21 Tuesday, May 4, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com State police evict homeless community Deemed trespassers, tent city residents forced to relocate By SUZANNE JACOBS Daily StaffReporter Last Tuesday, while University stu- dents were busy studying for finals and city officials were preparing for Presi- dent Barack Obama's visit to campus, a small communityofhomeless individu- als living just south of campus faced an ultimatum - relocate or risk prosecu- tion. This group of homeless individuals took up residence in a wooded patch of public land near interstate I-94 and Ann Arbor-Saline Road. But after Michigan State Police issued a notice that the residence constituted trespassing, the group was forced to pack up and relo- cate, raising questions about the rights of Ann Arbor's homeless population. The group, called Camp Take Notice, is a tent community of homeless Ann Arbor citizens that, according to its website, aims to "provide a safe, sober and drug-free tent city, where the homeless population can receive food and shelter." Tate Williams, a current resident of CTN, said he and Caleb Poirier, a native of Ann Arbor, sat down together more than twoyears ago to hash out the rules and bylaws of the camp. With the val- ues of "interdependence and self-gov- ernance" in place, Williams said the camp was ready to grow. CTN was inspired by a larger net- work of tent cities in Seattle, Wash- ington. Poirer, who lived at one of the Seattle camps for two years, said he wanted to bring the vision back to Ann Arbor. Poirer said CTN is looking to partner with local churches willing to donate private land for the camp, but after two years of meetings with pastors and church board members, it has had no luck. Poirier added that he understands that the prospect of taking on a home- less community is daunting, but he is confident that somewhere there is a church that is up to the task. "It's very scary if you haven't seen it done before," he said. "I have no doubt that as long as this group sticks togeth- er, we will crack the egg." "The churches themselves want to give the support, but the people within that church community still have the stigma (against the homeless)," Wil- liams said. Robert Braun, one of the camp's 13 residents as of Saturday, spoke highly of CTN and the community environment. "I think people are just more happy here," said Braun. "I just like the envi- 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com ANDREW LAPIN BRAD WILEY Editor in Chief Business Manager 734-647-3336 734-764-0ss8 arapin@umich.edu rrdiaasness@gmail.com CONTACT INFORMATION Newsroom ofce hours: Sun.-Thurs. Itam. - 2a.m. 734-763-2459 News Tips news@mfchigandaily.com Corrections corrections@michigandaiiy.com LetterstotheEditor rothedaity@michigandaiiy.com Photo Department photo@michigandail.com ArtsSection artspage@micigandaiiy.com 734-63-0379 Editorial Page opinion@michigandaily.com Sports Section sports@michiganda il.com 734-764858 Sales dailydisplay@gmil.com Classified Sales daiycassifi aredgeailcom 734F764-0557 Finance tmdinance@gmailcom SALAM RIDA/Daily Caleb, a resident of Tent City, lived in a similar camp in Seattle, Washington before bring- ing the vision of a self-governed homeless community to Ann Arbor. EDITORIAL STAFF Ryan Kartje rkarjea~umich.reu ManagingEditor T H ER1 MAL 512 E. William (734) 663-3379 LIMITED TIME OFFER For Our Friends at The U CUSTOMER APPRECIATION' Lunch Buffet M-F 11-2pm $2 OFF our Lunch Buffet With Beverage Included Just Present Your U of M I.D. Offer Expires: 7/2/2010 ronment here. It's quiet. It's peaceful." Jessie Rossman, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, praised CTN's vision and its willingness to assist homeless people. "They maintain themselves, and this is exactly the type of (community) we should be allowing to happen," she said. The ACLU issued a press release last Wednesday, stating that it was "gravely concerned" by the eviction of the home- less community from the public land. Rossman added that the reloca- tion violated the rights of camp resi- dents, saying, "It's simply not a crime to be homeless." However, she said the forced relocation could promote dia- logue about the ethical treatment of homeless people. "We think that this is the perfect opportunity to put our most positive foot forward and use this as a time to show... the way that Michigan can treat the homeless," she said. "I think, in the short term, what the ACLU really hopes is (that) we can use this as an opportu- nity to meet with state officials...and think about some common sense solu- tions." Brian Nord, a Rackham student and the president of the board of directors for Michigan Itinerant Shelter System: Interdependent out of Necessity - a non-profit organization in Ann Arbor that supports local tent cities - said the issue of CTN trespassing on state land boils down to the camp residents' con- stitutional rights. Nord said he believes evicting the residents of CTN would violate their constitutional rights to due process and to protection from cruel and unusual punishment. "You have to establish that the bur- den on the people whose rights you think are being violated... is larger than the burden on the public," he said. Michigan State Police Lt. Wynonia Sturdivant said, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, that the police informed the residents that they were trespassing, but ultimately, the choice to move was their own. "I didn't remove them," Sturdivant told the reporter. "They voluntarily moved." But Nord said that Sturdivant's por- trayal of the situation was misleading and unfairly removed accountability from the state police. "The threat of being evicted and thrown in jail is a forceful movement," Nord said. "And for her to say it in that way is... not telling the entire story." Michigan State Police Sgt. Chris Pascoe said the eviction was the culmi- nation of a long effort to remove CTN from state land. "We've been trying to throw them out over the last year or so. Since last October, we've probably been in there 10 times," Pascoe said. "They're tres- passing on state land. It's a health issue obviously. There are no facilities there for them. They're basically squatting on state land there, and we've had a lot of complaints." The complaints received by the state police have not come from the pub- lic but rather mostly from within the camp, according to Pascoe. One such complaint, he said, was a case of domes- tic violence that involved a stabbing. See TENT CITY, Page 7 EshwarThirunavukkarasu ManagingNewsEditor uSSOCIEEDITORS:Caitlin Huston, SuzanneJacobsDevon Thorsby Ale Schiff Editorial Page Editor asrvrffumich.edu ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Nick Clift, Joe Stapleton Mark Burns ManagingSports Editor b"r"mark@umich.edu ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ben Estes Sharon Jacobs and Emmateszke ManagingArtsditors shaobs@"mich.ed"and eaesze*"mich-ed" Jake Fromm ManagingPhotoEditor jsfrommeumich.edu KatherineAxelsen ManagingDesignEditor kaxe@umich.edu ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Coreen DeFever TorehanSharmMa rnagingrMultimediaEditor tsharmanu"mich.edu BUSINESS STAFF Julianna Crim Hillary Szawala Meghan Rooney Jason Mahakian Ssanarnr Cliidcnager Layout Manager ProducionrManager The Michigan Salle 1ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday daring the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily's office for $2. 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