MEMPHIS, Tenn. – – Controversy continues to swirl around a vacant Hickory Hill property. The former “Super K-Mart” at Winchester and Riverdale has now become a small homeless camp. Bobby Hope and other homeless people have been living outside the building for several months.
“Excuse my language, but it’s (messed up) being out here man,” Hope said, “I don’t have nowhere else to go.”
Patricia Rogers is a community activist who wants city officials to remove the homeless people.
“You know, this situation has really gotten out of hand,” Rogers said, “It makes us look really bad as a city.”
She also claims it’s potentially dangerous because some of the individuals are keeping warm by attaching a fan to a propane tank.
“I mean, they’re putting themselves at risk,” Rogers said.
Hope says he’s tried to go to a number of shelters but claims many of them are full or operating at reduced capacity because of the pandemic.
“You ain’t got a lot of options out here,” Hope said.
The city says police can clear the property if the owner asks them to. County records list that owner as “JMK5 Holdings” out of Texas. So, we called the company but no one answered and we couldn’t leave a message.
WREG first told you about the property back in the summer when people were dumping trash outside the building. City officials said it was the owner’s responsibility to clean it up and claimed the company had been issued several code enforcement violations. We asked officials Tuesday if they could update us on the status of those violations but, as of this writing, we have not gotten that information.
Pastor Deandre Brown is a leader in the Memphis community. He hopes the homeless situation at the property is resolved but, in the meantime, he’s preaching patience.
“People generally aren’t homeless on purpose. There are some conditions and things that happened that have put them in a position,” Brown said, “We need to practice compassion.”
Many times, cases like this end up in environmental court but, because of the pandemic, in-person court proceedings are on-hold until the end of March.