Horry County police arrest 10 people in Myrtle Beach area homeless camp sweep

Bill Hicks didn’t know where he was going, but Tuesday morning he knew he had to leave the place he’d been staying for the last two months.

Hicks and a handful of other homeless people were packing up their belongings from a camp located in a wooded area off Robert Grissom Parkway between Mr. Joe White Avenue and U.S. 501 in Myrtle Beach. The group was told by police to move off the private property.

“I’m anxious in trying to figure it out. I don’t know where I’m going,” Hicks said pacing around the campsite gathering his belongings. “I just got myself a tent and I don’t want to lose it.”

The property owner asked Horry County police to help remove the people, who had been camping on the property, Sgt. Robert Kegler said. Although the property is in Myrtle Beach, it is not in the city limits and is under Horry County jurisdiction.

Police officers began contacting the homeless people staying in the camp last week and gave them trespass warnings and documented the incidents, Kegler said. Officers offered them with a list of telephone numbers for agencies that provide assistance, he said.

“We have not been in contact with anyone more than once, so no arrests have been made,” Kegler said about 10 a.m. Tuesday and noted people had been cooperating by leaving the private property.

But by 4 p.m. Tuesday, Horry County police had arrested 10 people on trespassing charges in connection with the property, Kegler said.

Many of those living in the homeless camp said they didn’t stay at an area homeless shelter because of conflicts with the people in charge of it.

In protest of the police enforcement of trespassing laws, Glenn Duke, a Myrtle Beach resident and member of Occupy Myrtle Beach and Food Not Bombs, came to the site Tuesday morning and displayed a sign that read “Homeless are human” to passing motorists.

“They’re out here because they have to be and because they have no place to go,” Duke said. “They want to kick them out of the place they made a home in and they give them no alternative and literally kick them on the street. They’re human and they have needs.”

Duke was among a handful of protesters last week, who want the homeless camps left alone by police, he said.

“We’re persistent and we’re not going away as long as these people are being harassed,” Duke said. “The people with the money and the power should come out and help the ones that really need help. They want jobs. They want homes. They want to be a part of society and be productive.”

Scott Barnes, who had been staying in the homeless camp for about five months, loaded his belongings onto his bicycle and pushed it up near the sidewalk, so he could leave if police officers showed up Tuesday morning.

Barnes said they were told to be off the property by 8 a.m. Tuesday or they could be arrested when officers returned. But by 9:30 a.m. Tuesday no Horry County police had been by the camp.

Kegler said Tuesday morning he did not know when officers would return to make another sweep of the property.

Details about the 10 people who had been arrested by 4 p.m. Tuesday were not immediately available

Down the property from where Barnes had stayed, Allen Anderson built a small fire to heat some morning coffee.

While tending to the small blaze with a pot of water on it, Anderson said he spent much of the night looking for another place in the woods to move to so he could leave that property and not go to jail.

“There are some people who have been trying to get out of the woods and they’re working, but they just aren’t making enough to do it,” Anderson said and noted he wants to work, but had mismanaged his money over the summer and ended up homeless.

The threat of being arrested “puts stress on your life that you don’t need,” said Anderson, a Myrtle Beach native.

On Friday, Malinda Hardwick, who has been homeless for about six months, moved out of a homeless camp located across the street from Hicks, Barnes and Anderson.

Hardwick, her partner, Jacob Woolfrey and Charles “Chuck” Wagner, left after they said police threatened to jail them if they did not vacate that property. It was the second time this month Hardwick said she had moved after police told them to leave the woods.

“Ten years ago I used to say I’d never be like that. I was a hard worker, but I made bad money mistakes. After my husband passed away I lost everything,” Hardwick said. “This is all material stuff, it can be replaced. Our lives can not.”