Sunday will be the last day for Akron’s Second Chance Village. The city ordered the homeless camp closed weeks ago saying it violates zoning laws. But a deadline for clearing the property had not been set until now.
Sage Lewis owns the property. The homeless camp is behind his business in the Middlebury neighborhood. He organized it so people who are homeless but don’t want to be in living spaces run by government agencies and churches have someplace to go.
With the city ruling that he can no longer do that, he’s says he’ll try other ways of helping the homeless who want to keep their independence. “We are literally going to be smuggling legal citizens into the woods, and smuggling them under bridges. Hiding them because they are illegal. If you have no money you are illegal, there’s no place for you to go. And so, we are going to find places to hide American Citizens.”
Lewis’s has one other idea: to acquire and refit old houses to accommodate up to five homeless residents each.
