is these sweeps are going to happen next week and the week after, and it's just going to be different folks, and we're not going to have this to fall back on.”

In the next four years, the Community Shelter Board (CSB) predicts a 68% increase in unsheltered homelessness, or people who have no place to go and must live in the elements.

“Fundamentally, homelessness is a housing problem. It's not a problem driven by drugs, alcohol, mental health, physical health. Those are all factors that people struggle with. But it's a structural issue,” CSB Chief Program Effectiveness Officer Steve Skovensky said. 

CSB is working on new approaches, including buying and converting old hotels into affordable housing and partnering with more community organizations throughout Columbus. 

“Where it takes a long time to build, where we can convert hotel, motels into housing. So, we want to do that more. We need to purchase more hotels and do that. We're looking at shared living options where we can try to do roommate matching and try to get folks in together. It's all based around the scarcity of housing,” Skovensky said. 

However, for those who had to uproot Wednesday, there is a sense of loss. 

“It's really reminiscent of how I became homeless, to be honest,” Hashimoto said. 

The Columbus Department of Development released the following statement about the evictions:

“We are not remediating any sites today.  Today is the deadline to leave the property, if individuals continue to stay onsite past today, they may be subject to a trespassing violation.  It is not the goal of the City of Columbus to issue tickets or other criminal justice related responses to those experiencing homelessness.  The goal is for people to move inside during these winter months.  Their options include the traditional shelter system, which is in overflow protocol, so no one will be turned away. In addition, there are 4 warming centers across the city with capacity and they are accommodating people with pets coming from encampments. These warming centers are designed to keep couples together, pets with their owners, and space for individuals who are reticent to enter traditional shelter due to individual barriers. The decision to remediate an encampment is based on public health and safety incidents experienced onsite and in the surrounding area. Over 50 individuals have engaged the shelter system and/or warming centers in the last few days, more since the beginning of the month. Most of the encampments are now clear or are wrapping up as people are moving inside.”