Police target quality of life, safety issues of squatters

It is no surprise to local police and code-enforcement inspectors that men and women are taking up residence in vacant, boarded-up houses on the Charleston peninsula or in pockets of woods near major thoroughfares in North Charleston.

North Charleston officers recently arrested 10 people in a five-day period on nuisance or trespassing charges, prompted in large part by citizen complaints. Some of those arrested were repeat offenders.

Within the city of Charleston, patrol officers keep an eye out for the occasional individual sleeping beneath bridge overpasses, said Livability Unit Supervisor Cpl. Ed Robinson.

Robinson said he doesn't know of anyone who has set up camp in Charleston, but he gets a handful of calls a month about people accessing vacant houses that are supposed to be secured. Sometimes Robinson finds an old mattress inside, evidence someone has been squatting there.

North Charleston Code Enforcement Inspector Eric Nash said it's often easier to spot tarps and tents in the woods this time of the year because there is less foliage.

It's not that officials lack compassion for people who find themselves facing hard times, Nash said. It's a quality-of-life and safety issue both for the people living in those conditions and for their neighbors, officials said.

If someone pries a board off a vacant house and starts a fire to stay warm or cook, the flames could spread and damage that property and adjacent buildings, Robinson said. There might also be criminal activity such as drug use or prostitution by squatters, he said.

Living conditions for squatters are not healthy, especially in camps in the woods, Nash said. He recalled one camp where the toilet was a 5-gallon bucket with a hole cut in the bottom. The vagrants just moved the bucket around the site, he said.

"It's within several feet of where they're cooking, sleeping," he said. "It's just an unhealthy issue."

Police also have found a large amount of garbage at camp sites.

Here's a sampling of what officers have found in North Charleston:

-- Two men, ages 31 and 53, and a woman, age 37, living in tents in woods across from Northbrook Boulevard. Two said they'd been living there several months, according to a Jan. 9 report. They were charged with contributing to a nuisance.

-- A man, 55, who had $824 in his possession but was living in a homemade shelter in woods off Hanahan Road near the railroad tracks. He was previously put on trespass notice and was arrested Jan. 10 when another officer found him at the same site, which had not been cleaned up, a report states. He was charged with trespassing after notice and contributing to a nuisance.

-- A 61-year-old man found sleeping in the cab of a truck alongside a wooded area of Wright Street on Jan. 10. He was arrested on a charge of contributing to a nuisance. He was arrested again on the same charge three days later when he was still sleeping in the cab and there was still a lot of garbage around the truck, according to a report. A rodent ran from underneath the truck when the officer approached, the report says.

-- Three men, ages 45, 58 and 46, found inside a Dorchester Road residence Jan. 11. The house had been posted by code enforcement because it was uninhabitable. All were charged with trespassing.

The man who was living in his truck off Wright Street said he'd been kicked out of his former residence, according to a police report. Other individuals choose the homeless life, said Nash and Leigh Danley, director of community relations and annual giving at Crisis Ministries on Meeting Street in Charleston.

"Some will look at you and say, 'This is what I like. I have no responsibility, no electric bill, no water bill,'" Nash said.

It's a culture for some people, Danley said.

"Our case managers have let us know we have quite a few people who come from that situation. They almost live in a colony," Danley said.

Those individuals won't seek help at Crisis Ministries because they don't want to come indoors. They don't like rules and they don't like regulations, she said.

North Charleston officials try to work with individuals on a case-by-case basis, Director of Code Enforcement Angela McJunkin said. Police reports reference prior warnings given to homeless people before an arrest is made. Inspectors will supply trash bags and will have public works haul off debris if it is taken to the roadside, she said.