Homeless People Left 500 Pounds of Feces on Streets

(RepublicanDaily.org) – One of Wyoming’s major cities is dealing with major hygiene issues and property damage attributed to its large homeless population.

“They’re just out and about in our community raising hell,” Casper Mayor Bruce Knell told local news outlet Cowboy State Daily. Casper is the second largest city in Wyoming, with a population of 58,543. The mayor estimates the homeless in the city to be around 200 people.

The homeless population in the city have created a “mess,” the mayor says, saying that the city has had to deal with 500lbs of human waste left by vagrants as well as damage to properties some homeless people have broken into.

“It’s third-world-country stuff happening in Casper, Wyoming,” Knell said.

Street people broke into a foreclosed and abandoned Econo Lodge in the city, causing extensive damage to the property, forcing the bank that owns it to board it up and the city to declare the structure condemned.

“They destroyed everything,” the Casper mayor told the news outlet.

Casper has a homeless shelter, but the mayor said that not everyone gets accepted in, and not everyone follows the rules to they get kicked out and stay on the streets instead, which is what causes problems for the city.

In response to the homeless problem, Casper’s city council is looking to create stricter rules that cover urban camping and squatting in an effort to drive the homeless out of the area. “The police need more teeth” to deal with the squatting, the mayor said. The city is also looking into expanding the mental and substance abuse support services it provides so those who need and want help can get it.

Casper joins many U.S. cities that are dealing with a large – and mostly unmanageable – homeless population. Cities in California like Los Angeles, have long had problems stemming from vagrants, which have even gone as far as causing health problems for local residents due to the non-disposal of human waste in many homeless encampments. Some businesses have also been attacked by transients.