MACON, Ga. — 13WMAZ received an email from a property owner in the 100 block of Emery Highway about an encampment that has been a disturbance to tenants. The encampment reportedly has over 100 people staying there.
When we arrived at the encampment at the intersection of Emery Highway and Melrose Street in East Macon, Macon-Bibb County Code Enforcement workers arrived. They couldn't tell us why they showed up, but Rev. Jake Hall, the director of United Ways United to End Homelessness, filled us in.
Halls says the encampment was on their radar for a while. Workers from United Way and Code Enforcement were there because it was a public health and safety concern. He says this was part of a collaborative model.
The team model approach means working with county municipal agencies and social services like the Brookdale Resource Center and Daybreak to figure out what they need instead of going into the encampment and treating them like criminals. Hall says one of the concerns they work on is housing stability.
"As we have gathered along with our partners the location and needs of these encampments, we have been able to deploy services to try to provide first and foremost housing stability. Also, engage our relevant partners like the Department of Public Health or our social workers within house housing systems," Hall says
John Teipel is the owner of Troopers Collision Centers. He works across the street from the encampment. He says he has seen people walk around his shop in the past.
"We don't leave anything out anymore after they started doing this but they would steal gas from us," Teipel said.
Teipel says they would come to the car lot and take gas from the totaled cars. That's why they started making sure to lock the gates so they wouldn't do it again, but they say there were other instances too. He says they were supposedly using the gas for generators in the encampment to stay warm in the winter.
"One morning we did open the back door and one jumped out of the the bed of a pickup truck that we had parked back there," Teipel said.
The property owner who reached out to us said there were also reports of theft and vandalism at the Family Dollar. We have requested those records from the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.
In the last couple of years, the county has cleared out homeless camps by the Ocmulgee River and at an old bus terminal on Spring Street. We reached out to Macon-Bibb County and they told us they currently have no plan to remove this latest camp, but instead help the people in them find housing and get help if they want it.
Hall says post-assessment they will work to help the people in the camp and make sure they have the right resources.