CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Cheyenne resident Billie Jo Hopka doesn’t like seeing how much trash has accumulated along the south side of the Crow Creek Corridor and Greater Cheyenne Greenway.
The 150-mile-long creek and minor waterway runs through southeastern Wyoming and northern Colorado. Sixty-six miles of the creek flow through Cheyenne and agricultural lands in southeast Laramie County. Parts of the Greenway, a city-wide concrete pedestrian and biking path, are built along the creek.
This isn’t your average accumulation of paper packages and alcohol bottles, Hopka said, but piles of trash including clothing, shopping carts and plastic containers. It’s gotten to be such an eyesore and environmental concern that Hopka helps lead Revive Cheyenne Southside Greenway, a volunteer-run organization that picks up trash along the creek bank south of 1st Street each week.
Hopka says the growing number of homeless encampments along the creek and nearby Greenway routes is the reason behind the large amounts of trash. She finds the campers to be intimidating and doesn’t feel safe during her casual walks and weekly clean-ups.
“If we’re paying for a city park, I would rather not have it be somewhere that I’m scared of,” she said.
For these reasons, she’s in favor of the Cheyenne City Council passing an ordinance that would make it illegal for people to camp on any public property adjacent to Crow Creek between Interstate 25 and Morrie Avenue.
The Ordinance
The ordinance, which is the first of its kind, is scheduled for a third and final reading at the council’s July 24 meeting. Co-sponsored by Ward I Councilmembers Pete Laybourn and Jeff White, it states that unauthorized camping along the creek creates environmental and safety hazards for the community. The buildup of trash, human waste and other materials also damages the water quality and can cause fire hazards. Campers also pose a threat to residents and property owners in the surrounding area, the ordinance states.
Homeless encampments along Crow Creek have been around for years, although they were mostly concentrated around Martin Luther King Park on Ames Avenue, according to Eric Fountain, director of the city’s Compliance Department. In the last year, the department, which encompasses the city’s Animal Control, Building Permitting and Licensing, Risk Management and Code Enforcement services, has noticed an increase of homeless people living along the creek.
“In the past, it really hasn’t been a big issue for us,” Fountain said. “It’s definitely kind of growing within our community. It’s not expected though because it’s a national trend issue.”
Homelessness in the U.S has been on the rise since 2017, experiencing an overall increase of 6% per year, according to National Alliance to End Homelessness data. In 2022, roughly 421,392 Americans were homeless and 127,768 were chronically homeless, a record high in the history of the alliance’s data collection.
With 11 out of every 10,000 residents considered homeless, Wyoming holds one of the lowest homeless rates in the country. Nevertheless, the issue is still present in the Cowboy State. The number of people experiencing homelessness in 2021 went up 5.9% since 2020 and is up by 11.9% since 2010.
Crow Creek’s location makes it an ideal place for people to camp out, Fountain said. The creek is out of the public eye and close to all of the major thoroughfare traffic, including Interstate 25, Interstate 80 and both the Union Pacific and Swan Ranch railroads.
“It’s not uncommon knowledge that [homeless people] do not want to be out in public presence, just as much as the public doesn’t want to see them in their presence,” he said. “They’re doing their very best to get out of the public eye.”
If the ordinance passes, it will officially become unlawful for any person to camp upon any public property adjacent to or contiguous to Crow Creek between I-25 and Morrie Avenue. Campers will first be issued a verbal and written warning by a city employee or law enforcement officer to vacate the area within 48 hours. Anyone who refuses can be cited for a misdemeanor by the police department. After the time frame, the Compliance Department will abate the area and remove any items left over.
Included in the first draft of the ordinance is a list of exceptions to this. No officer or city employee can ticket a camper if there is no overnight shelter available. A substitution to the ordinance, brought up in the July 18 Public Service Committee, would establish a curfew for camping instead of a full ban. The substitution will also be voted on by the council during the July 24 meeting.
The abatement procedures outlined in the ordinance aren’t too far off from what the department already does, Fountain said. In his experience, compliance hasn’t had an issue with people vacating the area after a verbal warning is issued.
“Generally speaking, we’ve really never encountered anyone staying,” Fountain said. “If we ask them to move along, they typically move along and they leave the belongings they don’t care to take anymore.”
Fountain said the ordinance acts as an “external deterrent,” meaning it will deter campers from wanting to do something that breaks city code or the law. If the ordinance passes, it would also provide the City of Cheyenne and the department with a clearer stance on how to approach Crow Creek campers.
“What it does for us is give us a better, clear definition of the rights of the displaced people in the community,” he said. “It also gives the city a point of standing to be able to handle and mitigate those situations we have before us.”
Safety and Environmental Concerns
When Trails End Mobile Home Park resident Cathy Deister moved to Cheyenne in 2018, she noticed homeless people in a “few little nooks and crannies along the creek” who would look for and ask for help from shelter services. The current crowd of campers near the park’s East 1st Street and Morrie Avenue location is the opposite of that, she said.
“They’ve become like vigilantes,” she said. “They break through our fence line. Since they are getting pushed out of the creek they’re coming in there. They didn’t do that before; they would leave our area alone.”
During the ordinance’s second reading at the July 10 City Council meeting, several other 1st Street businesses and residents came forward to express safety concerns. Some campers have created holes in people’s fences, trespassed on private property and stolen items from cars parked in nearby parking lots, they said.
The Cheyenne Police Department is aware of the residents’ reports of theft, arson and burglaries, according to Alexandra Farkas, CPD public information officer. It is difficult, however, for the CPD to determine if homelessness-related cases are on the rise in the Crow Creek Corridor. The corridor has no definitive address and roads run along the waterway. The cases could be from individuals camping in the area or from other driving incidents, including traffic violations or DUIs, Farkas said.
According to the CPD’s online Citizens Connect Crime Mapping Tool, the number of cases officers have responded to in the corridor varies. July 2022–23, there were 35 cases; July 2021–22 had 57; July 2020–21 had 28; July 2019–20 had 44; and July 2018–19 had 41.
“We’re actually experiencing a decrease right now in 2023 with those 35 cases,” Farkas said. “It’s difficult to say why; there are many different variables.”
Most homeless-related cases have been concentrated around Missile Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Farkas said the crimes they commit are mostly nonviolent misdemeanors, including public intoxication or trespassing.
“I wouldn’t say that there is a severe public safety concern in that area,” she said. “We want to help these people, we want to get them mental health resources if that’s something they are dealing with. Arresting individuals doesn’t help solve the problem. It helps to break the cycle and connect them to resources if possible.”
While safety is a concern, co-sponsor Pete Laybourn hopes passing the ordinance will get campers to leave and eventually improve the quality of the creek. Over the years, Laybourn and other councilmembers have joined creek clean-up efforts, including those from Revive Cheyenne Southside Greenway.
“[Camping] really creates a situation that can pollute the creek, and that’s one of the considerations of the ordinance,” he said.
The ordinance states that camping can damage Crow Creek’s water quality through the introduction of trash, human waste and other materials. This is a particular concern to the community, as the creek already has slightly elevated levels of E. coli and poor water quality can lead to diseases including typhoid fever and cholera, the ordinance reads.
While the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has classified the creek as being impaired for its levels of sediment and E. coli bacteria, the department does not specify that human encampments are a main contributor to it, according to Kimberly Mazza, DEQ public information supervisor. The last report the DEQ released regarding E. coli in the creek was in 2013. Manure from livestock and septic systems were listed as factors that contributed to the increase in bacteria.
“Is it possible that [encampments] could be playing into it? Yes,” Mazza said, “but we have not come out as an agency and said human encampments are the reason for the issues that we’re seeing there.”
Services Respond
Not everyone thinks passing the ordinance will bring the desired change. Robin Bocanegra, executive director of Comea Shelter, said people who live in encampments don’t want to come to a shelter. Even if the ordinance passes, they will most likely continue to camp out on the creek and under bridges.
Every January, Comea staff conduct a point-in-time homeless count in the city. The count is required in order for the local homeless shelter to receive funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Bocanegra said the staff typically go down to the creek, and this year more than 30 people were found living in encampments. Bocanegra knows, however, that the staff weren’t able to count all of them due to the below-freezing weather.
When asked why they wouldn’t come to Comea, many campers said they didn’t want to be in an environment with so many rules and regulations.
“A lot of them say, ‘I’ll never go, I want to be where someone can’t tell me what to do,'” Bocanegra said.
Comea is a sober shelter where drug and alcohol usage is banned. Men and women have to live in separate dorms and leave any pets they have at the Cheyenne Animal Shelter during their stay. Some people struggle with mental health issues, Bocanegra said, and don’t like to be around a crowded shelter.
“You don’t need more shelters, you don’t need different shelters,” she said. “They’re not going to come because when you put that many people in the building you have to have a certain amount of rules and restrictions just to keep order and safety.”
Bocanegra said staff are trying to update the shelter and make it more inviting. For instance, they are looking to secure funding to expand Comea’s dormitory spaces and build a nearby pet shelter. That progress and change, however, won’t happen right away.
“We’re looking for a lot of the reasons why people don’t come to the shelter and trying to respond to those to get as many people off the streets as we can,” she said. “It takes money and it takes time.”
