MichiganRadio

Homeless Tent Sites Pop Up ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - There are more than 86,000 homeless people in Michigan. A 2008 report by the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness says that's up more than 10% compared to the year before.

Danielle (she asked that her last name not be used on the air) wants to be a cosmetologist. Hair, makeup, nails, the works. She enrolled at a training institute in Ann Arbor and got the whole thing paid for through financial aid. She says she should get her license by January.

Problem is, she's on a break for the next two months, so she doesn't have any financial aid coming in. Two weeks ago her lease was up, so she moved into a tent on a grassy opening right next to the I-94 freeway. But don't call her homeless.

"I would call what I'm doing right now probably more like transitional housing than homeless. I mean I don't have the money necessarily to get into a home, but the potential is there. Once I do get back into school, I'll have the money. But right now finances are just too tight."

Allon Nelson, on the other hand, is homeless. Has been for about 4 weeks. He says he initially tried to get into the local shelter.

"And there was a waiting list to get into it," explains Nelson. "So I was waiting and had no where else to go. I was on the streets of Ann Arbor sleeping in various places where I know the police wouldn't come and bother you or anything like that."

Then he met a guy from the tent site called Camp Take Notice.

"He told me about it, and we came back, I came back with him, and they opened their arms right there, like, here you can have this tent, sleeping bag."

And he's been here ever since.

Until a couple nights ago, there were about 20 people living at the tent site. But that number went down to 4 after state troopers came by Wednesday night and asked everyone to leave. The property is owned by the Michigan Department of Transportation. One person was arrested and charged with trespassing after he refused to leave.

Now, there are tent sites like this all over the country. A local housing official says between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti alone there are reportedly 8 to 10 similar sites.

Tina Berry is a grad student at the University of Michigan, and she works with a group called MISSION to help get non-profit status for Camp Take Notice. That way they can apply for grants and supply tents and materials and help get publicity for the homeless community. They took their cue from a similar group in Seattle called SHARE:

"Our long term goal is to have a rotating shelter that would be housed on church properties. That's the model that SHARE in Seattle is set on. So the communities there rotate every 3 months from church property to church property, and these churches are land sponsors that collaborate and host the tent city there."

Those who decide to stay at the tent site have to agree to follow a set of camp rules like no drugs, fighting, weapons. There are even elections to vote for who does what at the camp site.

"To me, it's just putting a lot of money and effort into something that's not really an answer."

That's Ellen Schulmeister. She's the executive director of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. She says what the county really needs is bigger housing projects.

"At what point do we stop fighting the fact that we need to have housing and look at the real issue and start doing it instead of trying to plug the hole with a tent site that's not going to be good place to be in the Michigan winter."

A chilly thought, when you consider it's already 30 degrees at night and it's not even Labor Day.

You can get the latest news on Camp Take Notice here: http://twitter.com/bnord0
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