Effort to help Lowell homeless results in illegal dump site

LOWELL, Mass. — Jeff Feldman likes to walk along the Merrimack River, but lately, he can’t avoid the growing eyesore in the woods off of Pawtucket St.

“It’s horrible, but I don’t know what to do about it,” Feldman said.

The City of Lowell placed a green dumpster in the woods several months ago. The intention was to provide the area homeless with a place to throw away their trash. Months later, the dumpster is overflowing, and piles of garbage have spilled over into the grass. There’s a homeless camp nearby, but advocates say the homeless aren’t the ones leaving the mess.

“A lot of this is household trash. This isn’t them,” said Patricia Hiort, a volunteer with the Lowell non-profit group, Matthew 25. “It’s an easy way for people to get rid of their stuff.”

The city manager’s office confirmed the effort to help the homeless camp backfired a bit.

“The City placed a dumpster at this location as part of a pilot initiative intended to prevent a concentration of illegally dumped waste forming in the area from a nearby homeless encampment. The Department of Public Works is aware that the dumpster has had the unintended consequence of attracting additional illegal dumping,” Assistant to the City Manager Phil Geoffroy told Boston 25 in an email.

Rocky Morrison, the founder of the Clean River Project, suspects people driving by saw the empty dumpster and wanted to take advantage, tossing out appliances, mattresses, and other unwanted junk.

“It was left here, and next thing you know, people are dumping here,” Morrison said. “When I came down here, it was a mess, and I was blown away. How can it be like this? How did somebody leave it like

this?”

Hiort said for the homeless people who live along the river, the piles of garbage add insult to injury.

“These are human beings that live down here. These are people, and they have to live amongst this filth. You should see their camps. They’re not like this. This is horrible.”

Geoffroy said the city is currently working to remove waste from the site, and DPW plans to remove the dumpster from the site in the coming days.

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