Albany officials monitor, but leave alone, hidden homeless population (PHOTO GALLERY)

ALBANY — Albany law enforcement and public health officials have settled for grudging acceptance of an ever-changing — and some officials say dangerously large — homeless population that has settled into a wooded area just south of 16th Avenue in North Albany, directly adjacent to Phoebe North hospital and the new Arlington Park subdivision currently under construction.

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Estimates range from “around 18” to “more than 60” homeless people living on property that officials say belongs to Catherine Crawford. An Albany Herald investigation, aided by public health, Code Enforcement and Albany Fire Department officials, turned up eight makeshift shelters in the thick woods in an area just south of 16th from North Monroe Street to the east and Pace Street to the west.

The Herald investigation also led to large piles of garbage adjacent to some campsites and evidence of human waste.

Law enforcement and public health officials are torn over the legality and safety of the occupants of the encampments. Deputy Chief Mark Scott, with the Albany Police Department, said the homeless population living in the wooded area is doing so with the permission of Crawford, and thus is breaking no law.

“As far as enforcement, that’s complaint-driven,” Scott said. “If there is a problem, a complaint, we deal with it. Otherwise, we don’t mess with them.”

But Dougherty County Environmental Health Manager James Davis said allowing the occupants to remain in the shelters is itself a violation of state law.

“If you go to the Georgia Department of Public Health’s website, you’ll see code that expressly states if there is no sewer system on property that is being occupied, the owner must provide an on-site waste management system,” Davis said. “Even if these people staying in the woods have been given permission to do so, the law is being broken because they have no on-site waste disposal system and no running water.

“If there is human waste around a significant number of people, that’s an outbreak waiting to happen.”

Albany Fire Chief James Carswell said knowing a significant homeless population is living in the woods of North Albany presents a very real problem for his department if wildfire spreads in the area.

“Thank goodness it’s been so wet lately we haven’t had to worry much about woodland fires,” Carswell said. “But in drier conditions, their being in those woods presents problems that could be insurmountable. I don’t know that we could honestly say we could protect those people in the event of a fire.

“Now that we know they’re in there — and we didn’t hear about it until a couple of weeks ago, when we were investigating a fire at an abandoned home on 16th — we have to react to the imminent danger that imposes. We have to sit down and devise a plan to try and protect that population.”

HIDDEN HOMESTEADERS

Little more than a couple of blocks away from the hustle and bustle of busy Palmyra Road lies a lush wooded area that, from outward appearances, is a greenspace haven for wildlife on the outer fringes of Albany’s city limits. But stepping through the vegetative canopy at the outer edges of the woods is much like stepping back in time to an era and a land far removed from a busy metropolitan location.

Trees and underbrush grow thick, in most places making passage next to impossible. But throughout the woods are narrow paths that have been worn by the comings and goings of a homeless population that some officials say is dangerously high.

“I can show you three or four places where there are shelters right along the edges of the woods,” AFD Chief Investigator Sam Harris says. “But I’ve been told by police officials that there is an area deeper in the woods where there is a larger group (of homeless people) living.

“Frankly, I didn’t know that people were actually homesteading in here. But when we were investigating a fire on 16th two weeks ago, some of the people in the neighborhood came over and told us we should do something about all the homeless people going in and out of the woods. I investigated and was stunned at what I saw. It’s like stepping back into the 1700s or so. It’s a whole different world.”

Indeed, clothes hang drying between trees, condiments are arranged around a small grill and large piles of garbage surround some of the shelter sites in the North Albany woods. Harris points to water running in a drainage ditch that splits the woods into two sections, suggesting the occupants of the makeshift shelters may be bathing and washing their clothes in the water.

Scott said APD regularly patrols the area around the woods but has had few complaints about the homeless population.

“This is nothing new,” he said. “There have been homeless people staying in those woods for years. Unless the property owner changes her mind and says she doesn’t want them there, there’s not a whole lot we can do. In fact, there are so many people who go out there to take them food and clothing, if we tried to make them leave we’d catch all kinds of grief.

“I liken that situation to the ‘Drey Line.’ Everyone knows those folks are there, and if we try to make them leave, there is an outcry.”

David Blackwell, who is director of the Albany-Dougherty Coalition to End Homelessness, confirms that his group and other churches in the city are in regular contact with the homeless population living in the wooded area. Blackwell said he can’t remember hearing any complaints about the residents.

“There are a few who hang around the produce stand on Palmyra who panhandle in that area, but I’m not aware of any real complaints,” he said. “A lot of those people just feel more comfortable in an environment like that wooded area. Some of them are veterans who are eligible to get help with housing, but they choose not to.”

RISK-FREE ARRANGEMENT?

Told that some law enforcement officials had suggested as many as 60 people were encamped in the woods, Blackwell said he thought that number was too high.

“The most I’ve ever known living there at any given time is 18, and there aren’t many homeless people around here that I don’t know about,” he said. “It bothers me when people refer to these individuals as ‘vagrants.’ These are human beings.

“I’m also concerned that the city of Albany is talking about passing some kind of panhandling ordinance. My question to them is, ‘How much money are you spending to help us deal with this homeless situation in our community?’ Before they try to pass that kind of legislation, they should provide some kind of service, put some skin in the game.”

Chuck Mitchell, who is the emergency management and law enforcement coordinator for Phoebe North, said he’s very aware of the homeless population living on the property just north of the hospital. In fact, Mitchell has gotten to know a number of the “regulars” who emerge from the woods, and he’s been known to check on them from time to time.

“I guess you could say I try to kill two birds with one stone,” Mitchell said. “Yes, I check on some of the homeless folks, but I’m also patrolling the Phoebe property. I think there’s a level of concern from the hospital, but as long as these folks don’t come onto hospital property, it’s pretty much OK.

“I’ve gotten to know people who leave those woods to go to jobs every day, and there’s even a couple that lives in there. A lot of people will come by and drop off food and clothing for them, so the community is aware that they’re there. For the most part, those folks aren’t bothering anybody.”

Harris, though, is not so sure that the arrangement is risk-free.

“You’re talking about a pretty significant homeless population,” he said. “There are going to be people with mental problems, and there’s no guarantee that there won’t be pedophiles and other criminals in the group as well. You want to have sympathy for people who are going through hard times, but I can’t help but worry about the people in the Phoebe parking lot or the families moving into these $150,000 homes right across the street from those woods.”

Davis, who is investigating the homeless population in the North Albany woods, said he’s not as concerned over finding scattered shelters as he would be if there were a larger community living in close proximity.

“I’m not as concerned seeing these pockets (of shelters) as I would be if there was some kind of large enclave,” he said. “We’ll look into it further, but I’ll have to see what action my boss (Southwest Health District Director Dr. Jacqueline Grant) decides to take.”