RI- Update: Judge's homeless-camp decision in 3 parts

8-8-2009 Rhode Island:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A Superior Court hearing on the state's efforts to move homeless people out of the makeshift camps they set up has come down to a decision with three parts.

In part one, Judge Jeffrey A. Lanphear issued a temporary restraining order against encampment number one, which was previously known as Camp Runamuck, near Wickenden Street in Providence. This camp has been virtually abandoned by the homeless already. The temporary restraining order in effect evicts anyone who might still be staying there.

Part two involved the so-called Camp Runamuck II, which the state refers to as "encampment number three." That matter has been continued for one week. The state Department of Transportation and the state Department of Administration have agreed they will not clear out the camp before the hearing, but that would not preclude the police or another agency from taking action based on some infraction of the law.

Part three involves the encampment called "Hope City," which is under a Route 195 ramp and is known to the state as "encampment number 2." Lawyers for the state and Hope City have agreed that the 12 adults remaining there will leave by Aug. 24, and that no new people are allowed to move there. The state lawyers agreed that the state's government and nonprofit agencies will provide services to residents of Hope City.

Barbara Ferrara, Hope City treasurer, said that later Friday night the residents will disclose the location they will move to by Aug. 24. They plan to move to privately owned land, according to Ferrara.

The hearing was originally scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday in Superior Court, but after a half-hour closed-door conference, Judge Jeffrey A. Lanphear postponed it until 2 p.m.

The state is attempting to evict about 43 homeless people from camps in Providence and East Providence.

Directors of the state Department of Administration and the Department of Transportation filed a complaint in Superior Court saying that residents of the tent cities are trespassing, that the encampments lack clean water, sanitary facilities or waste disposal services, that they attract rats and other disease-carrying vermin and that they are within 200 feet of a riverbank.

Sheriffs hand-delivered notices to each "John Doe" and "Jane Doe" in two camps and taped notices, in English and Spanish, on posts at Hope City and Camp Runamuck II, as well as at the abandoned original Camp Runamuck.

About 30 people live at Camp Runamuck II under the Route 195 bridge on the east side of the Seekonk River in East Providence.

About 13 are living at Hope City under a former entrance ramp to Route 195 on the west side of the Providence River in Providence.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Gregory Smith ..Source.. by Jack Perry