Another encampment ends

Crews dispatched by the city Nov. 24 cleaned up what remained of an encampment of homeless people in the 800 block of North Ninth Street in Springfield that had persisted since the spring.

Cleanup of the site – spread across three vacant lots owned by the city, Sangamon County and a private landowner – took place in the morning after caseworkers from the city and a nonprofit serving the homeless worked with the encampment’s residents in recent weeks to move them into indoor shelters and other alternative living arrangements.

The city’s plan was “not to force anyone out,” Ethan Posey, director of the city’s Office of Community Relations, told Illinois Times Nov. 21. The city didn’t have the authority to force people from publicly owned land, he said, adding that city officials wanted to move the homeless to indoor accommodation out of concern for their safety.

As many as 15 people had set up tents to shield themselves from the elements at the site – in an area on the west side of North Ninth, set back from the sidewalk and in between some large trees.

Josh Sabo, executive director of Heartland Housed, said street outreach specialists from the nonprofit and members of Posey’s Community Outreach Team worked together to assist people at the encampment as part of a newly developed protocol – a detailed plan of steps – to do a better job of developing trust and coordinating outreach services when assisting unhoused people who are staying outdoors in the Springfield area.

“There have been a lot of different efforts that have been growing, and so we’re finally hitting this point where we have critical mass to really be able to implement a more effective structure for addressing street outreach,” Sabo said.

Though less visible than a homeless encampment along North Grand Avenue that was cleaned up a year ago, the North Ninth encampment had generated complaints from neighbors about noise and concern about messes created when homeless people rummaged through garbage cans in a nearby alley.

The new protocol will be carried out by workers whose numbers have increased in recent months. Compared with a year ago, Posey’s outreach team now has three workers instead of one. And in the past year, Heartland Housed – with money from Sangamon County, PNC Bank and Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln, Springfield city government and Capital Township – has hired a full-time street outreach coordinator, a full-time outreach specialist and two part-time specialists.

However, Sabo said local efforts to serve the homeless and provide additional affordable housing and support services could take a step backward over the next year because of new policies from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Donald Trump.

Sabo said the Springfield-based Heartland Continuum of Care and other nonprofit partnerships serving the homeless nationwide could see a 70% reduction in federal funding because of new priorities for future competitive grants based on directives from the Trump administration.

The directives would move federal funding away from “housing first” and other long-term housing initiatives in favor of short-term housing and work requirements.

“This is not necessarily a welcome change to help us,” Sabo said.

The cut would reduce the current $600,000 in annual funding for Springfield-area homeless service agencies to $180,000, he said.

If that potential cut became reality, there would be enough money for housing support services for 23 formerly homeless people, instead of the 79 people currently being served with federal funds from HUD, he said.

Camping ordinance falters

A previous encampment at the southeast corner of North Grand Avenue and North Fifth Street was cleaned up in November 2024. Posts on social media alleged that city officials had forced people to move and then discarded their belongings without their permission. Those claims weren’t true, but the city could have done a better job of communicating its efforts to the general public, Mayor Misty Buscher said.

At the time, one-time grants totaling $75,000 and intensive casework assisted many unhoused people at the encampment to get off the street and into hotels, shelters and more stable housing, Posey said. Some of them have ended up back on the street.

Controversy surrounding what to do about the encampment in front of the Near North Crossing shopping center culminated with the Springfield City Council debating a potential outdoor camping ordinance in September 2024.

If enacted, the ordinance would have allowed police to remove homeless people from public lands, fine them up to $750 and jail them for up to two years.

Prompted by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2024 that said anti-camping ordinances don’t violate the Constitution, many communities, including Peoria, have adopted the controversial ordinance.

In the end, the Springfield City Council never voted on an ordinance. One of the proposal’s sponsors, Ward 5 Ald. Lakeisha Purchase, withdrew the measure from consideration.

Buscher, who also was a sponsor, said she has no plans to resurrect the idea.

“There was a big public outcry, the public didn’t want it, and a lot of the council members didn’t want it, so we dropped it,” Buscher said. “Half of my community doesn’t want people sleeping on the road or on the sidewalk or whatever, but the other half of my community thinks they have that right.

“And it’s not illegal to live outside. It is illegal to use some drugs, but not all drugs. It’s a balancing act: How do you be human, help the person in the best way you possibly can and still make sure your community respects how you do that. It’s really important that we acknowledge these are people and they have families, and they have feelings, whether they’re unhoused because of financial issues or familial issues, addictions or mental-health issues.”

“So as the mayor,” Buscher said, “my platform now is how can we just get these people to the resources they need?”