Homeless Get Evicted From Woods in Bristol, Levittown

Brian Tanner says he’s “sorta the head guy” at a homeless encampment just off Route 13 in Bristol Borough.

The “head guy” and about 10 other homeless people at that camp have a big problem. The owner of the wooded strip of land they call “home for now” showed up with borough police this week and asked them to leave by Thursday. As the residents of the close-knit homeless community say: “We got evicted.”

Tanner, who is 50 years old, worked with volunteers from the Warming Hearts Project and other camp residents to pack up their belongings Tuesday in preparation for their big move.

It’s a similar story just a few miles away near the Bucks County Government Services Centers by Five Points in Bristol Township.

Chief of the Bucks County Park Rangers Steve Long confirmed to LevittownNow.com his department has asked the homeless people living in the surrounding woods to “move along.” The demand came after complaints from the nearby Bucks County Technical High School, which stressed concerns with having unknown people living on their property.

“I don’t know what we are going to do when they kick us out,” said 62-year-old Sandra, a North Carolina native who recently lost her apartment after she couldn’t make rent.

Warming Hearts Project leader and Bristol Borough businessman Joe Nocito is working on a plan so residents of the various tent camps throughout Lower Bucks County have somewhere to go come eviction day.

Nocito said with the help of volunteer,s they will be relocating many of the homeless to new camps in areas where no one will bother them or where property owners have given the wayward permission to live there.

Long said that Rangers have helped some of the homeless pack up and move their belongings and are showing compassion. He noted one recent case where he approved a request to drive a homeless veteran to a shelter that could take him in Trenton.

Homeless locals and volunteers working to help them have said the emergency shelter in Levittown is full and currently has a waiting list.

“They just don’t understand what it’s like to be out here,” said Jerry, an unemployed Levittown native who is in his 50s. During the last winter, Jerry said he suffered serious damage to his fingers after he got frost bite at his campsite in Bristol.

All of the homeless people LevittownNow.com spoke with on Tuesday said having a job would turn their lives around.

“I still got to eat and a job would help that,” said Sandra.

Tanner, a former truck driver from Tennessee, said he is more than willing to work. He hopes that recently receiving ID in Pennsylvanian will help his prospects.

“I am able to do anything with heavy equipment, trucks and forklifts,” he said.

Despite a serious back injury, Jerry said he would like to find work that provides some sort of income so he no longer has to live in his tent with a broken zipper door.

“I have to put a blanket up to keep the animals and such out,” he said.

As the day wore on, the camp in Bristol was being disassembled and volunteers were looking for the camp by Five Points.

Nocito said there is still much work to be done before Thursday. He asked for anyone who has a box truck or could donate enough to rent one, in an effort to help the homeless camp residents move, to call him at 215-917-2889.