Between a dozen and 20 people living in tents and hand-built structures near Burcham Park and I-70 were forced to vacate the property in the cold during a camp sweep Wednesday.

Most people said they had no idea where they’d live, or how they’d stay safe Wednesday night as temperatures continue to drop. It felt like it was in the low 30s during the sweep due to windchill.

“What they’re doing right now is inhumane,” said Shane Latimer, one of the people who was moved in the sweep. “It’s not right. I don’t know where we’re gonna go. I don’t even have a tent.”

Some folks living on the land near Burcham Park estimated the community was made up of anywhere between 20 and 50 people when Kansas Turnpike Authority on Jan. 21 posted notice to vacate by noon Wednesday, Feb. 4. 

Mike Gruber, a lieutenant with Kansas Highway Patrol, said the sweep was intended to move people off of land owned by the Kansas Department of Transportation, as well as land owned by Evergy.

According to Gruber, an abutting private landowner was “just tired of seeing it in here,” and notified the Kansas Turnpike Authority, prompting them to post the notice. The City of Lawrence was not involved in the sweep.

“We want everybody to leave,” Gruber said at the start of the sweep. “We don’t want to have to arrest anybody. But if it comes to that, we will.”

David Hundley, a captain with Kansas Highway Patrol stationed in Wichita, said later in the afternoon that no one had been arrested for trespassing.

Over the past few years, the city and other local officials have closed camps and, as of fall, banned camping, saying they want to end chronic homelessness. Many of the people who had to move again Wednesday had previously lived in more accessible camps near downtown and have been progressively pushed further from the heart of the city. 

When asked if there was a specific place where people were being relocated to, Hundley said everyone displaced was “told that they can now go to the City of Lawrence with all the shelters and facilities.”

There are currently no daytime warming shelters in Lawrence for the winter. People can go to the Homeless Resource Center during the days that it’s open, or stay overnight at the Lawrence Community Shelter if there is space available.

The shelter only allows people to bring one pet at a time, and because of a city policy, they turn away anyone who cannot prove Douglas County residency unless temperatures are life-threatening. Misty Bosch-Hastings, director of the city’s homeless solutions division, said that in severe weather conditions, they have operated an overflow shelter.

Many of the people being displaced, like Sarah Swan, did not find this to be an adequate solution.

Swan said that some members of the city’s Homeless Response Team’s outreach branch had gone to the camp a few times over the past few weeks, but she and many others did not feel that the outreach was effective in helping people find new places to reside.

Bosch-Hastings said via email that “For the past three weeks, the Homeless Response Team has been operating the Winter Emergency Overflow Shelter overnight, averaging approximately 14–16 hours per night. We are a team of seven full-time staff, and during this period our capacity has been dedicated to shelter operations. As a result, most engagement with individuals from the I-70 camp has occurred when they accessed the overflow shelter rather than through routine field outreach.”

As Swan watched her friends and community members haul their belongings in carts, luggage and trash bags across slippery, muddy terrain, she said she felt sick — she wasn’t sure where folks would end up next, herself included.

“I’ve taken to calling it ‘humanity theatre,’” she said, referencing the way she felt local social services have failed her and many others in her community. 

Ray Elder said he previously lived in Pallet village, the community of 50 small cabin-like shelters that LCS operates nearby on Michigan Street. He felt that case managers didn’t adequately support him and other residents locate jobs or develop essential skills such as budgeting money.

“All those vouchers do no good to nobody if they can’t budget the money and they can’t sustain the job,” he said. “Most of these people out here, most of us, all have been through trauma and they’re not out here by choice. 

“If they just got people their medication and got ‘em therapy if they needed, and dealt with the trauma — and got ‘em some clothes to go to interviews, maybe got ‘em a job skill — this wouldn’t be a problem as much,” he continued. “But they’re too busy running around, chasing everybody around here, wasting taxpayer’s money, everything else instead of doing what really needs to be done.”

A brief verbal argument broke out between Gruber and some of the people who were leaving the camp as the latter expressed their dismay at once again being uprooted.

“Listen, we gave everybody two weeks,” Gruber shouted at one point. “It’s not our fault you waited ‘til the last minute.”

Latimer said two weeks isn’t sufficient to try and secure housing or even a new location for his tent, which he ultimately lost in the sweep.

He’s lived with Jennifer Adams, his partner and best friend, since 2020. They have three dogs and one cat, and they share custody of a fourth dog with another person. Latimer said that he and Adams would have to give up their four-legged family members to move to LCS, which is a nonstarter.

“There’s no way,” he said. “Those are my kids. They’re our kids.”

KTA posted the notice to leave the premises just a few days before a notoriously brutal winter storm hit the Douglas County area Friday, Jan. 23, bringing multiple inches of snow and wind chill values close to -20°, which can cause frostbite with even minimal exposure. The National Weather Service issued a cold weather advisory and winter storm warning at that time, both lasting around three days.

Latimer said many of the folks who were living near Burcham Park went to LCS to shelter from the life-threatening weather, which ate into their time to pack and prepare.

Latimer added that nobody in the camp had a car, which limited their ability to go and scout out other places to live. Their alternative would be taking the bus in freezing temperatures.

“In the summertime, we might have had a chance because we could have worked through the night, you know,” he said. “But in the winter time, when the sun goes down, it gets cold.”

Adams has a severe cold allergy and Latimer is concerned that her lungs will freeze now that they don’t have a tent.

“Can you move in two weeks?” he asked. “Can you look for a place in two weeks and get it?”

Adams said it was the 20th time she had been displaced in the last six years after being compliant with the city’s relocation plans on multiple occasions.

Latimer said they previously lived in the once city-sanctioned camp in North Lawrence behind Johnny’s Tavern. When the city made them leave, they relocated near Just Food before ending up near Burcham. Adams said she’s been working with Bert Nash for years to find housing, to no avail.

“Even parents teach their kids you don’t take everything away without giving something,” Adams said. “… I want to go inside more than anything, so give me somewhere where I can be with my dogs until I can go inside. Stop doing this … This is not alright. Nobody deserves this.”

Lori said she’d been living on the land near Burcham since October. She was concerned about making the trek from the area as she uses a wheelchair. The ground was muddy, pitted from boots and machinery, with some ice patches.

Lori turned her wheelchair around to use as a walker as she navigated the terrain, including a few stairs and multiple inclines, before members of HRT’s outreach team arrived. They confirmed they were present to drop Lori off at a bus stop.

As folks made final trips to grab bags of their belongings, KTA employees operated track loaders to pile up remaining tents and other materials. Hundley said the pile of belongings would be destroyed.

“It’s nothing short of eradication,” said Dustin Boldt, a person who had been living near Burcham.

Boldt said that working with social services is an elongated process and two weeks wouldn’t have been sufficient, especially considering the timing of the cold snap.

He said that he hopes the opinions and feedback of folks with lived experiences will be taken into account going forward.

“People will … just see what the world says and, you know, they never formulate their own opinion,” he said. “They never come out here and peel back the actual layers.”

Mateo Gutierrez, one of the people who was living near Burcham, thought that the sweep might have been motivated by the impending World Cup.

“It’s the image of the United States, and Donald Trump is criminalizing homelessness and that’s why we’re going right along with it,” Gutierrez said.  

For Swan, the land near Burcham wasn’t just a place to pitch a tent. It was a community.

“I think that they really do know what our greatest resource is, and that it’s being together, and that’s what they’re not going to let us do,” she said. “… They should be scared of us, because you show me who else can make this work the way that we have with all of our own individual difficulties and all of our own interpersonal histories.”

She said her favorite part of living in the community near Burcham was “most of it.”

“We live in a way that is more in line with how it’s been from most of the time that we’ve been a species, and it’s made a huge difference in my life,” she said. “I’ve never — gonna sound insane to most people — but I’ve never done this well in my adult life … I’ve never felt so capable. I’ve never been so connected to so many people. I never would have thought that I would have 50 people that I love and see every day. And I do. And who has that? It’s like if a sorority was extra cool.”

Brandon Snow, another person who had resided near Burcham, echoed the sentiment.

“Everybody always talks about blood being thicker than water, like, family first. But when you get to choose who that is, decide your family, it really means something,” he said. “Because then it’s not out of your hands, it’s a family you’ve chosen and you’ve made yourself. 

“And that’s what we had out here. That’s what we have, because it’s not something the city can take away, because they can take away where we are and what we have, but they can’t take away each other,” he continued. “And I think some of us don’t realize that, I mean, sure, we’re gonna have to be somewhere besides here, and sure, we might not necessarily be where each other are, but they can’t break us apart. We will always have each other.”

Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.

Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.

Molly Adams (she/her), photo editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2022. She can be reached at molly@lawrencekstimes.com.

Check out more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.

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