TRAVERSE CITY — No specific date is set to start enforcing Traverse City’s camping ban in parkland where people without homes camp – but police are going to start enforcing that ban sooner rather than later, city Police Chief Matthew Richmond said.
Richmond spoke during the Safe Harbor quarterly meeting Tuesday, where members of the emergency overnight shelter’s leadership gave updates on its current season and efforts to switch from seasonal to year-round operation.
Before the camping ban is enforced though, Richmond said he asked the police department’s social worker, Jen Holm, and North Boardman Community Police Officer Krista Fryczynski to coordinate with partner agencies and come up with a plan for each person staying at “the Pines,” as that area of city property at Eleventh and Division streets is known.
“We’re working very hard to make sure that we do this as humanely as possible, as fair as possible for everyone involved,” the chief said. “That includes those living in the Pines and the neighborhoods around them.”
It’s not the first time Richmond said city officials have expressed an expectation to start enforcing the camping ban. He told city commissioners as much in December 2024. Police currently tolerate camping in the Pines, so long as people aren’t breaking other laws.
However, as winter winds down and Safe Harbor nears the start of a two-year pilot to stay open all year, fears of pending evictions from the Pines prompted several audience members at a recent city commission meeting to bring signs expressing their opposition.
Those protesters, none of whom would give their names, offered public comment against any possible displacement of people living in the Pines as cruel and inhumane.
Some also called for designating the Pines as free camping and adding better accommodations there, such as more dumpsters and permanent bathrooms.
Richmond said Tuesday that people who stay at the Pines know they’ll have to leave there at some point. He repeated his promise to give them plenty of notice and work with each one to get them connected to services before then.
Holm told Tuesday night’s gathering in Traverse Area District Library’s McGuire Community Room about the TCPD Quick Response Team’s results in serving people with overlapping homelessness, substance use or mental health issues, or who have recently overdosed on drugs.
The QRT helped 144 people get treatment over the past year, safely relocated 30 people out of the area to stay with family or seek treatment, and helped 30 more find homes locally.
Brad Gerlach, Safe Harbor’s facility manager, said the shelter’s recently added resource manager has worked with guests to connect them with housing providers. So far, they’ve helped 21 people find homes — a number that, no doubt, overlaps with the one Holm reported, he added later.
Safe Harbor and TCPD were among the city departments, nonprofit service providers and philanthropies to conclude in mid-2024 that camping at the Pines is unsafe, unsanitary and cannot continue.
City commissioners then asked Safe Harbor to draft a plan to extend its mid-October through mid-May season, and Safe Harbor leadership, in turn, sought a change to its special land use permit.
Patrick Livingston, the shelter board’s president, said city planning commissioners unanimously agreed on March 18 to recommend a new permit for the shelter. City commissioners will make the final decision at a future meeting.
If approved, the permit will allow Safe Harbor to close a gap in services during summer months, hopefully leading to better outcomes for the shelter’s guests, Livingston said. The discussions that led to Safe Harbor pursuing the change also spawned a task force looking for long-term solutions to homelessness.
“I think it’s been an amazing year for everybody to come together and address this problem,” Livingston said.