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Homeless forced to vacate Beggs Lane encampment

Chay Zlokas
T.S. Strickland
/
WUWF Public Media
Chay Zlokas sits on the steps of her RV, at the Beggs Lane homeless encampment, in Escambia County.

On Tuesday, Escambia County’s oldest homeless encampment, located off Beggs Lane in Brent, faced its final deadline for residents to leave. The property, which has long served as a refuge for those experiencing homelessness, was cleared under the combined pressures of state legislation and federal deed restrictions, leaving its inhabitants grappling with displacement and uncertainty.

The camp, known to most simply as "Beggs Lane," has existed for decades on land that was deeded to Escambia County by the Environmental Protection Agency. The property’s history is tied to its proximity to the Escambia Wood Treating Company Superfund site, which rendered it unfit for residential use due to environmental contamination.

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“My first encounter with this camp was probably back in 2011,” recalled Michael Kimberl. “It was referred to (then) as 'Sherwood Forest,' and it very much kind of had that feel. There were roads with tents butted up next to each other almost like neighborhoods.”

Kimberl oversees the Alfred Washburn Center, a day center that provides food, showers and other essential services to those experiencing homelessness. His advocacy and involvement with these initiatives have put Kimberl on the front lines of helping Pensacola’s most vulnerable residents, including those at Beggs Lane.

Sherwood Forest once had a sense of camaraderie and structure, said Kimberl.

“They had an area they called the 'rabbit hole' that they sent all the troublemakers to. If you were violent and wanted to cause problems, you weren’t welcome at Sherwood Forest.”

This sense of cohesion waned through the years, as the community faced periodic crackdowns and evictions. Now, Kimberl said, the place is in flux yet again, and so are residents' emotions.

“We’re seeing camaraderie in the sense that all we have is each other out here,” he explained. “But there’s also been a more violent element... There’s a lot of tension out here.”

For many, Beggs Lane was more than just a temporary shelter — it was a home. This is certainly true for Chay Zlokas, who came to Beggs Lane after a series of cascading hardships left her with no other options.

It all started in 2019, when the ceiling caved in on her then-pregnant daughter's bedroom. Zlokas said she was forced to withhold rent to convince her landlord to make necessary repairs and, when those repairs were finally completed, she was evicted.

"That's when my chaos began," she said.

Zlokas moved into a trailer located on a property owned by her son's girlfriend. There, once again, the ceiling caved in. By that time, the cost of rent in the area had soared beyond what her $943 in monthly disability income could cover, so she moved to the only place that would have her: Beggs Lane.

Zlokas called it a different world: "gunshots every night ... dog fights every day."

Despite the chaos, Zlokas said the camp remained a tight-knit community.

"We're a family," she said, and, in that family, Zlokas quickly became known as "Mama Chay."

“I’m kind-hearted,” she said. “You know, I’ll help anybody if I can. It’s just the way I am.”

But Zlokas couldn't help prevent what happened this week. County officials, citing both state law and federal deed restrictions, began notifying residents in August of the Dec. 2 deadline.

“Escambia County has actively worked with local nonprofits over the past several months to connect individuals living in the Beggs Lane encampment with shelter and other available resources,” county spokesperson Andrea Gibson said in a statement issued this week.

Still, even as the deadline loomed, scores of residents remained at the site and many still seemed confused about what was to happen.

A woman named Michelle, who said she'd lived at the camp for more than two years, began moving her RV to a friend's property in Warrington after police arrived at the camp Monday morning.

“The cops came," she said, "ran all our names, made sure we didn't have warrants, stuff like that. Because anybody who had a warrant, they were going ahead and taking them to jail. They basically told us if we are not out of here by 7:30 in the morning ... they were talking about arresting people. So I'm like, I don't have a criminal background. I'm going to be out of here tonight.”

County officials said they plan to clear the site, removing brush to deter future encampments. For now, the property’s future use is uncertain, though it cannot be used for residential purposes.

For the displaced residents, the future is equally unclear.

“There's a lot of us that don't have nowhere to go," Zlokas said. "... If I had the money, I’d buy a piece of property and set up pallet houses ... to help them get back on their feet."

For now, though, this community that had been brought together by so much hardship is being forced to endure more of it — this time alone.

"There's been a lot of tears shed and lot of unhappiness around here because we're all being separated," Zlokas said. "We're all being forced apart."

T.S. Strickland is an award-winning journalist whose writing has appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, Entrepreneur and many other publications. Strickland was born and raised in Pensacola's Ferry Pass neighborhood and cut his teeth working as a newspaper reporter in the Ozark Mountains before returning home to work as a government reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. While there, his reporting earned a Gold Medal for Public Service from the Florida Society of News Editors, one of the highest professional awards in the state. In his spare time, he enjoys building software products, attending Pensacola Opera performances with his effervescent partner, Brooke, and advocating for greenway development with the nonprofit he co-founded, The Bluffline.