Transients cause headaches for Frontage Road businesses in Meridian
Published 3:00 pm Friday, August 17, 2018
Eric Johannsen, of Interstate Auto on Frontage Road in Meridian, has been the victim of vandalism and theft, saying that catalytic converters and batteries have been removed from cars, holes found in gas tanks and battery cores reported stolen.
Someone even attempted to steal a running car from the lot, including his personal vehicle late last year.
Johannsen said he believes the transient homeless population is responsible.
“This area is what tourists see when they come through Meridian,” Johannsen said. “It’s just like it’s OK for them to be here… Not only are they hurting the livelihood of the retailers by stealing but it’s hurting the city of Meridian relying on tax revenue.
“People drive through and see it and say, ‘I’m not fooling with this area — I’ll just ride on down the road to Tuscaloosa.’”
Johannsen doesn’t believe the culprits are local.
“A lot of these people are coming to Meridian from out of town. They’re staying here and they’re being more or less vagrants… and they’re moving on to the next town when the heat gets on them,” Johannsen said.
Both Christie Rainer, a local homeless advocate, and Sgt. Dareall Thompson, the Meridian Police Department spokesman, said they believed those involved with the thefts were not homeless, but rather “vagrants” or people struggling with drug addictions.
“Every time I hear of a situation like that I go to the local homeless (camps) in that area,” Rainer said. “And what I’m being told is that it’s transits off of the interstate that’s doing the thieving.”
Rainer clarified that the homeless population in Lauderdale County had several subgroups, including the chronically homeless, or those from the area who have fallen on hard times and live in wooded camps with others, and a transit population, those traveling through the city who stay only for a day or two.
“Some (transitionally homeless people) are perfectly harmless,” Rainer said. “Some are fleeing the law.”
Rainer said she suspected many of the thieves weren’t homeless, but those struggling with an addiction.
“Why else would you need a catalytic converter?” Rainer asked, saying that drug addicts may be bribed to steal something on behalf of someone else for money while the homeless wouldn’t have the same connections.
“The ones getting catalytic converters and things like that… they have a place to go or else they wouldn’t need it,” Rainer said. “It’s going to be somebody that can use it – that’s my theory.”
Thompson agreed, saying that police believed these crimes had been committed by “vagrants,” or people with homes that come from other places and beg on street corners.
“Someone who’s homeless, they’re someone who has lost their home and is trying to get back on their feet,” Thompson said. “Vagrants… it’s sad that you have people trying to take advantage of people, of people that are kind.”
Both Rainer and Thompson said that this population, who might not be homeless at all, may appear to homeless or pose as panhandlers on street corners.
To try to discourage people, Thompson said police had stepped up enforcement of a begging ordinance and increased patrols in targeted areas.
“We’re just asking businesses to continue to call about vagrants hanging around their businesses or at intersections,” Thompson said. “The key thing is that they’re not homeless. They’re taking advantage of people that really do need help.”
Johannsen says he would like the city to get more involved.
“It’s a sad situation all the way around. Nothing’s being done about it to help for the safety of the retailers and everybody else.”
Hal Cooper of Chunky River Harley Davidson has had similar issues with vagrants. Cooper says he has been physically threatened by a man using the restroom to clean himself.
“He came at me and using very clear language that he was going to beat the you-know-what out of my you-know-what,” Cooper said. “It was a bit unsettling.”
“We try to keep our business clean, but we periodically come in and there’s trash that either came out of our dumpster or the dumpster at Dollar Tree.”
“This area is what tourists see when they come through Meridian. It’s just like it’s OK for them to be here… Not only are they hurting the livelihood of the retailers by stealing but it’s hurting the city of Meridian relying on tax revenue.”
Eric Johannsen, of Interstate Auto on Frontage Road in Meridian
Cooper also said vagrants have been seen using the water fountain as a bath “in the buff.”
“I think it’s pretty clear that some city somewhere else has run these people out, because I don’t think these are local people down on their luck,” Cooper said. “I would refer to these as some of the professional homeless.
“It’s an issue for the city… again it’s not just local people who have this temporary situation,” Cooper said. “I think everybody wants to help those people.”
Rainer said that people living in homelessness often have no other choice than to clean in public bathrooms.
“There’s some people that don’t care but the majority that I’ve met want a place to clean and to shave. They don’t want to be dirty,” Rainer said. “But as long as the city balks at having a public shower here then we’re going to have this problem.”
Previously, Rainer had tried to open a public shower facility for the homeless downtown but it has been closed down due to city code violations..
One potential solution Rainer suggested: providing tiny home communities to the homeless.
These communities would provide shelter, running water, could have community rules and policing like any other neighborhood. Additionally, it would save the community financially on things such as dispatch calls and emergency room treatments.
“Studies show that it’s better to give someone a $30,000 home then let them stay out there and think you’re not paying for anything – not that I’d go that far,” Rainer said.
An insulated shipping container can be bought for just $3,000, Rainer said, making it affordable.
“People with the city worry that if they offer (this) that they’ll become a magnet for the homeless,” Rainer said. “That’s not how it works and that’s not going to happen.”
Jim Brock contributed to this report.