Urban Campers as a New Population for Community Impact Assessment

Abstract

All states and cities and most towns have urban camper communities. “Urban camper” is a working term for homeless people who live in urban or suburban areas. The term helps differentiate campers with stable, minimally developed night locations from those homeless who have nowhere consistent to go. Camper populations vary from one to several hundred. They live in tents or shanties without services or utilities. Many residents work, access shopping and services, and send their children to school. Their camp communities are their homes. Public safety and social service agencies know these people, but they are invisible to the average citizen. Many urban campers are U.S. citizens, but the mainstream community has traditionally overlooked their legal and personal rights. Acknowledging their rights may cause legal problems for local governments. Land development and land use changes can force campers out of campsite locations. Sometimes they find out about changes the morning bulldozers arrive. A widening of U.S. Highway 301 in Sarasota, Florida, would have displaced hundreds of urban campers who lived in wooded patches along the roadway. The Florida Department of Transportation asked a community impact assessment (CIA) team to identify the problem's scope and to ensure that this displacement would proceed better than past displacements. The CIA team surveyed area social service agencies (SSAs) that are used regularly by many urban campers. Because traditional CIA meetings were not feasible or welcome, SSA staff became the conduit for communication with informal camp leadership. The CIA team kept SSAs updated. Before construction started the majority of urban campers had melted away.