Several blocks east of City Hall on East 11th Street, a homeless camp has been growing for months on contaminated city property.
City officials have acknowledged the empty field is convenient – a very short walk – to the Chattanooga Community Kitchen and Homeless Health Care Center, where a variety of support services are offered, but now have decided to move the residents off the property they say is still toxic after being used at one time as a city dump site for hazardous materials.
The nearby Community Kitchen operated an emergency shelter from Dec. 8, 2017, until March 11, 2018, but officials there have said its shelter is not adequate to house the number of homeless persons on any given night.
The homeless camp existed for almost all, if not all, of the time the shelter was open. It lies almost directly behind the Chattanooga Police Department’s 11st Street Precinct.
So, for the better part of a half year, city employees have known a tent city was operating in a brownfield just a couple of stone’s throws from the Chattanooga mayor’s office. Perhaps the administration may have thought the individuals would be fine unless they disturbed the land. Perhaps the police may have thought the proximity to their precinct was the safest place the camp could be.