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LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 12.14 51 he cats are back. In a pack. Cat City. Four, fve, now six of them crunch fall leaves — low, crouching. Tey know there's food here and meow into a growl, then meow again. Nobody at Camp 211, the homeless encampment of River Road on the edge of Butchertown, claims these strays. Younger Matt tears his chicken sandwich into scraps. He rises from his plastic lawn chair and steps of the porch, a found wood pallet in front of his tarp- covered tent where the crew hangs. He walks past the brick-circled fre pit and puts the chicken and bread pieces on the dirt. "You might want to spread that out so they don't attack each other," Brandy says. She's Younger Matt's girlfriend, the only woman in Camp 211 and the youngest, 24 years old. She doesn't mind hanging with only guys. Prefers it that way. Always has. Girls can be too much trouble. "Tat black cat's waiting," Larry* says. He's 67, the oldest at camp. Everyone here jokes he's an old fart and pokes the crusty icing on his imaginary birthday cake. He doesn't care. He's happy-go-lucky, always teasing. Doesn't want to hear no sad shit, OK? Te cats swarm. Meow, meow, meow. "Tey used to stay up over the hill, in the junkyard," Younger Matt says. "Tey don't stay up there anymore." "Not since they cut down all those trees by the railroad tracks," Brandy says. "Not since they run us out," Larry says. "I had a tent you could put a van in at Campbell Camp, OK? Tey tore it up when they came through with that Cat (earthmover), shredding things to pieces." Camp 211ers aren't far from where they once lived in Campbell Camp, which was the largest and longest-running homeless camp in Louisville until its disintegration beginning this past August. Started in 1987, the camp, also known as Tent City, had been home to hundreds through the years, including 37 people when R.J. Corman Railroad Group ofcials announced it was kicking the homeless of its property. Operational and public-safety reasons. After decades of pedestrians and debris on the track and reports of fatal accidents and crime, the camp had to go. Noel Rush, vice president of fnance and administration for R.J. Corman, says the clearing didn't start until Oct. 6 because the company wanted to give those living on the property plenty of time to make the transition. Te transition meant division. You fve go here, you guys go this way, we'll head over yonder. R.J. Corman worked with Louisville's Coalition for the Homeless, a nonproft founded in 1986 with a mission to prevent and end homelessness in the city by working with 29 homeless shelters, plus agencies and advocacy groups. Te Coalition provided shelter information to Campbell Campers. Few went with that option. "Two people called to get shelter beds," says Natalie Harris, executive director for the Coalition. "Tose were both women." Te others scattered. Kept to the core groups they had grown to know and found comfortable. For Camp 211, at the nonexistent address of 211 N. Campbell St., that family is seven folks total, including Travis, once he's back from jail. A handful of people assembled another base, Camp Spider. Some went their own way in the woods or fnally got an apartment. Most encampments are near River Road, because of the woodsy hideouts and proximity to downtown homeless facilities, such as lunch or laundry. Kiddie Camp, a collection of mainly 20- to 40-somethings, was around before Campbell Camp broke up. According to 2013's Louisville Homeless Census, 8,608 "unduplicated" homeless people — both sheltered and unsheltered — lived within the city throughout the year, a 2 percent decrease from 2012. An estimated 1,500 people are homeless, in a shelter or on the streets, on any given night. Te census says the number of unsheltered individuals, 228 people, is likely an undercount due to the difculty in keeping track of this population group. Te 2014 attempt at a census count will be on Dec. 31. Harris doesn't know how many encampments there are in Louisville. Is an encampment one person? How does one defne it? Campbell Camp's clearing began with the October shredding. What was once woods became mulch mixed with busted fip-fops and pieces of tarp. Trees, tents left behind, old coolers now cut in half, split plastic bottles, trash everywhere — the same matter multiplied. Tere was the old camp, completely wide open. Camp 211ers walked through to see what they could fnd, but the Caterpillar had chopped and demolished everything. On one spot on the Hill, a designated section of the old confnes — along with the South 40 (lower grounds) and the Shoot (trail entrance) — lie playing cards. Most are face down in the scattered wood spikes, but a queen of clubs (symbolically, it means non-domestic) and an ace of spades (death) face up. T Dozens of the area's "invisible" homeless live in makeshift camps on city land along the River Road corridor. Here's their story. By Arielle Christian Photos by Mickie Winters *Subjects didn't disclose full names. Opposite page: Ashley from Kiddie Camp, a homeless encampment of River Road, with ragged tarps and torn tents ablaze.