City reaches tentative agreement with members of homeless encampment under JFX

BALTIMORE -- City officials said they have reached a tentative agreement with a group of homeless people who are currently sleeping under the Jones Falls Expressway.

The homeless encampment has grown since last week, and it got more attention when vendors who rent the space for the Baltimore Farmers' Market showed up on Sunday and found people living in the space.

That spurred several days of conversations on clearing the area in time for the next weekly farmers' market.

"It's terrible," said Mitchell Salland, a vendor. "I understand that they need a place but we pay rent, we pay a lot of rent to be here."

For days, members of the homeless community refused to leave, but on Friday, the city announced it had reached an agreement to have people relocate by noon on Saturday.

Mayor Brandon Scott discussed the issue of homelessness with WJZ.

"When you're talking about providing services for individuals experiencing homelessness, this isn't the old days where everyone just gets the same service," he said. "The right way to do it is meet everybody's individual needs for what they need, and we're going to be working with those individuals in that way."

Scott also said more housing is being built to assist people experiencing homelessness. 

One of those buildings, Sojourner Place Oliver, opens on Nov. 5, the mayor's office said. It's a collaboration between Episcopal Housing and Health Care for the Homeless that will including housing for "...people exiting homelessness and low-income households," officials said.

Applications are now being accepted.

The mayor's office said it has found housing for five people in the encampment within the last 24 hours.

About a dozen protestors blocked the Gay Street ramp to I-83 on Thursday to call attention to the forced relocation. 

"It's been horrible," said Alonzo Coley, who told WJZ he's been homeless for two years. He said it's harder for him to get housing because he has a young son. 

Coley said it's often easier for homeless mothers with children to receive housing.

"No one from MOHS (Mayor's Office of Homeless Services) - none of them want to speak with me, no one wants to entertain what's going on or address the issue," he said.

Christina Flowers, a homeless advocate who also marched with members of the community on Friday, said the city needs to provide more staff to directly help people navigate agencies as they try to find permanent homes.

"We can't keep tossing our homeless community around," said Minister Flowers. "This is one encampment in Baltimore cCty, we have about 20 other encampments in the city - we have people in vacant buildings in the city."