No 'eviction' from homelessness
Instead of a tent, they say they'll sleep under a bridge
Al and Brian gazed at the ruins of the only home they've known for a year -- the woodsy patch of Camden known as the "bowl."
The two pals, both 50, from the suburbs, and (they insist) no longer using drugs, were among nearly 20 homeless adults whom Camden County authorities chased out of the ragtag encampment Tuesday. They had inhabited a sunken area just east of where the 10th Street bridge carries traffic over Admiral Wilson Boulevard, not far from the Linden Street "back woods" and several other other homeless encampments downtown.
On Wednesday, public works crews continued to cut brush, fell trees and fill dumpsters as Al and Brian salvaged a few items -- including a boom box on which "Head Like a Hole" by Nine Inch Nails blasted:
Head like a hole
black as your soul...
"They've ruined me," said Al, pointing to the work crews. He sported a full pack on smokes in his shirt pocket and said he suffers from the aftereffects of a broken back; he got hooked on pain medication, then heroin, and came to Camden for methadone treatment. "I got trapped," he said.
"I had a brain trauma," Brian explained. "I was in a nursing home, and they kind of abandoned me, and I wasn't ready to go to the shelter, so I just got my tent and came out here."
The official rationale for the eviction/cleanup was to move people who need help out of the woods and into shelters. But many chronically homeless single adults living outdoors in Camden and elsewhere are addicts, alcoholics, or suffering from mental illness. They're skeptical of the rules and responsibilities that go with life in a shelter.
Brian pointed to the underside of an I-676 overpass.
"I'll be sleeping up there tonight," he said.
"Me too," said Al.
On the boombox, Trent Reznor's voice raged:
l''d rather die
than give you control...
--KEVIN RIORDAN