An unhoused encampment on the Thomson property near the RCA park on the southside of Bloomington will NOT be evicted next week as originally planned.
The Monroe County commissioners posted 7-day eviction notices at the camp Dec. 1. But after pushback from concerned community members, the commissioners granted a one-week extension.
Tuesday night, the county council read a letter asking questions regarding the logistics of the eviction urging them to halt it until those could be answered.
Then this morning, the commissioners decided not to evict the encampment after all.
At a community conversation today, attendees asked the commissioners to put in writing the decision to postpone the eviction until winter is over.
County attorney Jeff Cockerill said that probably isn’t possible.
“We’re not in compliance with the land use for the property,” Cockerill said. “So you know, if they said we’re not going to do anything until April 1, but something else came around and the city says, ‘you’re violating our zoning,’ that’s outside their control.
“From what [attendees] have described, [the camp] is fairly stable. What happens if it becomes unstable, right? What could happen? I think committing to ‘hey, we’re not going to do anything no matter what until a certain date’ kind of ties their hands if it does become unstable and something does need to happen.”
The Monroe County Sheriff’s office said it has no plans to enforce the eviction.
Earlier this week, Bloomington city officials evicted a separate encampment at Browns Woods. Only a couple people were left at the camp after weeks of notice of the eviction.
