NCDOT prepares to clear long-running homeless camp near I-40 exit

The state is preparing to clear a long-running homeless camp in the woods near Exit 290 of Interstate 40 at Chapel Hill Road, where about a dozen people were living and some had already been told to leave by arrest deadline. Raleigh police posted laminated eviction notices along paths into the camp on June 8, ordering residents out by 6 a.m. Friday, June 12, before an NCDOT cleaning crew was set to arrive Monday morning.

For Boots, an Army veteran who has lived in the woods there for about 12 years, the removal is not an abstraction. The camp has taken on the look of a long-term settlement, with gas-powered generators, a microwave oven, a window air conditioner protruding from a makeshift cabin, cans of food, broken furniture, bulging trash bags and tents. Paul Geigel, founder of the Eliza Park Homeless Initiative, has worked with Boots since April as city and social-service workers have tried to line up next steps.

NCDOT spokeswoman Kim Deaner said the site had grown significantly and was causing littering, disturbances to local businesses and graffiti on a nearby underpass. Nearby hotel owners have complained about trash, graffiti and breaches in the fence line, complaints that help explain why the encampment at the NC 54 interchange drew repeated attention from transportation officials and police. The clearing is aimed at restoring the corridor around I-40 and Chapel Hill Road, but it also displaces people who have been living there for years.

NCDOT says it coordinates with police and social-service agencies before clearing camps so that people are offered help and no one is left behind without a plan. Raleigh has used a similar approach through ACORNS, short for Addressing Crises through Outreach, Referrals, Networking and Service, a city program that pairs social workers with law enforcement and tries to use the least invasive intervention possible. The city also launched an Unsheltered Homelessness Response Strategy and pilot housing efforts in 2024, along with Raleigh CARES, a crisis-response model meant to connect residents to resources.

The Chapel Hill Road removal fits a pattern that Wake County has seen before. NCDOT first developed its camp-clearing approach at I-540 and Capital Boulevard in North Raleigh starting in 2022, where contractors later removed about 600 cubic yards of trash and debris, including 400 shopping carts, at a cost of more than $100,000. A separate encampment near South Saunders Street and I-40 was previously reported to have as many as 20 people living in the woods beside the ramp. The question around Exit 290 is the same one that keeps returning across Raleigh: whether the state is solving a safety problem or simply pushing it to the next block.