LANSING — Several activists visited a pair of campsites near downtown Lansing Tuesday morning in hopes of keeping them safe for more than 20 people mainly with nowhere else to stay.
Lansing police visited the sites near Saginaw and Larch streets Monday night, raising concerns about eviction among activists and homeless residents.
Tuesday morning, some of the activists brought donuts and coffee. A few passing drivers honked their horns in support.
Khadja Erickson, an advocate for people who are homeless, said she came out Tuesday because there have been about two dozen sites broken up in the last year.
“And that’s not all of them,” said Erickson, a mobile distribution director with Punks With Lunch Lansing.
But Jordan Gulkis, a spokesperson for the Lansing Police Department, said there were no plans Tuesday to break up an encampment near the Burger King on Saginaw Street and another one nearby known as the “Back 40.”
Gulkis said she was not immediately able to confirm the number of encampments that have been subject to police action in the last year.