Fargo crews use bulldozers, dump trucks to clear large homeless encampment
FARGO — Public works crews using bulldozers and dump trucks cleared out one of Fargo's largest remaining homeless encampments last Wednesday morning.
The camp was situated on the banks of the Red River just southwest of the Main Avenue bridge.
Several people who had been living in the camp looked on as front-end loaders, along with larger tractors and bulldozers, hauled out loads of blankets, tarps and mattress pads, emptying 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 The Forum they had been living in that spot for between three and 18 months.
Andrew Varno, 26, originally from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, said he lost his apartment six months ago and had been living in the camp since that time. He said he thought up to 20 people were living there.
Varno said the city's mobile outreach team visited the camp Tuesday night to try to help people with a plan to relocate, but he was not there when they came. He said police had notified the camp two days ago that it would be cleared and the residents had 48 hours to move.
In September, the Fargo City Commission unanimously passed an ordinance making it illegal to camp on public property citywide. The city temporarily permitted camping with some limitations because there are not enough shelter beds available to meet the need, leaving many without any other option but to sleep outdoors. In early October, city staff told the commission the process of clearing out the camps was going well.
Bismarck city commissioners in October unanimously passed a similar ordinance, which city officials argued is intended to protect the safety of homeless people and ensure that public spaces remain accessible. The law prohibits the formation of campsites with fires and sleeping on public sidewalks, streets, alleys or in doorways - but allows sleeping within parks or on city-, county- or state-owned property. It also allows police to remove campsites after a 24-hour notice period.
In Fargo, Assistant City Administrator Brenda Derrig said city staff has cleared camps that are out of compliance with camp expectations as established by the ordinance every week since it was passed. She said the camp by the Main Avenue bridge was one of three such encampments cleared Wednesday, and that one woman was arrested for an unrelated warrant during the effort.
Trevor Alberts and others living in the camp said city crews showed up at 9 a.m. Wednesday and gave them about a half-hour to pack up. Still, one man said he did not have time to take his tent down before a bulldozer hauled it away.
Alberts said he was not aware the camp was designated to be cleared until city crews showed up Wednesday morning.
"It's not like an apartment when they can put the piece of paper on the door letting 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 were working with the Downtown Engagement Center to get housing, but that the process to secure an apartment took a long time.
Some of the 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.
City staff previously said people who are removed from the engagement center due to threatening or other prohibited conduct can request a meeting with staff to address the issue and will be allowed back in if they agree to change their behavior.
Alberts and the others who saw their campsite bulldozed Wednesday morning said they did not have a plan for where they would sleep going forward. Varno said he would look for 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 collaborate with the city's public works department and Lakes and Prairies Community Action Partnership to tag any camping sites and give residents two weeks to clear out before removing them.
Swenson said he wasn't aware of the department ever issuing citations related to the camping ordinance.
Fargo's public information office did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the camp-clearing operation.
