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Downtown homeless camp will be evacuated Tuesday

62 views · Published 26 July 2018 · 3:17 · Indexed 23 September 2026

Channel: LOCAL 12 · 2018 · News & Politics

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CINCINNATI (WKRC) - The homeless camp at Third and Plum streets should be gone on Tuesday afternoon and will be moving to a new spot on the east side of downtown.

The city originally ordered the camp to be vacated by July 20, but a couple of city council members interceded and got an extension until Wednesday. That few extra days brought people some time and help. 

The residents of the encampment received health checkups and filled out forms for housing. Thirty of the 50 will soon have roofs over their heads. 

Plum resident, Bison Evans, credits this to the short reprieve.

"The people were scared to even ask for help," he said. "I got people who wouldn't get housing and they were like alright, Bison, we gonna get some housing. They got housing. A couple of guys were scared to get health checks and get rehab." 

All 50 received health checkups from the city's mobile clinic. 

Fern Expo has donated two box trucks and drivers to move people out starting on Tuesday morning, a day ahead of the deadline.

Downtown residents will be glad to see the encampment gone. It calls itself a drug-free zone, but on Monday, police put out a flier asking for help finding William Dior Caldwell, accused of selling drugs at Third and Plum. The man is not a resident of the camp.

"He's a drug dealer and this is one of the places he goes. And whether he's preying on them or taking advantage of the opportunity, at the end of the day, he's a piece of the criminal element that we are addressing," Captain Michael Neville said.

Monday afternoon, the acting city manager, Patrick Duhaney, and council members, Tamaya Dennard and Greg Landsman, visited Third and Plum. Around the same time, volunteers came to deliver food and water. They say taking a day or two to work on a solution made a big difference.

Landsman said, "It looks as if this place will be empty by tomorrow and certainly by Wednesday, but, more importantly, people will have gotten the help they need."

 "Next week some of these tents will be in other places. That's the reality of things, but in two or three months? No. We're committed to finding a solution before it gets cold outside," said Tamaya Dennard.

Thirty have found housing, and some others still might. Several of the camp residents have no desire to live in a shelter or anywhere indoors and want to live outside. Those men and women will be moved to a place on the east side of downtown that the city won't yet identify. They realize it's a short-term solution and that people near that location will likely complain. 

Residents have already filled two dumpsters with trash and old furniture from the camp. City crews will start cleaning Wednesday and throw away anything that is left.

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