From KERA News:
The first thing people notice under the bridge is how noisy it is. Night and day, cars and trucks rumble overhead on Buckner Boulevard — and they rush past on I-30.
Even on sunny days, it’s gloomy. Clusters of tents surrounded by piles of belongings sit in dirt and gravel. It’s surprisingly tidy. But it doesn’t smell great.
“It’s like you died and went to hell. And you don’t know what you did is so wrong,” Belinda Bonine says as she stands outside her tent on a cool November day. She’s lived here for a few years with her husband Marty and their dog Whiskers. Her nephew Bobby stays in a tent next door.
“It’s terrible,” she says. “Rats, scare me to death. People come and steal everything from you when you’re asleep. Or I was going to the bathroom and I got hit upside of the head with a gun and got robbed.”
Like most of the people in the camp, Belinda never imagined she’d end up under a bridge. She and Marty had both lost good jobs — and, before long, their home. Others found themselves here because of financial or medical catastrophes. Some struggled with unmet mental health and addiction issues. Many are parents, some are grandparents.