LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville officials said the city is cleaning homeless camps ahead of the Kentucky Derby, but the camps aren't being cleared out. The residents will be allowed to stay.
The open area near South Jackson and East Jefferson streets is the closest thing some Louisville resident have to "home."
In the past, as Derby week approaches, the city has forced out the people living there. But this year, the city only temporarily asked people to move their belongings for a few hours Thursday while they cleaned the area.
Once the sidewalk dried, people were allowed to settle back in.
City officials said the change happened because of the pandemic and following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention means people should be allowed to shelter in place.
"This is the one time I'm very grateful for the pandemic, because we're following these guidelines, allowing these people to shelter in place, being treated with respect and dignity," said Tiny Herron with St. John Center for Homeless Men.
Thursday marks the start of a four-day event during which the city will clean other encampments in Louisville.
"I think cleaning of encampments is a necessary part of keeping the folks we serve on a day-to-day basis safe and alive," said Jeff Gill, founder of Hip Hop Cares. "There are a lot of reasons people don't make it through homeless situations, and health reasons is one of them."
If people don't want to stay, social service organizations are on-site helping to transition them into housing programs.
Herron said they're doing what they can, but space is running out.
"We're just spinning our wheels, honestly, doing the best we can every single day, fighting and yelling and screaming and scrapping up dimes and pennies, but we have a lack of affordable housing," said Herron.
People were able to keep their personal belongings, but if something was damaged or misplaced, social service organizations and the city provided replacement items.
"We created the homeless initiative recipient model, where we have nine organizations offering additional services to our unsheltered," said Tameka Laird with the Louisville Metro Office of Resilience and Community Services. "We want them to be stabilized. We want them to stay housed. So we're doing every effort around that."
The city's more compassionate approach comes nearly two months after Louisville Metro Police displaced several people when clearing a homeless camp in downtown Louisville without proper notice. The department later apologized for the incident, citing a miscommunication.
Now that tides seem to have shifted, Herron and Gill said they're hopeful city leaders continue to follow the new model.
"We've been onsite before where we've not had the support of other service providers or the city," Herron sad. "But we're in a good space now where we're all working together."
"I'm personally glad we're where we're at now," Gill added. "Pandemic or no pandemic, the fact is, today, there were no people that were displaced. We were able to make communication amongst ourselves and with the folks that were occupying this space, and everything was done in the most compassionate possible way."
On Thursday morning, only one side of the encampment was cleaned. On Friday morning from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., City Works will be back to clean off the other side.
On Monday, City Works will head to the Preston Street overpass and Tuesday will be the homeless encampment near the intersection at North Hancock and East Main streets.
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