ROCK HILL, S.C. — A Rock Hill ordinance was created last week to stop people experiencing homelessness from being loaded into vehicles and driven into the city to be dropped off at shelters and mental health facilities.
Police and advocates said they’ve seen people coming from within the county and other states.
A Rock Hill police officer told Channel 9′s Tina Terry that a lot of the activity started in downtown. He said people with medical and mental health issues have been dropped off in the middle of the night.
The hope is that the ordinance will keep that from happening.
Alex Greenawalt works at Pathways Community Center where she helps those experiencing homelessness find stability.
Greenwalt said she is disturbed by the recent activity because it’s hurting the people she is trying to help.
“This is a national trend,” she said. “Homelessness is up 12%.”
Greenwalt told Terry what she had seen.
“We’re seeing unmarked cars pull up in our parking lot and sometimes, just truly, shoving people out the doors,” Greenwalt said. “They’re just dropping people off on the sidewalks. Not even coming up to our front door, entering our lobby and the vans drive away.
She’s documented 30 instances since 2022.
“If someone shows up unannounced, it puts a lot of stress on us not to know if we can arrange a bed for them and it’s heartbreaking if we have to turn some of those people away,” Greenwalt said.
Rock Hill Police Department Capt. Roderick Stinson said he’s seen many other cases.
“A lot of times, we run across people who are here,” Stinson said. “Don’t know how they got here, or why they’re here.”
He first noticed it in downtown.
“I can remember where a person was yelling and screaming, they’d been kidnapped,” the captain said. “It turned out, it was a person that was being dropped off by an organization. They didn’t know where they were.”
Stinson said people have been brought there from surrounding cities and states, including North Carolina, Georgia, New York, and New Jersey.
“We think it’s some organizations, some agencies. I think because we have certain organizations here. People may not take time to make contact,” he said.
Stinson spoke to the Rock Hill City Council about creating the ordinance, which allows police to hold anyone accountable who drops off an at-risk person in the city.
“We’re still working on the ordinance, as far as fines, but it can range from a warning to a citation,” he said. “And depending on the situation, if it’s egregious, they could be arrested.”
Greenawalt said if you want to help someone in need find shelter, you should call Pathways in advance to see if there is room.
If not, they can work with you to find resources elsewhere.
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