ST. LOUIS — Dozens of people living in a makeshift encampment on the lawn of St. Louis' City Hall will be forced to move.
A spokesperson for St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said the city made the decision to "decommission" the encampment at 10:01 p.m. Monday by enforcing a curfew law that effectively closes parks in the city between 10 p.m.–6 a.m. unless a person has a permit issued by the Board of Public Service or the Director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry.
Later, St. Louis Alderman Rasheen Aldridge told 5 On Your Side the mayor's office decided to postpone breaking up the encampment Monday night and instead work to find them shelter.
Outreach workers with the Department of Human Services will visit the encampment Tuesday morning to "facilitate individuals into shelters and to accommodate additional individuals who arrived on-site," city spokesperson Nick Desideri said in a statement.
City Hall sits on a plot of land known as Washington Square Park, one of six parks along Market Street in the Downtown West Neighborhood. Across Market Street is Poekler Park, where many of the city's homeless have long sheltered.
"While the decision was not an easy one to make, we have done so based on (several) serious factors," city spokesperson Nick Dunne said in a statement.
Dunne cited about 50 police calls for service between Aug. 14 and Sept. 28; more than 30 EMS calls for service for overdoses, seizures and other medical emergencies; fighting between people who live in the encampment and passersby; an increase in calls from city employees reporting being accosted at work; and drug paraphernalia.
Over the past several weeks, the number of tents on the City Hall lawn grew from two to more than 25.
A crowd of about two dozen people stood on the sidewalk Monday night in front of City Hall to support the people living in tents. By 10:15 p.m., portable lighting was being set up and dump trucks were waiting nearby.
Dunne said representatives from the city’s Department of Human Services visited the site nearly three dozen times in the past two months to "connect individuals with permanent housing, shelter and supportive services."
Gino McCoy moved to St. Louis from Phoenix with his wife, who is pregnant, and their three dogs.
"I can't count the many times I've cried to my wife," he said. "The only way we would be able to get into a shelter is my wife would have to go to one by herself, and I would be on the streets with our three dogs because the shelters won't take our dogs."
McCoy said he and his wife, Erica, ran two businesses, including a dog kennel, in Phoenix.
"More than a dozen have accepted the resources offered to them so far," Dunne said. "All individuals at the encampment have been offered shelter with supportive services on numerous occasions and will be offered shelter again (Monday night), as we have space available."
Some living at the encampment said they were given notices to leave hours before police showed up overnight, while others like Christopher Perry, said no one told them anything.
"It's wrong. All we ask for is what was promised, fair housing for us, a chance. We understand that there's some of us who don't want to leave, this is their life, they like this, but there is some who actually want to get up, get out of this and get out of the program," he said.
St. Louis Alderman Tom Oldenburg said he agrees with the decision to remove the encampment.
"Everyone was offered a spot in a shelter. Tent encampments anywhere are unhealthy and unsafe environments," he said.
Oldenberg said he would like to see copies of bills touted during a press conference earlier Monday by Aldermanic President Megan Green and Alderman Alisha Sonnier known as the "Unhoused Bill of Rights," which would require, among other things, a 30-day notice when an encampment is disbanded.
"The 30 days' notice gives time for our service providers to find places for them to go," Green said. "The tents at City Hall are not related to this bill. The bill is simply stating that if encampments are broken up, then the city must have appropriate shelter for people living in encampments to go to, and we must take care of their belongings."
Sonnier was among those gathered Monday night at City Hall.
"It's heartbreaking. Earlier at the press conference, I had a much better way with words because I wasn't actively watching people be displaced … My heart just breaks. We have to deal with our city's unhoused population in a new way because what we're doing isn't working," she said.
St. Louis police issued a dispersal notice to protestors outside of City Hall just after midnight Tuesday.
"Reforms will, in part, decriminalize homelessness, create a pathway for safe camping areas and remove barriers to establishing shelters that provide much-needed resources to the unhoused community," said Yusuf Daneshyar, a spokesman for Green.
Tuesday morning people still were outside of City Hall, even though the Mayor's Office said in a statement that workers from the Department of Human Services were going to be out there in the morning to help people get into shelters.
Larry Rice, New Life Evangelistic Center Director, was at City Hall until 2 a.m. and back out Tuesday morning giving people food and water.
He said the past 24 hours have been an 'emotional rollercoaster.'
"This is an admission of failure on the part of the Jones administration. They know they can't find places for these people. They know they can't find jobs. They know they can't find apartments, so what do they do? They want to wipe out their legal protest to just snuff them out like you're stepping on a bug, and all they're doing is hitting like a bubble of water and dispersing it all over," Rice said.
Several people 5 On Your Side interviewed, including Rice, are wondering why the city can't use the Rams money to help solve this problem.
Earlier this year, the city cleared encampments on Laclede's Landing near the riverfront and downtown under Interstate 44/55 along Gratiot Street.
On a given night, about 1,250 people are homeless in St. Louis, according to the city's Continuum of Care, which is comprised of more than 100 people and organizations working to end homelessness.
Laura Barczewski and Robert Townsend contributed to this report.