Clothes, bedding and personal effects belonging to some homeless people living under a bridge were tossed in the garbage Monday, days before a nearby park is scheduled to open.
The cleanup troubled advocates for the homeless. For years, people have found refuge under the North Cool Spring Street bridge.
On Monday morning, a city Parks and Recreation Department crew with dump trucks led by Fayetteville police collected the worn-out items under the bridge and the litter.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Friday at 5p.m. for the second phase of Cross Creek Linear Park. Guests are asked to park near the bridge.
Harry Shaw, president and board chairman of the organization raising money to build Linear Park, had previously asked city officials to clean up the eyesore. He worried that the litter would detract from the park.
“It was disreputable, and it looked pretty bad,” Shaw said Monday.
The park’s second phase stops at the bridge. Two churches with homeless programs surround that end of the park. The City Rescue Mission, a nonprofit homeless shelter, is nearby on Adam Street.
Tom Lambeth, who manages the mission, said at least three homeless people were living under the bridge. The city could have worked harder finding them somewhere else to live, he said.
“That’s not helping them,” Lambeth said. “That’s moving them from under their house, regardless if it’s under the bridge and wherever.”
Police officer Stacy Swinton, who oversaw the sweep, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Police Lt. David A. Sportsman said at least four people were living under the bridge at the time, and some of them were present when police arrived Monday morning. They took their possessions and left before crews cleaned up the area.
Extra police patrols have been ordered, Sportsman said, to help prevent the squatters from returning.
City Manager Dale Iman said Swinton had spoken with the people living under the bridge before Monday’s sweep. The city periodically cleans up such areas and has hit this bridge in the past, he said.
The Linear Park organization to date has raised about $1.5 million for both phases of the park, which eventually will have other phases linking the trail to the Cape Fear River.
Across from the bridge lives Larry Norris, the retired president of Fayetteville Technical Community College. He said people urinated in the creek and discarded litter, he said. A bad odor reeked from the bridge, he said.
“It was pretty dirty under there,” he said.
Norris said a bridge was a poor substitute for a home, especially when the community offers several programs for the homeless.
The City Rescue Mission operated a 16-bed men’s shelter on North Cool Spring Street until an accidental fire closed it in September. Advocates for the homeless said the closure further reduced what was already an unmet need for the homeless, who on any given day number in the hundreds, police say.
In February, the City Council agreed to take ownership of 21-bed homeless shelter — the Hope Center at 913 Person St. — that has been closed for some time. Victor Sharpe, the city’s Community Development director, said the city expects to receive title to the property in a few weeks, make minor renovations to the building and seek bids from shelters that might want to operate it.
Councilman Charles Evans, whose District 2 includes in Linear Park, didn’t fault the city for cleaning up the litter, but hoped officials warned the homeless.
“We have to step it up a notch and make that Hope Center operable,” he said.
