City of South Bend issues violation notice for downtown encampments

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Tents are going up around the St. Joseph River downtown around Colfax Ave. in what seems like an encampment, so the city of South Bend posted violation notices asking them to leave by 8 a.m. Friday.

A city spokesperson released the following statement to ABC57: “The City cannot encourage unmanaged encampments because of the compounding health and safety issues they generate. City ordinances are clear that unmanaged litter and human waste constitutes a public nuisance. Prior to enforcement action, City staff work to connect unsheltered individuals with service providers and have done so in the case of this specific encampment.”

The posted flyers explained the area constitutes as a public nuisance under Municipal Code Section 16-53.

Some South Bend community members, like Lee Robinson, agrees with the city that the encampment needs to be moved.

“It don’t look right for the city and the neighborhood and the people that have businesses and I’m pretty sure don’t nobody want them hanging out around their places and things like that, don’t look right,” said Robinson.

Others, like local Jerry Burrow, who is also homeless himself but does not stay in the Colfax Ave. area, says he believes the city’s notices are unfair to the homeless population.

“If the homeless ain’t messing with nobody, why mess with them, you know? It don’t make sense. It’s really mean, you know. These days it’s really hard, you know, like I’m homeless and I be dumpster diving for food, and they start being really mean, ‘hey you get out of there, what are you doing?’ Nothing wrong, looking for food,” said Burrow.