Encampment residents along the Delaware River brace for a clearing, but they don’t know when or how it will happen

Tammy Donahue, 43, has been living in what can be characterized as small encampments along a section of the Delaware River Trail in South Philadelphia for about a year and a half. Donahue and the people who have made the area their home describe a sense of security, consistency, and community that can’t be found in a shelter or areas like Kensington or Center City.

But that small sense of comfort is now in peril, according to people who have been pitching tents and taking shelter on the vacant piers and in foliaged sections off the path that runs from what is colloquially known as Walmart Pier to Washington Avenue.

They say they were told — it’s unclear by whom — that a major sweep and breakup of living arrangements were imminent. On Thanksgiving morning, amid the cold rain, eviction defense attorneys and other homeless outreach volunteers waited for a clearing order that never came, despite earlier warnings that encampment members thought came from “city employees.”

“There’s nothing worse than having to break down your house and then build a new one in the middle of winter,” said Donahue of her tarp setup on the cold, rainy Friday evening before Thanksgiving.

The reality is that the forthcoming clearing Donahue and her neighbors are worried about will be narrower in focus, according to the Delaware River Waterfront Corp., which owns and operates the trail and some piers, acting as the waterfront’s steward.

The nonprofit stays in touch with nearby property owners and was told by the stewards of 1341 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd. that the sweep would focus on that property, which includes the tucked-away setup Donahue and 10 to 12 others are calling home on an abandoned pier. But the confusion about when such a sweep would take place and who would be running it calls attention to how certain homeless populations can fall through the cracks by being out of sight.

The half-mile area Donahue and others have occupied for several years along the Delaware River Trail is a patchwork of sidewalks and privately held land.

People living along the trail describe a handful of clearings in recent months. They are often unsure who is behind them or what type of notice, if any, they are entitled to.

Encampment residents say if the goal of these sweeps has been to clear the trail or get residents into housing, they haven’t worked.

Take a clearing from Nov. 4. A privately owned lot along Reed Street, tucked behind a Giant supermarket, was being cleared of a handful of RVs that had set up there. The city stepped in because people were also living on a small section of Reed Street and it had received a complaint about the living arrangements from a local business. A spokesperson for the Office of Homeless Services said people — the number was not specified — were disbanded and one tent owner relocated to the nearby pier, which is not city property.

That pier, where Donahue lives, is expected to be cleared next by its owners, though it’s unclear when because they are not obligated to notify the city of their plans. Who operates the pier is just as hazy. According to city records, the owner is K4 Philadelphia LLC, a firm that as recently as 2017 had ambitions to transform that section of the waterfront with residential towers. Messages to K4 were not returned, and the waterfront corporation said it has been dealing with another point of contact, but the nonprofit did not say who that was.

The city said the clearing is tentatively set to take place the second week of December, but the Delaware River Waterfront Corp., which isn’t behind the clearing, was told it is slated to happen closer to the end of the year.

Complicating matters is the safety of the vacant piers. Joseph Forkin, president of the waterfront corporation, called these structures unsafe, saying they haven’t been inspected in years.

“As we all just saw this past July with the partial collapse of Graffiti Pier in the Port Richmond neighborhood, those pier structures are just unstable for anyone to be on,” he said.

The protocol for waterfront corporation employees and subcontractors who clean the trail is to issue a warning to people living outside.

“If we encounter someone on a pier structure, we will approach them then and say, ‘Hey, this is not a safe place to be, you know, we’ll have to ask you to move it at some point in time,’” said Forkin, adding this could have added to rumors of a widespread sweep.

When the waterfront corporation employees come across people experiencing homelessness, they will contact the city for support, Forkin said. The nonprofit encourages others to do the same, giving notice if they plan to conduct a clearing.

The city said it does not “participate in privately executed encampment clearings.”

“The city cannot address what may have happened or will happen with surrounding/adjacent non-city-owned or managed properties,” said a spokesperson for the Office of Homeless Services in a statement. “Those owners are responsible for their own cleanups or clearings, which are separate and independent of the city’s encampment resolution process.”

In many ways, the pending eviction along the bike path highlights the many facets of Philadelphia’s homeless population, which exceeds 5,000, according to city data collected at the start of the year. The count captures a variety of backgrounds and stories, including people living in emergency shelters, safe havens, and transitional housing, as well as completely unsheltered people. Some live with addiction and mental health issues and are not in touch with social services. Others work every day. Some report being on yearslong wait lists for affordable housing. Others, like Donahue, are unsure if they’re even on those lists anymore.

“We’re like a community, and going into shelters and breaking up is not healthy,” Donahue said. “This is our family. We obviously need some people in our lives or else we wouldn’t be here to begin with.”

Donahue and her peers are frustrated yet clear-eyed about their situation. City-led encampment clearings in Kensington have featured prominently displayed signage full of information and touting a social services-led approach — though it hasn’t always worked out that way in practice. But residents on the pier say they haven’t received such offers.

Even if the caseworkers were to come, members of the encampment worry their only options would be to move elsewhere or take a shelter bed, which is the last thing many want.

Donahue worries about theft. Russell Bullock, 45, said he once witnessed someone get stabbed at a shelter. Forty-six-year-old Dionicio Martinez, a former assistant professor at Drexel University who lost his job during the pandemic, said the shelter curfews would make it harder for him to pick up gig work delivering food.

“I can go deliver, make some good money from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., and if my shelter is preventing me from doing that, then they’re preventing me from progress,” he said.

Bullock would settle for a postponement in the pier-clearing plans until warmer weather returns. Here he has friends who check in on him and volunteers who deliver blankets, personal hygiene products, and snacks.

But it’s difficult for residents to advocate for themselves when they don’t know what’s coming, when, or from whom.

When the city leads a clearing, residents get a 30-day notice and at least 30 days of free storage of their belongings. Without contact with the pier owners, residents don’t know what’s in store. The Office of Homeless Services said it can’t comment on “people’s legal rights when they are camping on property that is not City-owned or managed.”

“We can keep getting moved around and shuffled, but the main problem is actual housing,” Donahue said. “If we had a place to go or alternatives, I think that we would use them, obviously. This is all we have left.”

Staff writer Ryan Briggs contributed to this article.