More than a dozen people without permanent housing living in Juneau’s largest unhoused encampment will be forced to leave on Friday morning, before the season’s first expected snowfall.
The City and Borough of Juneau gave notice to the people camping on Teal Street in the Mendenhall Valley earlier this week. The notices says the city is prohibiting camping in the area due to winter maintenance and safety concerns.
Right now, the street is lined with more than a dozen campsites. Some campers don’t want to leave.
“I assumed that they would let us stay through the winter. I didn’t anticipate them doing this now — it just seemed like the worst timing,” said Darian Bliss, who’s been living in the Teal Street area in a makeshift shelter since about May.
People without housing in Juneau set up camp here because it’s close to social services and other resources provided by the Glory Hall and St. Vincent de Paul.
“I think it’s the safest, best place out of everywhere in town, because you’re right across from the homeless shelter anyway, and so I don’t know where a better place could possibly be,” he said.
Bliss said he’s frustrated with the timing of the city’s eviction. He doesn’t want to have to uproot his life again, even as winter comes. He’s spent the last week or so insulating his campsite, and recently installed a wooden door with a lock.
Campers like Bliss have few options for where they can stay. One option is the city’s cold weather emergency shelter, which opened for the season in mid-October. It’s located in a warehouse in Thane, about a mile from downtown and about nine miles across town from the services on Teal Street.
The shelter accepts anyone who comes in search of a place to sleep at night, as long as they aren’t disruptive to other patrons. City officials say it’s a stopgap and meant to be a last resort for unhoused people when the weather gets cold.
Bliss said he doesn’t plan on going there. He doesn’t like how crowded it is and the distance from resources.
“I don’t like going out there at all. I just stay perfectly fine here,” he said.
Logan Henkins works at the Glory Hall shelter. He was playing music and handing out hot chocolate and coffee to people who passed by on Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m just out here this morning trying to touch base with as many people as I can touch on base with about the extended services that St. Vincent de Paul is offering on Friday to catch the people who are being displaced,” he said.
St. Vincent de Paul operates the city’s emergency shelter. In light of the clearing, the shelter will open earlier on Friday and offer a meal.
He’s not the only one trying to help out. Claire Richardson stood outside her car next to a campsite on Teal Street, waiting to help a woman she met the day before move her belongings from an encampment and into a family member’s apartment.
“You start to realize that people (are) living on the margins, and the snow is coming, and really, I don’t know what they’re going to do, and there’s a lot of stuff here,” she said.
Richardson is with ReSisters, a local group of women who work for social justice and equality. She said when she heard about the encampments being cleared, she felt drawn to help the people who were about to be displaced.
“It’s going to start snowing here in a few days, and the thought of me being safe in my home, sipping my hot coffee and knowing that people are living like this. Well, it’s just hard to sleep at night,” she said.
Other groups in town are helping out too, like the Haa Tóoch Lichéesh Coalition, which is asking the community to offer storage space or funds to those being displaced.
Deputy Police Chief Krag Campbell said the police department plans to have officers arrive at 8 a.m. on Friday to ask people to leave the area. Then at 9 a.m., they’ll start throwing people’s belongings away. He encouraged campers to pack up their belongings beforehand.
“Hopefully, we’ve given them ample time, ample notice, and they can start making those arrangements to go somewhere else,” he said.
Deputy City Manager Robert Barr said the city will continue to monitor the area after Friday in the event that people set up camp again.