Evicted homeless get apology from city

By Mike Owens

KSDK -- A homeless encampment in a tiny park downtown was dismantled by city employees Thursday with a heavy hand.

Now, Bill Siedhoff, the city's director of human services, is apologizing for what he says is a crew that did not follow protocol.

Four or five homeless people have made Interco Park on Tucker near Cole their home for the last few months, but Wednesday night, were told the park was going to be cleaned up and out Thursday.

At 10 a.m. Thursday, a city garbage truck backed up to the tents and employees of the parks department started dismantling tents and dumping bags of personal possessions into the gaping maw of the truck.

The encampment is just outside the St. Patrick's Center for the homeless and an office worker there saw the city knocking down the tents.

Karen Wallensak went to the workers and identified herself, and offered to take control of the possession to return them to their owners. However, Wallensak says the city workers said it was too late, and the possessions were now trash. Among the items in the dump: one homeless man's heart medication. He was there, but the city crew would not stop to get his drugs.

Late Thursday, city officials got wind of what happened, and now they are apologizing for what they say is a crew that didn't follow protocol.

The city has dismantled homeless camps before, but usually more humanely, according to Siedhoff. He says the city allows the homeless time to get their personal possessions and move into shelters. In fact, the city sends workers to help them find places to stay.

In this case, Siedhoff says, "we screwed up."

Siedhoff says the city has apologized to everyone who was hurt by the city's efforts and his office is working to replace the goods that ended up in the trash.