On a cold, clear morning, Richard Travis smoked a cigarette near the Wyoming Valley Levee in Edwardsville while watching three of his children play on the grassy slope nearby.
“We're supposed to have a place to live with my friend, but unfortunately, it's not working out,” Travis said during a late February interview.
After Travis, 35, and his children, ages 7, 9, and 11, left his friend’s house in Plymouth, they spent several days sleeping in the woods above the levee to distance themselves from a homeless camp in a clearing littered with garbage and needles.
The family was among potentially dozens of people who have been living on lands owned by the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority and other private property owners nearby.
Citing safety, liability and quality of life concerns, officials are preparing to evict those living in and around the camp, which has grown up in the area over the course of several years. Authorities said they don't have a definitive date for the process to begin.
But police and Flood Protection Authority officials also say they will be looking to connect those living in the camp with resources where they can turn for assistance.
“We're trying not to be heartless. We're trying to help these people,” said Edwardsville Police Chief David Souchick, who estimates that there are “upwards of 30” people living in and around the camp. It dates back to 2020 or 2019, but Souchick said numbers have recently been rising.
“One or two may leave, five may come in,” the chief said.
Souchick also said many of the people approached by police have spurned assistance in the past.
“Right from the beginning, we have offered many of these people help. And the majority of them will not take the help, they would rather be on their own, where they don't have to go to places where they have to follow rules,” the chief added, acknowledging that struggles with addiction and mental health issues are concerns for many of the occupants.
‘It’s a public safety issue’
The Flood Protection Authority in mid-February sent a letter to Souchick asking for assistance with the homeless camp, but authority Executive Director Christopher Belleman stressed during an interview with WVIA News that having people arrested was not the agency’s goal.
“There's no sanitation, there’s no potable water, there's no heat,” Belleman said. “And I wanted to try to get these people some assistance. But also, from a liability standpoint, we can't allow people to live on authority land, because then if we allow the situation to continue, then we're probably liable for any situations that could occur.”
“It's a public safety issue,” Belleman continued. He said the situation came to his attention after Authority staff had filled two pickup trucks with debris and trash that was thrown on the levee by people who are living in the agency’s right of way.
Conditions at the site when WVIA visited reflected the situation Belleman described.
A makeshift tent stood at the center of a large clearing in the woods, surrounded by a wide field of debris – clothing, garbage, household items, coolers – with hypodermic needles embedded in the mud.
Souchick added that the problems are not confined to the camp.
“The problem is with these people," Souchick said. "They're coming down into our shopping centers. And the panhandling is really, really bad in the West Side mall there."
“And it's not only them panhandling, it's them threatening people,” he added. “They're coming into the Price Chopper, where they're shoplifting galore. It's just a big problem.”
The camp also has led to sanitary issues for neighbors, he said.
“These people are not only leaving their garbage all over the place but defecating and urinating,” the chief said. “We had one person up on Tobin Lane call the police and say, ‘Look, these people are hanging their feces bags from trees.’ We went up there, and there are bags with feces in them.”
Seeking solutions
On the morning we met Travis, he was speaking with representatives from Volunteers of America (VOA). They had driven out to the secluded area after news of the authority’s request for police assistance began to spread.
Clifton Hall, manager of VOA’s Give Hope program, acknowledged concerns that police could potentially arrest some of the people living in the woods. He said he was eager to get the word out that resources were available.
“There are people out here that have registered with our program. So we do come out to check on those people and try to connect them with different services such as Mother Teresa's House, or any type of place where they could stand a chance to get good housing,” Hall said.
He was hopeful that people would be given more options than pack up or be prosecuted.
When WVIA News visited the area, only the Travis family was present. It is not unusual for homeless camps to be empty during the day.
“Sometimes the camps are interchangeable,” Hall said. “They’ll leave different camps for certain reasons. They might even hear of a rumor like this (possible arrests) and just pick up and go.”
Hall said that complicates his agency’s efforts to help people experiencing homelessness, especially when trying to arrange meetings for important services, such as securing housing.
“When they have to leave and go to another encampment, it just sets the process back because we can no longer locate them when it is their time for an appointment,” he said.
Travis said he and his children had not been living in the main camp, but in their own area of the woods a short distance uphill and away from the others, to maintain some privacy.
Hall said he hadn’t encountered Travis and his children prior to that morning but was going to work with them to find accommodations — something the family absolutely was interested in.
Those who are not interested will eventually face a choice: leave or face arrest.
‘Notice of trespass’
Souchick explained plans for the eviction process.
First the department received permission from the Authority to enter their property for enforcement. Then the Authority provided police with a notice of trespass which they will hand out to people in the camp.
Police are still waiting for a neighboring private landowner to determine whether he wants to provide his own notice or use the same one the Authority provided, the chief explained.
With that in mind, police don’t yet have a target date for when they will visit the camp and begin issuing the notices.
The notice will inform trespassers that they must leave, but also let them know what resources are available.
“Once we hand them this notice, they’ll have so many days to get their stuff and get out of there,” Souchick said. “And if we go back there, and they're there again, they're going to get arrested for defiant trespass.”
The chief said he is hoping police will be able to partner with organizations such as VOA when they do go out into the camp.
That is what Belleman was hoping for.
“We need to try to get these people some help. But you know, we're not social workers here at the authority, so we have to enlist others to help us in that effort,” he said.
For Travis and his family, the road toward help began the day he met VOA's Hall out at the levee. Shortly after talking with a reporter, Travis and the children left with Hall, who helped them get into a motel. They have been staying there since then.
Travis said he also has been applying for housing, here and in other counties.
"I'm hanging in there," he said.
IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW NEEDS HELP
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services maintains a resource page with county-by-county information on assistance for people experiencing homelessness. Visit it at https://www.dhs.pa.gov/Services/Other-Services/Pages/Homeless-Assistance.aspx