Within the Walden Lake Community, one of Plant City’s most affluent residential areas, there is a hidden campground, complete with a makeshift bathroom and shower, and distinguished by a scattered host of items from shopping carts to weaponry.
This fall, city officials shut down the camp, which had been occupied by homeless trespassers for at least one year. The evictees will have to search for new places to reside, but the WLCA is left with the large task of cleaning up the debris that was left behind.
Jim Chancey, the recently resigned president of the WLCA, said there have previously been some camps on this property, located off of Sydney Road, directly east of the intersection of Sydney and Old Sydney roads, and south of the railroad tracks. But, none of the camps from earlier years had been as large or messy as the most recent one, he said.
“You can just imagine,” Chancey said. “There’s everything from tents, to garbage cans, to old clothes. There’s computers, laptops, old condoms … They even found a pistol.”
The camp is not visible from the road. It was discovered this summer, when a driver on Sydney Road noticed that a group of people were headed into the woods in that area. The driver reported the observation to the police.
Police officers and officials from Plant City Code Enforcement inspected the site.
“When we inspected the camp, we saw at least four individual campsites back there,” Code Enforcement Supervisor Tray Towles said. “One individual had a very good-sized tent out there, and even a shower set up next to the tent. … It was actually pretty elaborate.”
There was also a makeshift bathroom facility on the site. But, Towles said it was close enough to the tents that it could have been hazardous for anyone who lived there.
In this type of case, city officials evaluate the situation and contact the property owner. The property owner must allow police to come onto the site and evict the trespassers. Without the property owner’s consent, police and code enforcement employees are unable to take action.
Chancey and the WLCA allowed police to evict the homeless people who had been living at the camp. Towles said city officials tried to help the evictees with relocation services, by telling them about safe places they could turn to, such as local churches and Lighthouse Ministries in Lakeland. In a previous case, police officers even personally transported evictees to Lighthouse Ministries.
“Typically what we find … We’re offering this outreach to these individuals, but a lot of them aren’t taking us up on it,” Towles said.
Soon after the camp was vacated, Code Enforcement got a complaint about an overgrown lot at the intersection of Sydney and Old Sydney roads. When officials went out to inspect the site, they found evidence that a trespasser was living there. Towles said it is possible that this person was someone who previously lived at the Walden Lake camp.
CLEAN UP
Code enforcement officials returned to the site in October to reinspect the site. They found that the camp was officially vacant, so WLCA got the go-ahead to start the cleanup process.
Larry Evans, WLCA’s grounds technician, has estimated that it would take him and his son three consecutive weekends — six full days — to clean up the camp. If his estimate is accurate, the area will be cleared by Nov. 30.
“It’s just like a junk yard,” Chancey said. “And it’s swampy back there, too.”
Chancey contacted the city’s sanitation department, as well as some independent clean-up businesses, to request that they clear the site. But, they all had policies against picking up debris directly from the ground, as a safety precaution.
The WLCA had to buy special gloves for Evans and his son, to protect them from hypodermic needles and other biologically hazardous materials. The association also spent $350 to rent a Dumpster.
In the future, the WLCA and the Police Department will check the site more often to ensure no trespassers are able to set up camps there again.
“I have a few police officers who have promised me they’d keep an eye on it,” Chancey said.
Walden Lake is not the only area in Plant City that has come across this type of situation.
There was another camp behind Waffle House off Thonotosassa Road, just south of Interstate 4.
The camp existed for about five years, but the property owner had not been responsive to communication from Code Enforcement and the police. A Waffle House employee said that for most of that time, no one from the camp had caused problems for customers at the restaurant. But, toward the end of the camp’s existence, there were reports to the police that some of the homeless had been harassing customers.
About a year ago, the property ownership transferred to a hotel chain, and the new owners allowed the police to evict the trespassers.
Contact Catherine Sinclair at csinclair@plantcityobserver.com.