Homeless Former Rodeway Inn Employee Forced To Sleep In Tracy Park
Just after 8 am, Portsmouth Police Officers were at Tracy Park to once again deal with the issue of homeless people sleeping in the state area.
Officers warned a man they caught on the stage that it’s illegal to be on the stage without a permit. They discovered he’d apparently set up camp there for some time.
He told officers he lost his home when the hotel was sold to a local rehab center. The man said the homeless shelter refused to allow him and his wife to stay there because they had expired IDs.
Police warned him about having so much trash in the park. Portsmouth Code Enforcement also showed up to talk to them about littering.
Homeless Seek Shelter in Parks
Just after 9 am, a caller reported a woman lying inside a baseball dugout in Mound Park. Officers called for an ambulance, but once they spoke to the woman, she said she was just trying to get out of the rain.
Police advised her to move along when the rain cleared up.
A few minutes later, officers discovered a man sleeping by the bathroom at Tracy Park. He was sleeping while his phone charged. Officers said he wasn’t quite impaired enough to pose a safety risk. He told police he planned to seek treatment at a methadone clinic.
Officers stopped by Tracy Park again in the middle of the night to advise people they found in the park to leave the premises or face charges of criminal trespass.
Portsmouth Homeless Crisis
An officer responded to a report of a suspicious person in the 1100 block of Young Street just after 3 am.
An officer spoke to a woman, who said she had just arrived in town and was homeless. An officer attempted to contact a homeless shelter and explained the process of getting into a shelter and how to apply for housing assistance.
Another report of an issue with a homeless person popped up at 3:30 pm. A local business owner said there was someone there who had spread trash everywhere. The owner asked the woman to leave but she was taking her sweet time collecting her stuff.
However, the woman left the area before officers arrived.
