Homeless encampment forces Kalamazoo to once again ask: What can be done?

This story is part of Second Wave’s series on solutions to affordable housing and housing the unhoused. It is made possible by a coalition of funders including Kalamazoo County, the ENNA Foundation, and the Kalamazoo County Land Bank.

KALAMAZOO, MI — It got too big to go unnoticed — dozens of people congregating in and around tents, sprawled across sidewalks and curb lawns on both sides of the 600 block of North Edwards Street.

Street people on the northern fringe of downtown Kalamazoo — primarily the homeless — were mingling during the day and night. Without really trying, they were gradually taking over an area just north of Ministry With Community, a nonprofit organization that provides daily meals, assistance, and daytime resources to the unhoused. 

And things just “kind of got out of control,” says Kalamazoo Mayor David Anderson.

“We don’t have any public campgrounds in the City of Kalamazoo,” he says. “And public camping wherever (you want) is not allowed. It’s a public health problem not only for the people (with permanent homes) living there. But where is everybody (the homeless) going to the bathroom except on North Edwards — in residents’ backyards and side yards and things like that.”

So, citing concerns for sanitation and safety — assaults in late June involved an unhoused man wielding a knife and/or hatchet — the City took action on Thursday, ordering the removal of all the tents and for sidewalks to be cleared. According to one estimate, there were about 30 tents.

No singular event or incident led to the removal of the encampment, says Mike Smith, communications manager for the City of Kalamazoo. “No particular event. It’s just that people were starting to complain, especially the residents in the area were starting to complain. And they made those complaints clear at the Kalamazoo City Commission meeting on Monday night.” 

Among them was Wendy Fields, president and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Kalamazoo Branch of the NAACP. She said that allowing people to “camp” on city streets prevented area residents from walking there. She and others worried about the use of illicit drugs and alcohol there. And there were concerns that the city seemed to be allowing such things to happen in the neighborhood with the largest population of longtime African-American residents.

“I went down to the City Commission as a resident of the Northside to go and voice my concern about the conditions here on Edwards Street because I live on Edwards Street,” Fields said. Of the growing encampment, she said, “It had started further down (a few blocks south of her home). But then one day I came down here and the next thing I know it’s at North Street. It was easing its way here. And it’s totally unacceptable.”

Anderson says the encampment is something the city was asked to address. But various community groups are working to help provide solutions. His employer, Integrated Services of Kalamazoo, has had an outreach team engaging with the unhoused people on North Edwards Street to offer assistance and options.

“A majority of the people there are people who have not had permanent housing for a long, long time,” Anderson said. “And we’ve known them from the camps on Ampersee (Avenue) and Hotop (Avenue) and all that kind of stuff.”

In October of 2021, the city shut down two large encampments in the eastern fringe of the downtown, citing concerns about safety, public health, and environmental hazards.

Anderson described some of the unhoused people involved then and now as “service resistant.” They have not taken advantage of, or been interested in, support services that were offered to help them find jobs, resolve their financial issues, or help them deal with substance abuse issues or mental health issues. “But we spent a lot of time engaging again, trying to make sure,” he says.

Megan Giambrone, co-founder and president of United for the Unsheltered of Kalamazoo, says that no matter what happens, it is essential for people to treat the unhoused with dignity and understanding.

When it comes to finding solutions, Giambrone says, “I can understand everybody’s frustration — our housed friends as well as our city officials. But they gotta find a place for these folks to go.” There has to be a place where street medicine doctors and social workers can see the unhoused. And people that are ready to take the next step can come in from sleeping in a tent. 

She says there also needs to be some understanding for people who aren’t ready to take that next step. “That doesn’t mean they don’t deserve dignity and food,” she says.

United for the Unsheltered is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. It is primarily funded through grants disseminated by the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. It has made arrangements to collect food and supplies from various sources. Among them is the Food Recovery Network at Kalamazoo College. Three or four times per week, the Network donates food that would otherwise be thrown out at the end of the day. Giambrone said, “This group of kids collects it and brings it to me.” United for the Unsheltered then has four ServSafe-certified cooks who can reheat already cooked food and package it in ways that it can be distributed.

United for the Unsheltered is also the organization that provides food for those in need every Thursday evening at Martin Luther King Jr. Park on Rose Street in downtown Kalamazoo.

Volunteer members of the 5-year-old advocacy group were on North Edwards Street for the last few days trying to help unhoused people get what they need “and we’ve come down with food and water and hygiene (products) and tents and anything we can get our folks,” Giambrone said. 

She estimated that she and her people handed out about 120 tents. But she says she deliberately did not ask people where they were going to use them “for a couple of reasons.”

“I asked them not to tell me because then I have the plausible deniability — being able to say, ‘I don’t know,'” Giambrone said. Police break up clusters of people they find living in areas on the streets and in adjacent wooded areas.

City officials and advocates say the unhoused are not going unnoticed. Mayor Anderson says people are concerned for the unhoused and “You don’t want to see someone just lay down on the curb lawn.” But he says an effective plan to help them find safe and permanent housing has not yet been devised.

Of Thursday’s action, City Communications Manager Smith says, “We are trying to address an obstruction of the public right of way. We are also trying to connect those individuals affected with available resources and services. Our goal is always to help unhoused individuals in these encampments receive the assistance that they need.”

“The biggest problem with this,” Giambrone says of breaking up the encampment, “is they scattered in all four directions. I’ve heard of places on the Eastside that are like miles and miles away. Some folks are staying local in this area and are kind of tucked in and hidden. They all got my card to reach out to me.”

She says being on Edwards Street was not the ideal place to be, and she understands the frustrations of nearby residents and city officials. But she says, “When they were all here in one place, it made it so easy to make sure folks were getting fed, folks were getting shelter, folks were getting socks and hygiene (products) and things like that.” 

Anderson says, “I think the city is trying to work with our county partners and our Continuum of Care partners to come up with some resolution for the continually committed camping crowd. Maybe more details will come up as we work on plans. But there’s no perfect solution at this point.”

The community partners include Housing Resources Inc., Integrated Services of Kalamazoo, The Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, and Ministry With Community. The personal mutual aid organizations that were on North Edwards Street on Thursday included The Disability Network and LyfeSafeSacks of Hope.

Pastor John Simpson, president of the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, was at the encampment on Thursday offering resources to people.

Giambrone says advocacy organizations will continue to try to “get our folks to a place where they understand that if they need the assistance it’s there.”

“We try to take care of them, give them dignity,” she says. “The ones that don’t want assistance right now, we keep making sure that it’s offered, making sure that it’s available.”