Tillman’s Corner homeless encampment cleared. City evaluating next steps

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The homeless camp behind the Lowe’s in Tillman’s Corner has been a big topic for awhile. Chief Resilience Officer Casi Callaway says the city got involved after residents complained.

“When that happens the city has no opportunity other than to go in and use our tools to get people out, but we wanted to try something different,” said Callaway.

Callaway says they reached out to community members who spent three days cleaning up the site. Now she says Lowe’s has hired a crew to clean up the rest of the property. So far, most of the space has been cleared to make sure people don’t move back.

“They’re also going to remove some of the trees and some of the limbs that have made it a real accessible place for folks to get away,” added Callaway.

During the clean up some service providers like Housing First were able to reach out to the people living there.

“Our outreach team was able to go into that area, talk to the people who lived there and let them know about what the resources are and see if there was anything we could do for them as they were being moved out,” said CEO Derek Boulware. “What we can offer right now is an opportunity to go on a list and if an opportunity opens up for housing then they may very well be eligible for it.”

Callaway says the city is looking at tools to measure exactly how many resources are available. In the meantime, she says there are other homeless camps on their radar, and they plan to evaluate how things went with clearing this one before they move to the next one.

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