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New 'Colony' homeless camp given 72 hours to leave

512 views · Published 2 August 2018 · 3:34 · Indexed 23 September 2026

Channel: LOCAL 12 · 2018 · News & Politics

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CINCINNATI (WKRC) - The city of Cincinnati gave a downtown homeless camp 72 hours to clean up and leave.

The highly visible camp stretches for several blocks along Third Street right near major businesses, apartment buildings and attractions like the Freedom Center and Great American Ball Park.

The city has a defined procedure for closing down homeless camps. The 72-hour notice comes out of a federal court case a number of years ago and was applied again Tuesday.

Police officers walked the Third Street tent city, which residents call "The Colony," handing out 72-hour eviction notices:

"And then Friday around 2 p.m., we'll be back, expecting they will have cleaned up their property and we will clean the area," Captain Mike Neville from Cincinnati Police said.

There are about 20 tents, plus cots, blankets and other makeshift dwellings along Third Street. Camp residents had been saying they were staying and even issued demands for the city to put in more portable toilets, showers and recycling containers.

But Tuesday, the response seemed to be that the camp residents would be out by the deadline.

One camp spokesperson said, "Well I think that the notice is a beautiful thing. I think the only thing that was wrong is they didn't have a set location. What's going on now, we're not trying to save The Colony. We're not trying to save the tents. We're trying to save lives."

Mayor John Cranley said the camp is a health, sanitation and safety hazard. Cranley said some ideologically-driven activists were actually telling homeless individuals not to leave.

Cranley said, "It's totally immoral and it's wrong. What we've got to do is encourage people to take advantage of the shelters. Shelterhouse, City Gospel and others are reaching out. The manager took money out of his budget to make sure there was a bed for every person who was evicted. But it's not appropriate to not focus on the issues. They need addiction treatment and mental health and other help they deserve and need."

The homeless support group Maslow's Army says residents like Jerry Grant have gotten into shelters.

"I'm going to go over there and get situated and then get me a job, so I can get me my own. Tonight, I can finally sleep in my bed. That's a relief off my shoulders," Grant said.

But the city expects some of the Third Street residents to move to another camp or set up a new one.

"We may have to do this multiple times, but we have to take a clear moral stand that this is not right," Cranely said.

There is another homeless camp  near Mehring Way and Pete Rose Way. The city plans to issue a 72-hours notice there on Tuesday.

Acting city manager Patrick Duhaney says there are serious health concerns from local homeless camps, including a variety of diseases like hepatitis A. The health department says it has received 17 reports of possible hepatitis A infections so far in 2018. In 2017, it was zero.

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