Residents at the Holt Avenue Park and Ride are scrambling to find a place to go after they say officers from the Milwaukee Police Department handed out tickets and notices asking them to leave early Friday morning.
A sign at the Park and Ride prohibits overnight parking from December 1st until March 31st, for snow removal and safety, adding "for shelter, call 211."
TMJ4 found many residents cleaning up their belongings Friday morning and hauling them off the lot. Some tell us there hasn't been clear communication, so they don't know what time they need to leave by. However, they are glad they can lean on each other at this time of uncertainty.
"This is the best community I have ever lived in. The people that lived here pull together. We pool all our resources. When we get food we put it all together. We do group cookouts. It's probably literally, seriously one of the best communities in my entire life," said Kevin Perez, who lives at the Park and Ride.
Another resident told TMJ4 this is the first time anything like this has happened.
We reached out to the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) for comment, and they provided the following press release:
According to MPD, officers responded to the Holt Avenue Park and Ride early Friday morning and issued parking citations for vehicles parked in violation to winter parking rules. But now, MPD is in the process of voiding the citations that were issued.
MPD says, "Since the issuance of these citations, it has been determined that City parking ordinances are not applicable to the park and ride."
MPD calls the balance between addressing the concerns of the surrounding community with the needs of the unhoused as "difficult." The department says they are working with intergovernmental and system partners to create long-term solutions.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) reached out to TMJ4 and provided us with the following statement:
"Over the past year, WisDOT has been working closely with its invested partners at Milwaukee County and in local law enforcement, to monitor the homelessness activity and long-term vehicular parking at Park and Ride lots in the area. Over the course of the past year, many positive steps have been made in taking more of an outreach approach, instead of just enforcement, to help individuals dealing with homelessness find safe and sustainable housing alternatives.
It has not been this group’s goal to just relocate these already displaced individuals, but rather to put people on the path of long-term, stable housing. This type of work has taken time but has also allowed the group to make meaningful progress. Through these efforts to date, many unhoused individuals have successfully found safe and stable living conditions. However, the work is not done. No evictions of remaining individuals took place on Thursday, November 30, 2023, nor previously, but winter weather is now here. Additional steps are being made to get the remaining unhoused individuals into permanent housing or warming shelters as early as next Monday, December 4, 2023.
Annually, WisDOT and Milwaukee County restrict overnight parking at Park and Ride lots between December 1st and March 31st. During these winter months, plowing, snow removal and salting will be required to maintain service at the lots. The park and ride lots need to be cleared for this to be accomplished. This annual end-of-year restriction has been communicated to vehicle owners for several weeks now. Additional outreach teams including the Milwaukee County Mobile Crisis Team will continue to conduct outreach and assistance to support people through this change."
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