Twenty-five people living in an Akron resident’s backyard will have to find new homes by Thanksgiving.
Two months ago, the Akron City Council voted to evict the people living in a tent city at The Homeless Charity, owned by Sage Lewis.
Akron’s Continuum for Care has found homes for 14 individuals, and seven tenants moved out on their own, but Lewis worries that some will have to go back to living on the streets.
“Could someone sweep in and just take all of our homeless people and give them a house in four days? For Sure, that could happen. But reality is different than that, I think, and there are going to be people here, in our tent community that are not housed by the deadline and I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
The council says the outdoor tent city conflicted with zoning laws. Lewis and the Homeless Charity partnered with the Institute for Justice in a lawsuit against the city, trying to delay the Thanksgiving deadline. The suit is pending.
