BALTIMORE — Activists sent a message to Baltimore leaders on Wednesday — that homelessness is a major issue in the city.
Dozens of people, part of a community organization, set up tents at the War Memorial Plaza outside Baltimore's City Hall in efforts of trying to bring awareness to city leaders about homelessness.
Organizers called the set up "Tent City."
It started out as a demonstration and ended with homeless people camping out in those tents.
Organizers, including Christina Flowers, told WMAR-2 News they are looking for more support from city leaders.
Flowers said about 60 homeless individuals are occupying the tents, and they will stay there until Baltimore leaders discuss a plan for the homeless population.
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Flowers, director of "Real Care Providers," said for the past 13 years her nonprofit has had a mission to help end homelessness in Baltimore City.
“We have a serious crisis of homelessness in Baltimore City," Flowers said. "Our homeless individuals popping up everywhere at bus stops, on corners, and basically this is a demonstration to let our city officials know that their lives matter too."
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Flowers said when it comes to dealing with the homeless population, she feels the programs created by city leaders don’t express the urgency or eagerness that should be devoted to the problem.
“We shouldn’t have tents a block from City Hall, around the corner," Flowers said. "These individuals should be identified and they should be set apart for their needs to be met."
MORE: Baltimore makes huge investment in homeless services
Homeless activists came up with a list of demands.
“We got about 12 of them, some of the basic ones, it’s accessing the services," Flowers said. "We have mothers and children. We have individuals who can’t access services and are getting discharge from hospitals back into homelessness, you know being evicted from hotels."
Earlier this year, Mayor's Office of Homeless Services developed a strategic investment plan funded through ARPA with a five-step project to help combat homelessness.
The Board of Estimates recently approved funding for the first project which includes housing navigation and recruitment support.
However, Flowers said the work she see’s being done around homelessness is not enough and that it’s going to take a team effort to truly combat the issue.
“You have people dealing with mental illness you have people dealing with substance abuse you have people that are medically fragile," Flowers said. "It’s going to take more than the mayor, we need our inner faith community pastors, bishops, preachers should all be coming to the table to have a solution where individuals are not sleeping and occupying our streets so instead we gone occupy City Hall."
As of August 12, 688 homeless families have been re-housed through the first step of the mayor’s plan.
