Arkansas Department of Transportation is in the process of moving homeless camps out of Little Rock and North Little Rock

Little Rock, Arkansas – Officials in the capital of Arkansas are addressing the issue of homelessness in an “unpopular” way, and instead of making an effort to build additional homeless shelters, they are moving homeless camps in Little Rock and North Little Rock out of the metro area.

A letter was sent to homeless people all around Central Arkansas last week. The message said that due to safety concerns, the homeless people needed to evacuate the region.

The Arkansas Department of Transportation has been tasked with relocating the camps, and they have said that they would focus on locations close to major roads. As of this week, they started clearing the area where the camps were located and anticipated that it would take them a couple of weeks to do the job.

Aaron Reddin, founder and executive director of The Van, has been informing people in the surrounding communities about the current situation and expressing concerns that the homeless people were left without much choice as to where they could settle. The Van is an organization that offers outreach services for people who are homeless.

And despite the Arkansas Department of Transportation claiming to have informed homeless people as to where they could find a place to stay and given them the necessary information, Reddin says their statistics show that 600 people are sleeping outside and there are not 600 beds available.

Anyone interested in donating blankets for the homeless should check out The Van’s website.