By Matt Carpenter

Camp 34 is Camp 34 no more...

3/16/2010 Update: Dee Cunningham and the Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful Green Team came to Camp 34 and did their magic today! In short order the remnants of Camp 34 were gone. KCSB has been in the news quite a bit lately and it is well deserved. As I look through the photos below and compare them to what is there now it has been an amazing month of transformation for this area.

3/12/2010 Update: Camp 34 has been posted for a clean-up scheduled for March 16. On the sign it states that one way to help is to bag litter in advance so I spent about an hour picking up crap (sometimes literally) and consolidating it to one area. Looks like others have been at it as well because quite a bit of the stuff that was there 4 days ago is gone now including the mattress and several other larger items.

What is left of Camp 34 as of 3/8/2010.

3/8/2010 Update: And then there were none! Yesterday, as I drove by Camp 34, I noticed the big blue ten was gone. I took the photo to the right today. And while I have tried very hard not to editorialize on this page, I feel the need to say the sight of this mess really upset me. It is one thing to live "off the grid" and claim you are self sufficient. It is another to force others to do a clean up after you move on. At any rate, and at this point, Camp 34 is no more! And the impetus for the final occupants to leave? Turns out that although Camp 34 was in unincorporated El Paso County - the "No Man's Land" between Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs - it was on private land. And even in El Paso County private land owners have rights and private land is just that - private. The question as to why this took so long to figure out is a story for another day...

Remaining occupied tent at Camp 34 as of 2/24/2010. This is the same tent as in photo 3 below.

2/24/2010 Update: I ran down to Camp 34. There are only 2 tents left and one looks deserted (the tent in the 20th photo below). I asked the remaining tent occupants how things were going and told them I had read how the others had moved out. They said the were pretty self sufficient and had money to buy propane. I asked if that meant they planned on staying put and they replied, "We have some irons in the fire."

2/18/2010 Update: A story in the Gazette states that as of February 18, only one tent remains in Camp 34. The story credits the newly passed Colorado Springs no camping ordinance, which still is not in effect, as giving an indirect boost to the efforts to find the former occupants of Camp 34, as well as others, a place to stay and for some, rehab and a job. Time for a follow-up tour...

2/9/2010 Update: The Colorado Springs City Council passed a no camping ordinance. It won't go into effect for ~30 days.

2/5/2010: Today myself and two Manitou Springs police officers took a tour of the homeless camp known as "Camp 34" in the 3400 block of West Colorado Avenue which is about 1 block west of the Safeway. This letter prompted the site visit. One of the camp occupants told us he had been living there for 10 months. In all, we found 11 tents located next to Fountain Creek which are documented in the 24 photos below. The needles in the final two photos were found next to a dumpster adjacent to the campsites.

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