City’s homeless camp ordered closed; residents who refuse to leave could face charges

By Kimberly King

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — A homeless camp visible from Interstate 240 in Asheville is about to be cleared. Officials said the camp is on state highway property and those living there will have to leave by the end of the week.

The encampment, which is clearly visible to drivers coming up I-240 or Patton Avenue going into downtown, has been been in place for about three weeks. Homeward Bound outreach manager Mike DeSerio said staff will talk with residents in all 35 tents about leaving. Homeward Bound has been working with local individuals in need of housing assistance.

Asheville police said, until now, there had been no major complaints about the camp on North Carolina Department of Transportation property, but recently, officers received a complaint about repeat fires and trash piling up at the camp.

“NCDOT staff have reached out to local officials to review the site,” NCDOT engineer Tim Anderson said by email. “If local officials determine that conditions at the site cause a clear risk to the public, local law enforcement would take the lead in asking those there to leave.”

Asheville Police Department (APD) Capt. Michael Lamb confirmed late Monday afternoon that officers will close the homeless camp that has grown behind Haywood Street Congregation.

DeSerio said an APD officer had informed him that officers would be going to the camp, asking residents to take down their tents or face trespassing charges.

DeSerio said tight housing inventory has also impacted the ability for local agencies to find housing for those in the homeless community who would like to find stable places to live.

One homeless woman who was visiting her boyfriend at the camp Monday afternoon said, “Once you’re homeless it’s very very hard to come out of it.”

The 40-year-old who goes by the name Panda said she’d been homeless in Asheville three years.

The woman recently had a scare at an Asheville homeless camp where she has been living.

“Bounty hunters came through my camp the day before yesterday and told me there was a wanted sex offender, a serial rapist camping in my area,” Panda said.

Panda said she’s struggled with drug addiction all her life and was convicted of crimes related to fentanyl and other drugs.

“I’ve been sober for three months. But it’s a struggle. I get sober and relapse, get sober and relapse,” she said.

Panda said she grew up in foster care after her mother was murdered in Lexington, Kentucky, when she was three. Panda said she’d also been sexually abused as a child. She acknowledged many men and women who are homeless have had lifelong struggles that landed them on the streets.

“There are people out here who struggle with paranoid schizophrenia. There are people out here who struggle with all kinds of mental diseases, and they are not being treated,” Panda said. “I think that we need more than just to be fed certain times of the day. The resources available now are meals and sometimes clothes.”

But Panda also acknowledged that many homeless individuals will reject efforts to help them get into recovery programs.

“You have to want to be helped,” Panda said.

Panda said she’d like to find stable housing but her counselor at Homeward Bound told her it could be another 18 months before there was a unit open. Panda said she’s been on the public housing waitlist since 2020.

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