LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — Recently, homeless camps in Little Rock and North Little Rock have been moved out of the metro area.
The Arkansas Department of Transportation is in charge of the removal of the camps, and they explained that they are focusing on areas near the highways and interstates.
"There's never a good time to have to do this, but we are in a position where we have to take a lead," said Dave Parker, ARDOT spokesperson.
Last week, a notice was given to homeless people across Central Arkansas which said that because of safety concerns they needed to vacate the area.
And this week, ARDOT has begun to remove items and clear the areas where the camps are.
“We are in charge of cleaning up these areas, maintaining the right of ways thus they have to move. We are not physically moving anyone," said Dave Parker.
"We have to go in at certain times of the year, clean up the trash, mow the grass, and we don't want any kind of accident to happen," he added.
Some of the areas that are being cleared include the intersection of Rodney Parham and I-430, University and I-630, and the intersection by McCain Mall near Highway 67 in North Little Rock.
The Van is an organization that provides outreach for the homeless, and Aaron Reddin, founder, and executive director has been alerting people around the areas of the situation.
Though he explained that there's not a lot of help for options of where they can go.
"The last count we did showed almost 600 people sleeping outside of the metro. There's not 600 beds available," said Reddin.
ARDOT explained that they provided information to those affected about where they could find a place to stay.
They started clearing out the homeless camps on Monday and they said it should take a couple of weeks before they are finished.
Reddin shared that The Van is in need of blankets to hand out for the winter, and anyone looking for ways to help can check out The Van's website here.