Workers are cleaning up the Colorado Springs homeless camp in the MLK Bypass area.
The cleanup of a Colorado Springs homeless camp in the MLK Bypass area which began on Tuesday continued through Friday. The volunteer group Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful headed up the effort to remove trash and other debris from the Bypass just south of downtown Colorado Springs. The cleanup effort followed behind authorities who gradually forced people to leave the camp.
A group of volunteers collected a thick layer of trash by hand and loaded the full bags into front-end loaders provided by the Colorado Department of Transportation to be removed. Many of the volunteers feel a strong connection to the cause, being Springs natives themselves. The Executive Director of Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful, Dee Cunningham, said that the amount of trash in this camp is the worst she’s seen in her 21 years on the job. Among the trash in the Springs homeless camp are items like bedding, furniture and hypodermic needles.
Members of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office have raised concerns about hazards and health issues that come along with a camp this size. These concerns included waste going into Fountain Creek and scattered needles. The Sheriff’s office and Springs Police supervised the cleanup to help prevent confrontations with anyone living in the camp. A similar cleanup caused problems a few years ago when several homeless people accused volunteers of throwing away personal items.
Cunningham also stated that Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful regularly provides the homeless people in the Colorado Springs homeless camp and other areas like it with trash bags, and they offer to pick up filled bags that are placed along the Greenway Trail.
Several members of the homeless community have raised concerns about the motive behind the cleanup, citing the idea that the homeless are messy when that isn’t necessarily the truth.
Regardless of the exact motivation, Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful is doing exactly that. Cleaning up areas and making the Springs a bit more beautiful.
