Longstanding homeless camp near Levee Bypass gets cleaned up

Work crews started the process Monday morning of cleaning up a longstanding but now vacant homeless camp in downtown Lewiston.

The well-hidden camp was on the south side of the Levee Bypass road, just east of the railroad bridge that goes over the road.

Part of the land the homeless camp was on is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers, and some of it is owned by Watco, which operates the Great Northwest Railroad that runs on the embankment above the camp. Both the Corps and Watco provided workers and equipment for the cleanup project that got started Monday morning.

The crews cleaned up garbage and other debris, and encountered some drug paraphernalia, said Brandon Lytle, assistant natural resource manager with the Corps.

The people who had been living in the camp were dispersed by the city of Lewiston before the cleanup effort, Lytle said. Crews waited for freezing weather before bringing heavy equipment into the area.

“No one was here; everyone was vacated for a while,” Lytle said, “so we were just cleaning up the mess they had left.”

Lytle said about seven camps were discovered in the slightly depressed area. The spots are mostly hidden from view, even from the nearby Levee Bypass, but when the trees in the area dropped their leaves, motorists would see the camp and “start calling the Corps office,” Lytle said.

Following cleanup, the Corps plans on thinning brush in the area, and will then put up a wire fence between its property and the land that belongs to Watco.

Lytle said workers from the Corps’ wildlife, maintenance and recreation teams helped with Monday’s cleanup.

“It was an all-hands-on-deck type of day,” he said.

Baney may be contacted at mbaney@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2251. Follow him on X @MattBaney_Trib.