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ST. LOUIS — A homeless encampment downtown where dozens of people had been staying in tents throughout the summer was empty by late Friday afternoon.

City officials on Friday morning began moving the remnants of the Interco Plaza encampment after weeks of controversy and growing safety concerns about the site. The plaza is on North Tucker Boulevard between the new Square headquarters and the nonprofit St. Patrick Center.

Nick Dunne, a spokesman for Mayor Tishaura O. Jones, said late Friday afternoon that all of the 15 or so campers who were there earlier in the day had voluntarily left.

Dunne had said the city had “no intention of forcefully removing people.� Fully closing the camp was “contingent on the willingness of the unhoused to move to the housing sources we have provided to them,� he said. Most of the campers accepted the city’s offer to relocate them to shelters, he said.

Nearby businesses and St. Patrick Center officials have said violence and drug use at the plaza had been increasing in recent weeks, culminating in a man being fatally shot Sunday night. The camp has held as many as 50 residents.

John Berglund of the StarWood Group, which owns the newly renovated Square office building just north of the plaza, said his group was “looking forward to working with the city to make the plaza safer and more attractive.�

“Candidly, it has been difficult to attract prospective tenants to our properties with the encampments nearby,â€� he said. “We have a larger vision for downtown north to attract other companies of the same caliber as Square to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½.â€�

The plaza has drawn public attention since early July when Square’s offices opened and the city put up fabric-covered fencing around the plaza. Jones promised then to clean up the encampment within 60 days.

On Friday afternoon, a new, temporary fence was going up around the site, which Dunne said would be replaced with something more secure.

“We do have the other issues — the violence, the drug activity — we want to make sure we’re able to address,� he said. Dunne said he didn’t know how long this fence would remain.

‘We’re traumatized’

Some Interco Plaza camp residents were frustrated with the situation earlier Friday.

“We’ve gone through so much,� said Antoine Hunt, 37, who said he moved to the plaza to be closer to homeless services at St. Patrick Center next door. “We’re traumatized.�

At that time, Hunt said he would refuse to leave and carried a sign saying: “I do not consent to being forcibly removed from this spot.�

One homeless resident, Brittany Tyler, 22, said earlier in the day “they just said we’ve got to go,� and that her tent was removed by city workers.

She said she turned down a city employee’s offer to take her to a shelter. She said she didn’t want to follow the rules imposed by such facilities.

Bishop Michael Robinson, CEO of City Hope ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, said several homeless men were transported by the city in the morning to indoor shelter space overseen by his nonprofit organization at the former Little Sisters of the Poor nursing home on North Florissant Avenue.

He didn’t know the exact number but said it was fewer than seven.

In early August, St. Patrick Center opened a 40-tent shelter, dubbed “Camp Cole,� inside a warehouse three blocks away at Cole and 14th streets. That building is owned by the StarWood Group.

But that and other shelters, such as Biddle Housing Opportunities Center and a community of 50 tiny homes at the former ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ RV Park, are full, Dunne has said.

He added that the city was “working today with service providers to find places for people to go in supportive housing. They will have individual spaces where we’re able to keep folks socially distanced.�

The campers moved from Interco Plaza to shelters Friday also were given bus passes to use in the future so they could get to jobs and appointments, Dunne said.

ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ has, like many cities, struggled to address homelessness and encampments popping up in the downtown area for years.

Then-Mayor Lyda Krewson faced blowback in May 2020 after moving about 100 people from a camp in Poelker Park and relocating them to six shelters or hotels, including two in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County.

Advocates for the homeless had sought to block the encampment’s removal in court, saying it would disperse people through the community and put them at risk of being exposed to COVID-19.

The so-called “Hopewell,� “Dignity Harbor� and “Sparta� encampments along the riverfront in 2011 and 2012 drew much public attention. They were deemed a public health risk and formally disbanded, though another, smaller camp popped up the following year.