22 June 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – For years now, neighbors in the 2000 block of Eugene Street, just off Northwest Lyman Road, have avoided the trail located behind their neighborhood. That’s because just yonder, within a wooded area, lies mounds of trash, clothing, shopping carts and even human feces.
“It’s just bad because they defecate, they got trash, there’s everything back there, It’s disgusting,” homeowner Daniel Smith said. “They never clean up back there. There’s been a recliner back there for at least two years and it used to say ‘Kings Thrown’ on it. When the wintertime comes, you can see all that trash out of my backyard.”
With more and more encampments popping up all over the city, District Two Councilwoman, Christina Valdivia-Alcala says enough is enough.
“This is not about territoriality and agencies. This is about helping Topeka,” Valdivia-Alcala said. “We have been dealing with the brunt of this for decades, and it’s only getting worse.”
Following our 27 News report on Monday, June 19, about a new homeless camp on city-owned land near 21st and Washburn, members of the public expressed concerns at Tuesday’s city council meeting. Some said the police need to do more. Police Chief Brian Wheeles says he understands their concerns.
“I don’t look at any of that discourse as far as a negative,” Chief Wheeles said. “It all moves us toward our solution, and that’s what we’re looking for. How we can better help the unsheltered population but also keep our neighborhoods safe.”
With Chief Wheeles concerns being helping the unsheltered and keeping the neighborhoods safe, Smith says his concern is the mess. He feels it shouldn’t be the property owners’ responsibility to clean it up when they did nothing wrong.
“We just don’t want to clean up after them,” Smith said. “I mean, to be honest, if it was city property there wouldn’t be anything we could do anyhow, and we’re not going to do anything about the tree line because that at least keeps them away from us.”
Just a short walk south of Soldier Creek lies the second encampment. It’s even larger than the first camp and multiple people live there. Topeka’s city ordinance allows people to legally camp on city-owned land. Craig McCullah, who’s running against Valdivia-Alcala for the District Two seat, says this ordinance needs to be repealed and replaced.
“We can’t let people just stay wherever they want to,” Mccullah said. We need to move these individuals into actual housing where they can begin to change and turn their lives around. The idea that we’re going to let anybody camp wherever they want on city property is absurd.”