Cleaning up homeless camps in Charlotte County

It’s a mess you don’t want to come across when you’re out and about, and Charlotte County deputies recently removed tons of garbage left behind.

“It’s bad for the environment, it’s bad for the animals and it looks atrocious,” said Cindy Chatham.

WINK News reporter Asha Patel saw Chatham’s comment on this Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post, thanking them and other agencies and groups for cleaning up seven tons of debris left behind in homeless camps.

“Could not believe that much. I mean, when I seen all the pictures,” said Chatham, “and you know, when they said it was that much it was just like, wow, even when you see them, you don’t realize the mass amount that’s there.”

Take a look at these photos of plastic tubs, tents and clothes scattered across the area along the southside of Toledo Blade, across from the RaceTrac gas station on County Road 776.

This is an area that the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office says has the unofficial name of “Carpet Trail” because there used to be carpets that led to homeless camps.

“When you seen the pictures, the impact was like, wow, you know, that’s getting into Ian debris,” said Chatham, “because I cleaned canals over in Rotunda with a group of people, and that’s what we were pulling out, like, it took us a year to get that much. You know, not one day … it’s just amazing.”

The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office says that the 100 yards of debris come from homeless camps and dumpings.

It’s something Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to put an end to.

“We are going to keep our streets clean and our communities safe, and that will require at least some of the following measures,” said DeSantis in a press conference. “We need to prohibit camping on all city streets and sidewalks and parks.”