Advocates voice concern after City of Salisbury closes homeless encampment

Salisbury, Md. — The City of Salisbury’s closure of a homeless encampment underneath the bridge on Division Street has sparked conversation over the issue of homelessness in the city and what steps might be taken to address it.

Feces began appearing under the Division Street bridge in Downtown Salisbury over the weekend as the city said it removed what it called an “unsanitary and dangerous,” situation.

Salisbury mayor Randy Taylor addressed the community about the encampment closure in a post on Facebook. Taylor called the issue of homelessness, “complicated,” with “no easy answers.” He added that leaving the encampment as it was not compassionate.

“Leaving people to live in unsafe conditions, with limited but inadequate sanitation, services, treatment, or shelter, is not a solution. It is simply accepting human suffering in plain sight,” Taylor wrote.

Taylor wrote that his administration is continuing to work on addressing the issue.

“This is not just a governmental issue, but I believe this is, a community issue, a community problem where it’s going to take leaders from the community to really address the problem of homelessness,” Dickerson said.

Dickerson said that the community needs to come up with creative solutions. He floated the idea of specialized shelters for groups like veterans and people with medical issues, and a task force of nonprofits and churches in Salisbury to address homelessness.

For people who had been staying under the bridge, now that it’s closed off, there are questions about where they will go.

“Is that causing individuals to shift to another location in Salisbury because – okay, you closed off the bridge. Is that going to cause them to go somewhere else and maybe create the same issues?” Dickerson said.

Taylor wrote that the fencing underneath the Division Street bridge would not be the only thing in the city his administration would look to address. He wrote that their next area of focus would be the parking lot by ACME in Salisbury.

WMDT reached out to Mayor Taylor for further comment – but has not yet heard back heard back