SPOKANE, Wash. — Washington State Department of Transportation crews are working to shrink the perimeter of the homeless encampment near I-90, known as Camp Hope.
They plan to move in the fencing after people have left.
The I-90 homeless encampment has been on WSDOT property for more than a year.
Just a month ago, there were more than 400 people living at the camp. Now, WSDOT says there are less than 200 people.
Bobbie Jo Duggan is one of them. She has lived there from the very beginning.
"Its been kind of hectic, a lot of left behind stuff. Because we're not allowed to take a lot of our belongings into our new apartments. But, I'm glad to see my friends grow," said Duggan.
Duggan says she's waiting for the right housing opportunity.
"I like to get into housing and that's why I talk to my housing guy every day that he's here to see what is going on with that," Duggan said. "There's a couple places where they have options I don't want to do it."
WSDOT says that over the past two months, they've removed more than 48,000 pounds of debris and trash. Julie Garcia of Jewels Helping Hands says nine vacant RV's were removed from the property last month.
"We wanted it to be cleared out right away. But our housing options are limited so coming up with more housing solutions and there are people with way higher pay grades than myself who are coming up with those housing solutions," Garcia said.
But, even with the plan to clear out the camp, Garcia says they're not at the finish line yet.
"We're still going to struggle with about 100 folks that truly have severe mental health, or severe addiction issues," Garcia said
According to Garcia, the Catalyst Project, the transitional housing on Sunset Boulevard, received 125 applications for 100 spots.
WSDOT says the plan is to move in the fence about 30 feet inside the perimeter.
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