GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The lone makeshift homeless shelter, about the size of a small tent, was built of branches and twigs.
It stood along a snow-covered path that leads to a former homeless encampment on the banks of the Grand River.
On Monday, it turned into a bonfire.
A passerby told Target 8 he had just seen men around the shelter staying warm by a fire, but they weren't there when Target 8 discovered the flames and called 911.
Firefighters had a difficult time finding the site about 100 yards south of Wealthy Street SW.
"These areas are hard to access, which makes it difficult to get them the help they need when they need it," Grand Rapids Fire Department Lt. Ted Rusiecki said.
The city of Grand Rapids Homeless Outreach Team continues to warn the homeless to seek inside shelter as temperatures plummet to potentially life-threatening levels. But not all are heeding the warnings and some are trying other, possibly dangerous, ways to stay warm, including fires.
"I know that the shelters are there — the problem is getting them into those shelters at the right time to stay warm," Rusiecki said.
A few hundred yards to the south, as many as 20 people once lived in an encampment along the Grand River. They stayed in tents and lean-tos, some no matter how hard it snowed, or how cold it got. And it got cold. Now, there is no camp, just passing ice flows and snow blowing sideways.
"So we worked pretty diligently to clean that area up and maintain that," Grand Rapids Fire Chief Brad Brown said.
He said it's not clear where they ended up.
"They redistribute among the community," he said, adding that some could have moved to other camps. "We've been out for over a week now to virtually every homeless camp in the city, saying, 'Hey, cold weather is coming, the shelters are willing to take you,' but some people just don't want to go to the shelter."
That includes a man in a pile of sleeping bags and blankets along Leonard Street NW under the US-131 overpass as temperatures hovered around 8 degrees Monday. Frost coated his hat.
"I can't feel my thumbs," he said, as he pulled off a glove. "I don't have nowhere to go."
He said he has been homeless off and on for more than four years.
He refused an offer to get help.
"I chose to live the life that I'm living right now," he said. "I don't care if I live or die right now. I don't care."
Target 8 called Grand Rapids police, but they said they couldn't help if he didn't want help. The fire chief says there's no way to force the homeless into shelters.
"We're all adults here, we all have choices to make and we try to be as respectful as we can with their choices," he said. "And as long as they're not breaking the law, and we're trying to encourage people to move into shelters and do different things, some people choose to stay outside."
