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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – There were no issues Tuesday morning as Charlottesville city officials prepared to clear the Free Bridge homeless encampment, coinciding with that morning’s opening of a low-barrier shelter at 2000 Holiday Dr.
Though the encampment’s unhoused population had grown as high as 120 people over the summer, less than three dozen remained this week. Tuesday, city staff were joined by personnel from some of the city’s non-profit organizations, including the Haven, PACEM and Region Ten.
A number of people boarded vans for transportation to the Holiday Dr. property. Some were slowly packing their belongings in anticipation of leaving. Many of the campsites remaining at Free Bridge on Tuesday morning appeared to be abandoned.
“City staff will remain out here until around 9 p.m.,” Charlottesville Communications Director Afton Schneider told Cville Right Now. “We expect this process will last throughout the day.”
Charlottesville Police spokesperson Kyle Ervin told Cville Right Now that CPD hoped to have all the residents out of the Free Bridge area by 8 p.m., though he said that deadline was “not rigid.”
“Law enforcement will make the decision to make any arrests,” Ervin said. “We intend to wait out anyone making a decision.”
At the Holiday Dr. shelter Tuesday morning, Central Arizona Shelter Services CEO Nathan Smith told the media people were already waiting to get in before staff arrived to open.
“When we got here, there were a few people already waiting,” Smith said. “There’s more waiting at the Rivanna right now, waiting to come in. So, it seems as though there are more people eager to come into the shelter than maybe we would have anticipated, but we are ready for probably more than are gonna come today anyway.”
At that point, around 10:15 a.m., Smith said there were “about nine or 10” people already inside the shelter, and the City of Charlottesville was in the process of transporting more using large passenger vans.
Smith said the team didn’t know how many people to expect, with the number anticipated decreased drastically in the weeks leading up to the shelter’s opening.
“Before I even got here, I arrived in the City of Charlottesville four week ago, I was hearing there was gonna be 120 people … When I got here, that number was about 38. Then, I got here four weeks later, and it was like, it in the teens,” Smith said. “And so, we were like, ‘We don’t know. We really don’t. We’ll find out when we get there.'”
He added the anticipation was somewhere around 10-20 people, with some saying they could see upwards of 50.
In preparation, CASS set up 58 total beds, 37 for men and 21 for women. If needed, more beds are available in storage in the building’s basement that will be added.