ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Without warning, and as the temperature started to drop, the city broke down a homeless encampment under one of the busiest bridges into downtown.

The mayor’s office says they did not want people outside in tents when the temperatures dip into the teens. But these kinds of moves upset all kinds of people.

“So there’s two main encampments on this side,” said Amy D’Amico, Rochester Grants Pass Resistance.

Amy D’Amico advocates for people who don’t have homes and she took photos of the city environmental services workers and RPD taking down the encampment.

Encampments are illegal in the city.

“There were four tents. There was a couple in one and individuals in the other three. All of them are gone,” D’Amico said.

The mayor’s office says it’s been working with the people living here for six months and they offered transportation to any shelter. D’Amico says shelters are incompatible for many people who choose to live in tents. She pointed to the couple that lived in one tent.

“And the only couples shelter – Bethlehem shelter – it’s full,” said D’Amico.

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “What about the individuals though.”

Amy D’Amico: “Individuals have needs such as, maybe they have a dog. There are no dogs in shelters. Maybe they use drugs. And they don’t want to use drugs in shelters but maybe they have supplies with them.”

Berkeley Brean: “So it’s going to get cold this weekend. Really cold.”

Amy D’Amico: “Yes.”

Berkeley Brean: “It may not be safe to live in this cold.”

Amy D’Amico: “I agree and that’s why I think taking away someone’s tent in this weather is a state created danger.”

D’Amico says another reason people don’t want to go is that they don’t want to lose everything they own. That’s why she started a Go Fund Me to pay for bus passes and storage units.

“So when sweeps happen we can say to folks here’s a key we can put your stuff in storage now will you go to the warming center,” she said.

When Berkeley spoke to the mayor’s office on the phone Friday, the bottom line they said is that the cold that is coming Friday night and this weekend is simply too cold and too dangerous to allow people to be living out and exposed in places like this.

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