PUEBLO, Colo. — This week, crews in Pueblo are clearing out the area known as "The Jungle," with a focus of removing trees and encampments along the railroad tracks just east of Interstate 25 near Benedict Park on the south side of the city.
On Wednesday, crews made large piles of trees and filed dumpsters full of trash.
“They've taken 15 dumpsters so far,” Mayor Heather Graham said. “Pretty bad deal — lots of trash, lots of leftover encampments."
Graham said it was time for the area between I-25 and Benedict Park to get cleaned up.
“It's really tough terrain to walk on, and there's ditches that run through it that were just completely compacted with trash. I don't know that the property has ever been cleaned,” Graham said.
The mayor said the area is private property.
“The city issued a lien in the abatement," she said. "We're doing the abatement process on the property, so that's how we're able to be down there cleaning it. So this is a smelter site, so it's very dangerous for individuals to be down there to begin with. I think that the area is causing a lot of crime for the Eiler neighborhood and just the Bessemer neighborhood in general and so I think it was time to go in there and break up some of that issue, and it's very unsightly."
The Colorado Department of Health and Environment found high levels of lead and arsenic in the soil several years ago, so crews are working with the EPA and are taking precautions by wearing gloves and masks.
“I think that people want to see the community cleaned and beautiful and I think that that's really what the city, at least my administration, is trying to do moving forward,” Graham said.
The cleanup is a part of the mayor's bigger initiative to better the city.
Amy Martinez came to Benedict Park to check in on a loved one who she said that sleeps in the area.
“I really despise seeing Pueblo like this," she said. "It wasn't like this when I grew up here. It's a pretty sad sight to see.... I was curious when I saw all the removal going on, because a very close family member of mine stays out here, and I was concerned about what was going on with the cleanup, and where the homeless people that stay out here are going to go, and what resources do they have up there for them once they take away where they stay."
Martinez said the cleanup is a good idea.
“To me, personally, I don't agree with letting our city look like this. I don't agree with allowing people to basically trash our city,” Martinez said.
Pastor Paul described this situation as heartbreaking.
“I think it's really hard for the less fortunate people here — the homeless that are staying down here at the jungle,” Paul said.
He said around 50 unhoused individuals stay in "The Jungle." But Mayor Graham said police have only had to remove a couple people from the area.
“I walked it yesterday too. There weren't any unhoused individuals down there. They had all vacated at the point that the cleanup started,” Graham said.
She said people who are displaced should go to the Pueblo Rescue Mission if they need help. Martinez encouraged her loved one to come home.
“I hope this is a reality check. You don't have to live this way,” Martinez said.
This is the last major cleanup for this year. Graham plans to clean up more areas of the city in 2025.
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