Housing issue becomes an environmental problem in city stormwater permit with DNR
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
On Jan. 6, an anonymous tipster told the Missouri Department of Natural Resources about a growing homeless camp off of Interstate 70 Drive Southwest in west Columbia.
The person said "garbage and debris" from the camp was getting into the nearby Harmony Creek.
A staff member with the city's stormwater division, TJ Tiefenbrunn, told DNR three days later that the camp was on private property. The police department's Homeless Outreach Team had known about the growing camp after the city manager's office informed them. The city's Office of Neighborhood Services would work with the property owner to clean up the camp.
On Feb. 4, DNR got another tip about the same camp possibly polluting the creek. The police department, Tiefenbrunn said in response, had posted a "no trespassing" sign and would remove the individuals staying at the camp. Neighborhood Services would then come in and help clean it up.
This wasn't the first time DNR and the City of Columbia had done this back-and-forth.
It's this cycle of events that has DNR asking the City of Columbia's stormwater division to come up with a plan to keep trash or human waste from homeless camps from getting into creeks and streams.
On Feb. 28, three weeks after the Harmony Creek camp was cleared, DNR asked the city to come up with a plan on how it would handle litter or waste from homeless camps from getting into creeks moving forward.
"We are working with the city to come to a viable solution," Sarah Wright, general permits unit chief in DNR's Water Protection Program, said via email. "This is a complex situation; therefore, we want to work with them. While the department is looking at water quality, the city has more concerns and issues to look at with this situation. This renewal of their permit is our opportunity to work with the city on this issue."
Jason West, spokesperson for Columbia Utilities, said it has added reports of illegal dumping -- and not just reports of homeless encampments -- to its state water permit tracking. City ordinance prohibits people from dumping trash into the city's sewer system or waterways.
"I think the biggest issue was just giving [DNR] an idea of what we’re currently doing," West said. "In the past, that might have just been understood that the city does something, we don’t know what it is. And so sitting down with them and explaining this is our process. When you let us know you have a concern, here’s what we do, we look at it, investigate it, see what kind of concern it is.”
The complaints
A records request made by ABC 17 News details the 36 instances where DNR received a complaint about a homeless camp in Columbia. Many of those complaints are forwarded to the city to investigate and address.
| Year | No. of complaints |
| 2022 | 5 |
| 2023 | 15 |
| 2024 | 13 |
| 2025 | 3 |
The earliest complaint goes back to Dec. 7, 2022. DNR received the complaint online from someone worried about a growing camp of about 30 people near the Interstate 70/Highway 63 connector. Within four days, DNR had received three other complaints about homeless camps in Columbia, including individuals living near Hinkson Creek at Stephens Lake Park.
DNR employees went to investigate some of the camps at the connector that month, finding trash and other items near the stream. DNR staff even took a photo of a washing machine near the water. These complaints from residents and follow-up from DNR eventually led the city in April 2023 to clear out the camp.
The complaints often revolved around camps near Hinkson Creek at the connector or Stephens Lake Park, Bear Creek in north Columbia or Harmony Creek in west Columbia. In many cases, city staff would mark trees with purple paint to warn people against camping in the area. Staff would sometimes also post "no trespassing" or "no camping" signs.
West said their response to these complaints varies based on where they find the issue.
"If it’s private property, then we reach out to the property owner and let them know that there has been this concern and it would be their responsibility to clean it up," West said. "That could be privately done, they could ask the city to clean it up at their expense, but that would be the first step if it’s private property. Now, if it’s city property, then contacting the appropriate department if it’s utility property, where there’s already an easement there, go clean it up. If it’s part of Public Works or Parks and Rec, then reach out to that department as well, and recommend what needs to be done.”
None of the records provided show that DNR found the camps had polluted the creek.
Hinkson Creek has been listed as an "impaired creek" by DNR since 1998, with an "unspecified pollutant" blamed for its condition.
Reports from the Collaborative Adaptive Management team tasked with monitoring its quality have not mentioned illegal dumping or homeless encampments as a specific source of contamination.
The cleanups also come with a cost to taxpayers. A camp clear-out on May 6 along Highway 63 by Home Depot cost Public Works $3,650 for equipment rental costs, spokesman John Ogan told ABC 17 News. Fourteen staff members worked more than five hours to remove the 68 tons of debris from the site. ABC 17 News reported the city spent more than $8,000 in all of 2023 on clearing camps.
A lack of resources
Evan Lawrence, co-owner of the homeless outreach organization 4AChange, said people without shelter often seek out places like bridges or the woods for safety. Places like bridges often protect them from the weather, and the seclusion sometimes affords them privacy to live.
"People don’t want to be seen," Lawrence said. "People don’t want for their personal home to be in front of the eyes of everyone else, so you can often find a lot more privacy, a lot more safety, a lot more structure in places like overpasses or places that are more remote."
When a camp gets cleared out, Lawrence and 4AChange try to serve as a way to get people into a shelter rather than moving to another camp. Lawrence acknowledged having camps near bodies of water can pose a public health hazard due to litter or needing to use the bathroom, but lamented the lack of publicly available accommodations in Columbia that might mitigate it.
Finding emergency shelter can often pose a problem. Restrictions on pet access or identification requirements keep some people out of shelters and send them into the woods or streets. Housing costs have also risen.
The 2024 Boone County Housing study shows the percentage of rental units offering rent at $800 a month or lower has dropped since 2023. Homes between the prices of $150,000 and $299,999 have also made double-digit percentage drops in Boone County in the same time.
"If you have affordable housing, and you have more resources for people to get into emergency housing, you’re inherently gonna have less people camping, less people leaving an impact on the environment, because they can be indoors," Lawrence said.
West said the current procedure of receiving complaints and responding to them is working for the city. He encouraged people to reach out directly to the city rather than to DNR through the city's online portal or the city call center.
Those complaints will likely spur the city's stormwater division and Tiefenbrunn into action. In 2024, Tiefenbrunn wrote an email to a person who complained to DNR about a camp near Home Depot on Highway 63, explaining the city's clean-up effort.
"I imagine this will be a continuous effort for some time."
