County Disbands Homeless Encampment, Displacing Eight

Carroll County agencies collaborated this week to break up a homeless encampment along Rt. 27 at the Rt. 140 overpass, declaring it a health hazard and forcing eight people to leave, officials said.

Westminster Mayor Kevin Utz said the encampment, which police say has been there for two years, was overlooked for too long.

"I think that we as a government enabled them by allowing them to live there for that period of time," Utz said. "Any other citizen would have had to get permits to do such a thing."

Maj. Nicholas Plazio of the sheriff's department said that Commissioner Richard Rothschild received a complaint that the area was being contaminated, which is what initiated the cleanup.

Plazio said that there appeared to be eight people living in the encampment at the time of the cleanup.

"We gave them one week's notice," Plazio said. "We encouraged them to try to find shelter with relatives, we referred them to local shelters and social services, we told them to move their stuff. We tried to do what we could to help them. They had to go. It was a health hazard."

Plazio said that eight dump trucks full of trash and debris had already been removed as of Tuesday afternoon and that there were still several loads of trash to be taken away. He said the cleanup would last a couple more days.

According to Human Service Programs of Carroll County Executive Director Cindy Parr, HSP was not aware that the people living there were going to be displaced Tuesday. HSP is a county agency that provides support services to low income and homeless individuals.

"Human Services Programs did not receive any specific or official information related to the displacement of people under or around the Rt. 27 bridge area," Parr said. "We weren't asked to provide assistance or outreach services by any agency.

"In a perfect world, we could have been available to assess the potential needs of the folks that were at that site and we could have provided the appropriate linkages to information and services, if indeed they were willing," Parr said.

According to HSP, there are approximately , with about 153 of them receiving HSP services.

Not far from the encampment, which backs up to railroad tracks, a  several months ago. Police reported that they believe the man committed suicide.

Sheriff’s deputies, sheriff’s office detention personnel, inmates on work release and employees from the Carroll County Facilities Bureau participated in the clean up effort.

Plazio said they will routinely patrol the area and will post "no trespassing" signs so the problem does not reoccur.

"We're working to return the area to pristine condition," Plazio said.