Delbert “Frog” Thompson lost everything — Bible, photos, sleeping bags, battery-run TV. Everything except his bicycle. It was padlocked to a tree when Covington city workers swept the riverbank Monday, scooping up the possessions of homeless campers and throwing them away.

        Mr. Thompson, 58, keeps his bike key around his neck. Every spring, he saves money from his job at a Boone County nursery, then rides his bike to California for a visit with his sister. The journey takes two and a half months.

        Mr. Thompson is a professional survivor. He's not about to let the city take his belongings.

        “They can't do this without giving proper notice to vacate,” he says.

Tents are a nuisance

        The city has struggled with the river tents for years. Tucked into the underbrush below the floodwall east of Interstate 75, the unauthorized campsites have long been occupied by homeless people for whom tidiness is not a priority. On Monday, trash still littered the area.

        These conditions are a problem. If people must squat along the river, they ought to do so in a way that respects the environment and doesn't affect surrounding businesses.

        The city has the right to clean up public nuisances. But at the same time, it shouldn't destroy personal items without giving people a chance to reclaim them.

        Covington's attorney says some of the seized belongings were covered in human waste, and others weren't removed. The campers dispute that assessment.

        Other cities have learned to be more careful. In the early '90s, Legal Services of Northern California sued Sacramento County on behalf of homeless people whose belongings were destroyed during periodic cleanups along the Sacramento River.

        The case was settled when the county agreed to preserve all “items of value” for 14 days at its vehicle lot, Legal Services attorney Bill Kennedy says. The river campers also must have genuine, advance notice of the Sacramento sweeps.

        The city of Miami also changed its practices after a homeless man's lawsuit. Police no longer can destroy property, and they now must give the homeless a choice — either a shelter or jail — when they violate vagrancy laws. If no shelter beds are available, the police are barred from making arrests.

        “You can't essentially outlaw a person's existence,” says Mr. Kennedy, the Sacramento lawyer.
       

Can't have it both ways

        Yet that appears to be the goal of some Covington officials.

        Tuesday, the commission may vote on a location for the new Life Learning Center, a well-planned, multi-faceted facility to help homeless people change their lives.

        Commissioners already have used eminent domain to bar the center from one location. The proposed alternative — at the former Robke Chevrolet site on Madison Avenue — also faces opposition.

        The city can't have it both ways. If the homeless are to be regularly evicted from the underbrush along the river, the Life Learning Center is even more important.

       Contact: (859) 578-5584 or ksamples@enquirer.com.

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