Multiple people have reported on Village14, Reddit and UniversalHub that they have called police complaining about the disruptions caused by the homeless encampments along the Charles River. Most of the complaints aren’t about illegal activity, but nuisances such as trash, smells or smoking.
The process, according to both State Police and a spokesman for the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is that the police respond to complaints and if a person appears to be living along the river, that person is offered shelter or hospitalization. If they refuse, they’re cited for trespassing. Once the police have completed their job the DCR takes over.
“Once an encampment is located on DCR property, the agency cleans that area up,” DCR Spokesperson Bill Hickey said in an email. There are no records as to how many encampments have been removed.
Today, a person walking along the Watertown side of the river near the DCR property of Cannalonga Park noticed that one encampment had been cleaned up. This is the section of the river between Bridge and North Streets along Pleasant Street. She reports that the parking island was filled with trash until this week and commented that it now looks a lot better.
However, she also found significant remnants, including a knife (pictured).
The site that the above person mentioned looking a lot cleaner is due to some of the Nonantum Neighborhood Association board went to this site and took out 3 to 4 bags of trash. Please attend public meeting that we will be hosting on October 19 at 7:00 at Post #440 to address safety, homeless, and severe littler. There will be DCR, city and state officials, state police, Newton, Waltham, and Watertown police.
Through Terry Sauro, I met Lois, one of the women who, along with Alison Leary, picked up the litter last Saturday. (Most of the litter — they had to be careful because hypodermic needles have been turning up.) Lois took me and Jim Cote for a walk yesterday afternoon (1pm, not quite deserted, but not busy either) to show what have been the problem areas. As she notes, you wouldn’t necessarily know if you were just staying on the path.
We got to see what a beautiful walk this is, and the more people who use a path like this for walking, the safer it is for everyone. I can’t promos a red-tailed hawk will visit you as it did us (I think about 2/3 through the video), because Lois said she’d never seen that happen before even though she walks there regularly. But it was a real treat and shows what an asset these conservation areas are. https://vimeo.com/142710330