A Concord encampment story went viral. Those living there say there’s nowhere else to go

Robin Bach points to the woods in her Concord backyard where two homeless camps are located on June 19. Her children do not play in the backyard because of the camps.

Robin Bach points to the woods in her Concord backyard where two homeless camps are located on June 19. Her children do not play in the backyard because of the camps. GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff

Melissa at her homeless camp on the railroad tracks in the back of Robin Bach’€™s home on North Main Street in Concord on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. Melissa read about how Bach’€™s children wouldn’t play in the backyard of their 19th-century Walker house in Concord.

Melissa at her homeless camp on the railroad tracks in the back of Robin Bach’€™s home on North Main Street in Concord on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. Melissa read about how Bach’€™s children wouldn’t play in the backyard of their 19th-century Walker house in Concord. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff

A woman named Melissa, who did not want her last name used for fear of her safety, stands in front of her homeless camp on the railroad tracks in the back of Robin Bach’s home on North Main Street in Concord on Wednesday. Melissa read about how Bach’™s children wouldn’™t play in the backyard of their 19th-century house in Concord.

A woman named Melissa, who did not want her last name used for fear of her safety, stands in front of her homeless camp on the railroad tracks in the back of Robin Bach’s home on North Main Street in Concord on Wednesday. Melissa read about how Bach’™s children wouldn’™t play in the backyard of their 19th-century house in Concord. GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff

Melissa stands in front of her homeless camp on the railroad tracks in the back of Robin Bach’€™s home on North Main Street in Concord on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. Melissa read about how Bach’€™s children wouldn’t play in the backyard of their 19th-century Walker house in Concord.

Melissa stands in front of her homeless camp on the railroad tracks in the back of Robin Bach’€™s home on North Main Street in Concord on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. Melissa read about how Bach’€™s children wouldn’t play in the backyard of their 19th-century Walker house in Concord. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff

By MICHAELA TOWFIGHI

Monitor staff

Published: 07-12-2024 5:24 PM

Straps tied to trees supported the blue and gray tarps hanging like a canopy over the green tent. Plywood, scaffolding, pallets – even a swing – line the wooded encampment.

This is the jury-rigged home that a woman named Melissa and her husband built over the last four months along the train tracks that cut through Robin Bach’s property.

Bach has asked the city of Concord for help clearing the encampment on numerous occasions. She’s called Concord police 37 times since she bought the house for $400,000 in 2018. Her plight to restore her backyard made international news.

Interview requests from the Daily Mail in the UK landed in her Facebook messages. CBS called asking for a visit to her Main Street home. Her story filled a page in the New York Post.

“I don’t want this in my backyard,” Bach said. “But I don’t want it in anybody’s backyard.”

Melissa, who didn’t want her last name used because of fear for her safety, said she was heartbroken when she read that Bach’s children were fearful of the unfamiliar people in their backyard, which includes her.

As a mother, she thought of her own kids and how it would have felt to have their childhood dictated by a fear of playing outside.

“When I read that, it was terrible. It made me cry,” she said. “We’re not trying to hurt any kids… I understand the stigma, but I don’t always agree with it. I used to think the same way until I became one and now my heart is much different for the people down here.”

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Without city-wide solutions to help those who are experiencing homelessness, Melissa said she has nowhere else to go.

Anywhere the homeless set up camp in Concord is trespassing. Melissa knows that, but said the city provides no other solution, she said.

From behind Bach’s house along the train tracks, she’s close to the Friendly Kitchen, where she often goes for meals and has access to downtown.

“In Concord, they won’t tell you where to go,” said Melissa. “We’re not choosing to not go to a place where we are supposed to. We go to a place where we can stay and we can be quiet and not hurt anything around us. Nobody is trying to invade her, or anybody’s, privacy or space.”

The police have come to the camp before. They haven’t told her to leave, like they did at her last camp despite the no trespassing signs nailed to the trees.

“They’re not saying, ‘You’re trespassing.’ We already know that,” said Melissa. “I don’t think that they have the resources to be able to tell us, ‘Okay, this is a good place for you to go.’”

The reality is that the city’s police have cleared camps multiple times at the request of business owners. A camp behind CVS on Hall Street was taken down. The same happened behind Market Basket on Storrs Street. On Fort Eddy Road, another camp was removed behind the Shaw’s Supermarket along the Merrimack River.

Each time the camps are cleared, the people living there migrate somewhere else.

On Bach’s property, tents have been taken down before, too. Days or weeks later, they’ve returned. This pattern doesn’t help with the accumulated trash, nor is it a way that is responsive to the needs of the people living in the encampment, she said.

“This is everybody’s problem and we can all try and work together to solve it,” said Bach. “It’s like I tell my kids, ‘I don’t know who made this mess, and that doesn’t matter as much to me as who is going to help me clean it up.’”

Bach has heard nothing from city leaders or the police department since the article ran in the Concord Monitor last week and made national headlines.

Concord Mayor Byron Champlin said the city has no plans to change its current policies regarding the resources it provides.

It’s a frustrating standstill for Bach. The railroad company, CSX, owns the tracks but have not responded to her requests. The police have a memorandum of understanding with them as well that gives them the authority to patrol the area.

That hasn’t happened, Bach said, and any efforts to clean up the area are left to her as well. She wished the city would be more preventative.

“It’s sad that it’s more expensive to clean up after the fact than it would be to provide trash cans, needle containers and bathroom facilities,” said Bach.

Champlin said providing trash bins would be unfeasible. From his understanding, Casella, the city’s waste management contractor, would not service these containers out of concern for their content – like needles, hazardous waste or propane tanks.

“There are, unfortunately, some real challenges to providing that kind of service,” he said.

Melissa said she and her neighbors in the camp try to clean up the waste they accumulate. When they first set up, though, trash from past people filled the site.

“We’re trying to haul things out that have been down here for 10 years,” she said. “Like bags, big, big, big bags full. It’s disgusting. But that one Dumpster wouldn’t even hold a quarter of what was out here.”

To dispose of it, though, means carrying the bags out along the tracks to the Dumpster by the Friendly Kitchen. That’s the only spot Melissa’s aware of where they can throw things away.

When Concord city leaders were asked about calls to create a sanctioned camping area, an instant rebuttal was that no neighborhood would want this.

The lack of response to Bach’s property, though, feels like the city is endorsing the encampment in her backyard while offering her no support.

“Well it’s already in my neighborhood,” said Bach. “If my choice is what it is right now with the mess, then have the city come clean it up, put some Dumpsters out there and bring some port-a-potties and that would be preferable.”

To Champlin, the solution is to provide more affordable housing in the city, which is no quick fix. Currently, people experiencing homelessness have housing vouchers that are unused.

“We’re not going to snap our fingers and have more units tomorrow, but we’re working hard on trying to encourage more affordable housing, and, again, trying to work with landlords to get them to accept vouchers,” he said.

With record high rent and limited affordability, once someone loses their housing it can be impossible to recover. Melissa knows that all too well.

Two years ago, Melissa and her husband lived in a manufactured house off of Fisherville Road. They had a car and her husband had a job, which he then lost. Every year, the rent for their lot went up until eventually they lost their house.

“One thing after another just went until it was kind of all gone,” she said. “Down around here with the prices on housing, it’s hard for two grown people’s incomes to make ends meet.”

Her husband currently works a full-time job, while she is receiving disability pay. They are also on two waitlists for housing vouchers, but have been told it might be years before they’re at the top.

Meanwhile, Melissa said she’s seen more and more people fall into similar situations. While the number of people experiencing homelessness grows, the available help seems stagnant to her.

“The resources and the resolutions need to get bigger,” she said. “We want to live in a place we’re proud of just as much as everybody else.”