Volunteers with Harrisburg-based The Belong Collective clean up trash under the Mulberry Street Bridge.
Harry Leibfried has worked to keep his living area clean while he has lived under Harrisburg’s Mulberry Street Bridge.
But it hasn’t been easy, and he doesn’t dispute the fact that not everyone keeps their space as tidy as he does. However, there are blighted areas across the city, he argued, not just where he lives. So, when he found out that the city would soon evict him, and everyone else living under the bridge, he was shocked.
“It’s completely unfair,” he said. “Why don’t we attack the whole problem? No, we’ll push the homeless around because that’s the easiest thing to do.”
Leibfried is one of over 50 people who live in one of the city’s largest encampments under the Mulberry Street Bridge. He has lived there for over a year.
Last week, Harrisburg officials announced that the city would permanently shut down the encampment, citing health and safety concerns. A rat infestation, trash build-ups and increased crime forced them to take action, officials said. They have given those living under the bridge until this coming Thursday to vacate.
However, since the announcement, organizations, activists, local officials and, most importantly, encampment residents themselves have spoken out against the decision.
Homeless encampment under the Mulberry Street Bridge in Harrisburg.
On Monday morning, while Leibfried spoke with Downtown Daily Bread staff who were on site, a local church group cleaned up trash from under the bridge.
Justin Douglas, lead pastor at Harrisburg-based The Belong Collective, led the group in collecting bags of trash. He hopes the effort will show the city that there are other ways to address health concerns within the encampment.
“We feel what we can do is apply pressure to the city to reconsider their decision and ultimately, at the very least, to reconsider their timeline,” he said.
Additionally, the group organized a petition to oppose Harrisburg’s eviction order for the encampment. By Monday at noon, 360 people had signed the petition, but Douglas hoped that, by the end of the day, it would garner 1,000 signatures. In the coming days, they will send the results to the city, he explained.
Douglas said that The Belong Collective has previously partnered with Bethesda Mission’s outreach program, making visits to the encampment and bringing food and assistance. While he agreed that there may be safety and health concerns in the area, he didn’t understand the need for immediate eviction.
“This is not a safe situation, but the idea of calling it a health and safety crisis and emergency to the extent that we need a seven-day window, is kind of arbitrary to me,” he said.
According to Douglas, he was not given any advanced notice of the city’s decision to close the encampment. Corrie Lingenfelter, interim executive director of Downtown Daily Bread, said that she only found out about the city’s plan the day before they announced it publicly.
Now, Lingenfelter and staff from the Harrisburg nonprofit are visiting the encampment daily to provide resources to residents and help them plan for their move.
Some people plan to relocate, while others may enter rehabilitation centers and some may seek refuge in shelters, Lingenfelter said.
While Leibfried said that he plans to move to another area of the city, resident Josh, who preferred not to share his last name, said that he will likely enter a shelter or rehab program.
“It’s going to displace a lot of people that have tried to make their home here,” Josh said.
On Friday, Harrisburg City Council member Shamaine Daniels posted a statement on Facebook, also critical of the city’s decision.
In her post, Daniels explained how she visited the encampment in 2020 and found nothing “offensive” there. She also noted her opposition to the 2023 budget, which she voted against in December, claiming it cut services for low-income residents.
“I am appalled by this eviction,” her post read. “I am appalled by how incapable Wanda is to address the pressing needs of the city’s residents.”
On Sunday, the city responded by issuing a “Councilwoman Daniels Facebook Post Fact Sheet,” in which they disputed many of the claims she made against the city and Mayor Wanda Williams.
“In response to the city’s decision due to the health and safety of encampment residents and residents of the city at large, Councilwoman Shamaine Daniels wrote a Facebook post replete with false information,” Communications Director Matt Maisel stated in a post to Twitter.
Williams also addressed the backlash to the city’s plan at a press conference on Friday.
“We’ve got a lot of negative criticism about what we intend to do at the homeless camp,” she said. “It was really a critical emergency. This was not something that we wanted to do, but we had to because it was a critical moment.”
Harrisburg said that they plan to relocate the impacted homeless population to another location in the city, which will not be publicized.
Many nonprofits present at the press conference explained how they will continue to assist those in need. Several winter overnight shelters are near capacity, but have space for a few more people, officials stated. They will also help with transportation and finding housing for those who want it.
“We just are going to continue our mission with making sure our clients are taken care of and get the proper treatment that they need,” Lingenfelter said.
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