City crews remove homeless encampment in downtown South Bend

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - City crews in South Bend have removed a homeless encampment in the northern Indiana city's downtown area.

Four police officers watched Monday morning as about 10 city workers used a front-end loader and a large trash truck to remove the encampment from beneath South Bend's Main Street viaduct.

The South Bend Tribune reports the removal was mostly peaceful, aside from one homeless man who initially refused to leave.

The removal follows the city's warnings that it would no longer allow people to camp beneath the viaduct as winter sets in.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO'-tah-juhj) has said the encampment should go because a ministry's winter warming center opened last week. He says the city doesn't "think it's safe for anybody to be living under the viaduct" during the cold weather season.

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Information from: South Bend Tribune, http://www.southbendtribune.com