Update, Tuesday, Nov. 26: While a complaint was made to Manheim Township police regarding a homeless encampment near North Conestoga Drive, the department did not take action to remove anyone, spokesman Sgt. Barry Waltz told One United Lancaster in an email Tuesday.
“We did not clear anyone out,” Waltz said. He did not say which organization or individual made the complaint.
The wooded property belongs to Lancaster city. Manheim Township police asked the city to issue a trespass letter, but because the site is not a public park, the city opted not to do so, spokeswoman Amber Strazzo said in an email.
“Instead, we are working with the Lancaster County Homeless Coalition to assist in connecting those individuals to resources,” she said.
Previously reported:
A homeless encampment near the Conestoga River just east of Lancaster was reportedly cleared Friday morning, according to homelessness advocates.
The site in question is a wooded area near North Conestoga Drive. In an email Friday, Deb Jones, director of the office of the Lancaster County Homelessness Coalition, said the organization was aware of five individuals who had gathered there, and that street outreach workers were in contact with them.
“All of them are known to the service providers,” she said.
The woods are on city-owned property in Lancaster Township. City spokeswoman Amber Strazzo said the city was looking into the matter after being contacted by news media, but was not aware of an encampment there and had not requested any enforcement action.
Lancaster Township contracts with Manheim Township for police protection. A Lancaster Township representative recommending directing inquiries to the police; requests to the department for comment were not returned Friday.
The encampment would be at least the fourth to be cleared out in the city’s east suburbs since September, following three in East Lampeter Township. The number of homeless individuals in those locations swelled after officials cracked down on overnight stays and trespassing in and around Binns Park and other city public spaces.
One issue has been a lack of overnight shelter accommodation, exacerbated by the closure of the sole low-barrier shelter in the city at the end of June. Early this month, Tenfold opened a temporary 50-bed low-barrier shelter to serve as a stopgap until the opening of an 80-bed shelter at Otterbein United Methodist Church, expected in December.
