“The students at Dayton Leadership Academy and myself received a grant for $1,500 (and) we reclaimed Eden Park,” Rountree told Dayton City Commission last week, noting that city crews provided some tree-cutting and removal of overgrowth.
The site bears multiple “Little Eden” signs, one of them touting a community garden from another nearby school, Edison elementary. But recently, a group of people set up tents and began living there.
“We have a problem in our neighborhood that we tried to address in a humanitarian way. It has grown out of control,” Rountree said. “We repainted and fixed up the park, and now this homeless camp has eaten all the food that the kids grew, they redirected the water so they could create a shower system, they have a bathroom in the back of the bushes; they are living there,” she said.
City Manager Shelley Dickstein said officials are aware of the encampment and that staff is first attempting to locate the owner of the land before proposing possible solutions.
The next step, Dickstein said, will be to ensure the city and local partner organizations make outreach to the individuals living in the encampment to assess their needs.
“It’s really important that these individuals have access and are connected to services,” she said. “Then, we try to help them relocate to shelters or more appropriate spaces than homeless encampments, so that they can have safe housing, and housing with integrity.”
Rountree said she has witnessed evidence of drug use and crime there, with police responding to one call that a nearby church had been broken into and finding a woman inside who was treated for an overdose.
“I don’t want the kids to walk down the street and we find a dead body at the park that we created for the kids,” she said, highlighting the neighborhood’s lack of traditional parks, libraries, or other activities and resources for kids.
“We have nothing in this neighborhood particularly for these kids to do,” she said.
Rountree and Dickstein both said they were aware that the homeless camp had moved, apparently from the Southern Dayton View neighborhood, to a spot on Negley Place, and now to Paul Laurence Dunbar street near the bridge.
Dickstein told city council that city staff would follow up on the issue, but as of Friday, city spokeswoman Toni Bankston said there were no updates on the matter.
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