City of Grand Rapids enforces no camping rule. Removes a homeless encampment from Heartside Park.
On Monday December 21, 2020 the City of Grand Rapids began enforcing a no camping rule in city parks. Worker’s from various city departments arrived at Heartside Park, the largest homeless encampment in the city, Monday morning to inform people they could not stay there another night.
As the city began clearing out Heartside Park, many of the soon to be displaced moved to other encampments throughout the city, Others took up residence in a recently opened temporary shelter.
As the sunset deadline approached for vacating the park there were some who refused to leave. .
A Kent County Health Department investigation, requested by the city last week, found it was unsafe and unsanitary to be living in the park.
John Rothwell currently resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he is a freelance photojournalist and reporter. In December of 2017, he finished his Communications Degree at Grand Valley State University and is currently working on adding a second degree in Multimedia Journalism. In addition to his academic work, he contributes photos, photo essays and local news coverage to The Rapidian, a hyperlocal citizen journalism platform, powered by the people of Grand Rapids.
John believes that everyone has a story to tell and that story needs to be told in a medium that best suits the situation, either in photos, video, audio, word or a mixture of all.
People must be informed on events happening in and around their lives and have their voices heard.
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