Fargo crews use bulldozers and dump trucks to clear large homeless encampments - InForum

FARGO – Public works crews used bulldozers and dump trucks to clear one of the city’s largest remaining homeless encampments Wednesday morning, Oct. 30.

The camp was located on the banks of the Red River, just southwest of the Main Avenue bridge.

A large yellow garbage truck is loaded with items taken from a homeless camp. — The city of Fargo loads items into a garbage truck from a homeless encampment they removed along the Red River in downtown Fargo on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.

Several people who had lived in the camp watched as front-end loaders, along with larger tractors and bulldozers, pulled out loads of blankets, tarps and mattress covers and emptied them into waiting dump and garbage trucks. Officers in two Fargo police cars sat atop the hill, monitoring the operation.

People from the camp told Forum that they had lived there for between three and eighteen months.

The city of Fargo demolished a homeless encampment along the Red River on Wednesday, October 30, 2024. Some people who lived there gather their belongings near the Main Avenue Bridge. — The city of Fargo demolished a homeless encampment along the Red River on Wednesday, October 30, 2024. Some people who lived there gathered their belongings near the Main Avenue Bridge.

Andrew Varno, 26, originally from Detroit Lakes, said he lost his apartment six months ago and had been living at the camp ever since. He said he thought as many as 20 people lived there.

Varno said the city’s mobile outreach team visited the camp Tuesday evening to try to help people with a plan to relocate, but he wasn’t there when they arrived. He said police informed the camp two days ago that it would be cleared and that residents had 48 hours to move.

In September, the Fargo City Commission

unanimously adopted an ordinance

making it illegal to camp on public property throughout the city. The city temporarily allowed camping, with some restrictions, because there are not enough shelters available to meet the need, leaving many with no choice but to sleep outdoors. Earlier this month,

city staff told the committee

the process of clearing the camps went well.

Assistant City Manager Brenda Derrig said city staff have cleared camps that do not meet the camp expectations set forth in the ordinance since it was passed. She said the encampment near the Main Avenue bridge was one of three such encampments cleared Wednesday, and that a woman was arrested during the attempt on an unrelated warrant.

Trevor Alberts and others living at the camp said city crews arrived at 9 a.m. Wednesday and gave them about a half hour to pack. Yet one man said he didn’t have time to take down his tent before a bulldozer towed it away.

The City of Fargo demolished a homeless encampment along the Red River near the Main Avenue Bridge on Wednesday, October 30, 2024, where Trevor Alberts and other homeless people were staying in downtown Fargo. Alberts is a young man wearing a red hoodie that says Central Dutch. He is standing next to a bicycle and some of his belongings. — Trevor Alberts was one of many homeless people living in a homeless encampment along the Red River near the Main Avenue bridge that the city of Fargo tore down on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024, in downtown Fargo.

Alberts said he was not aware the camp would be cleared until city crews arrived Wednesday morning.

“It’s not like an apartment when they can put a piece of paper on the door to let you know you’re being evicted,” he said.

Alberts said he lived in the camp for 18 months. He said many people in the camp worked with the Downtown Engagement Center to obtain housing, but the process of securing an apartment took a long time.

Some people in the camp were thrown out of the engagement center for bad behavior and did not know how else to get help, he said.

People who previously lived in a homeless camp gather their belongings near a bridge. New apartments can be seen in the skyline in the background. — The city of Fargo demolished a homeless encampment along the Red River on Wednesday, October 30, 2024. The people who lived there gathered their belongings near the Main Avenue Bridge.

City staff previously said that individuals removed from the engagement center for threatening or other prohibited behavior can request a meeting with staff to discuss the matter and be allowed back in if they agree to change their behavior.

One of Alberts’ friends, who shared the camp and asked not to be identified, said the lack of ID slowed his ability to find housing, but he meets with his caseworker at the engagement center every day to try to obtain one.

Fargo Police stand guard as City of Fargo crews clear a homeless encampment along the Red River in downtown Fargo on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.

Alberts and the others who saw their campsite bulldozed Wednesday morning said they had no plan for where they would sleep in the future. Varno said he would find another spot along the river. He said no one wanted to move to the Minnesota side of the river because he believed Moorhead police gave tickets for sleeping along the river.

Capt. Deric Swenson of the Moorhead Police Department said the city has an ordinance against camping, but police are working with the city’s Public Works Department and the Lakes and Prairies Community Action Partnership to label campsites and give residents two weeks to clean them up before they are removed. .

Swenson said he was not aware of the department ever issuing citations related to the camping ordinance.

Fargo’s public information office did not immediately respond to a question about the camp clearing operation.