By 3 p.m. the U-Haul was filled to the brim. 

Laundry baskets, rolled-up rugs, folded tarps and plastic bins were stacked one on top of the other as Concord police fourwheelers were parked next to the truck. 

After weeks of warning people living along the CSX train tracks off of North Main Street were cleared from their encampment on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. 

“Every encampment that we do, they typically do not move until you show up. Unfortunately, it was no different with this one,” said Concord Deputy Police Chief Barret Moulton. “There’s still stuff out there but all the campers are removed. No now is supposed to be going back there.” 

In recent weeks, Moulton and other officers have accompanied street outreach coordinators from nonprofits in the area, like the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness and the Community Action Program of Merrimack and Belknap Counties, to warn residents that the camp would be broken up. 

Concord police will continue to patrol the area for the next few days. Those who return will be given no trespassing papers and can then be arrested if they come back again. 

If any belongings were left behind, Concord police will coordinate with outreach workers to return items to their owners. 

Despite the police action, outreach workers hoped to help keep track of where people will go, especially if they are on waitlists for housing vouchers and other services. 

“It was really good work by outreach,” said Moulton. “They’re in a tough position as well.”

Within the city of Concord, a no-camping ordinance is in place. The Salvation Army provides 42 single beds at the McKenna House, while the Friends Program provides emergency housing for families. During the winter months, the coalition provides 40 more beds. 

Recent estimates from outreach workers identified just over 320 people who were experiencing homelessness in Merrimack County. The majority of those people live in Concord due to access to resources from the Friendly Kitchen and the coalition’s resource center. 

In recent months, people who were living off of North Main Street along the train tracks had built larger structures to accommodate tarps and protect their tents from the elements. 

As they loaded the U-Haul van with their belongings, they lamented that this was the worst day of their lives, scrambling to salvage their belongings before the police came and told them to leave.

The encampment grew from a handful of tents to a half dozen after another encampment was dispersed recently down the road, said Kait Gallagher, the communications director for the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness. 

With few options for people to go, groups move from one site to the next as they’re broken up across the city. 

“It’s an unfortunate byproduct of the lack of affordable housing, a lack of shelter beds and other housing options for people,” Gallagher said. “Everyone isn’t suitable to a shelter-type environment. If we had other housing opportunities, more transitional housing, short-stay housing, just more housing, we wouldn't see this.” 

Clearing this encampment has been in conversation among the city police department for over a month, said Moulton. 

At the beginning of June, Concord police signed a memorandum of understanding with CSX, the railroad company, that allowed them to access their property along the train tracks and issue no-trespassing orders. 

CSX also has its own law enforcement, with an officer who will often show up unannounced and immediately arrest those living there. 

Concord police hoped to avoid that outcome by giving people prior warning to move the encampment without issuing any arrests, said Moulton. 

If trespassing orders are issued, they will apply to the entirety of the CSX tracks in Concord, a common pass-through to access the Friendly Kitchen. 

In Nashua last year, the same event transpired after CSX warned city officials that they would clear the tracks along the river in the city. 

The city of Nashua provided a former Park-and-Ride lot as a designated camping area since all shelter beds were at capacity. 

In Concord, those forced to move were given nowhere to go. 

This means that service providers, like the coalition, are working to identify people as they move from the area. 

“People keep moving further and further away from services. It’s hard to keep track of people,” said Gallagher. “We try to re-engage them as much as possible with other area service providers and try to be there for them as much as possible.” 

The police routinely dismantle camps while the city offers little assistance. 

“They’re going to go somewhere, I completely understand that,” said Moulton. “Where they go, I don’t know.”

For Robin Bach, the homeowner whose property abuts the tracks, it’s a relief to see the encampment broken up. She called police again on Sunday night after hearing a group of people yelling in the woods. 

But to her, until the city puts forth a stronger solution, this will continue to remain an issue – not to mention the trash that is left behind to clean up. 

While residents took dozens of black trash with them, the responsibility to clean the property falls to the owners. Unless CSX pays for a clean-up, Bach is not sure what she will do. 

To her, the obvious answer lies in the field next to the Friendly Kitchen. Currently, no camping signs are posted on the property. 

“You would think they would use that for a sanctioned camping area,” she said. 

With police and city officials knowing of the site behind her house without acting on it for years, it felt to her as if there was a sanctioned encampment in her yard. 

Gallagher empathizes for Bach as a fellow Concord homeowner. Big picture, the city needs to focus on strengthening its response to homelessness, ensuring that when people are unhoused it is rare and brief, with adequate housing options. But with limited solutions in the interim, she’s not sure what else the Coalition can do to help residents. 

“It’s just incredibly unfortunate that we don’t currently have any better solutions,” she said. “And that has to change.” 

 

Michaela Towfighi can be reached at mtowfighi@cmonitor.com.