A bolt-cutter will do. Homeless people take occasional albeit unauthorized housing in a salvage yard where 44 rusted and decommissioned semi-trailers are parked just west of downtown. Padlocks are easily cut. Image: Steve Lunde
The unsheltered find their options
WINONA, Minn. — Winona has two emergency lodging facilities operated by Catholic Charities on the Near East Side and The Edge church downtown, but some itinerants seek their own shelter. Largely unnoticed is a sprawling salvage yard between Second Street and the Union Pacific rail yard. The unfenced site has 44 semi-trailers, two truck tractors and six cars, all junked and awaiting junkyard demolition. Also refuges for the homeless are empty residential garages in alleys around town. So too are condemned and vacant houses. And also, commercial storage units These are especially attractive in winter and can be somewhat comfy with blankets and space heaters. There is an occasional trackside encampment in woods along the river near Homer. Pup tents have shown up at Levee Park and Latsch Island despite a city ordinance against camping. When asked by police to move along, the folks pull up stakes and look elsewhere.
Earlier: Name released in storage garage death
Earlier: Homeless pair cited for Latsch Island camp
Earlier: Storage yard fire hits scuttled truck trailer
Earlier: Homeless refuge: Rusted-out truck’s sleeper cab