By George P. Hassett

The path is littered with trash, including human waste and empty liquor bottles. At the top, two tents are clearly visible. A homeless man sleeps in one of the tents. The scene is the wooded area next to a Route 93 off ramp in East Somerville. Ward 1 Alderman Bill Roche said as many as 12 homeless people have been living there since the spring.

“At dusk they come out and start robbing people,” Roche said at a July 26 Board of Aldermen meeting. He said one neighborhood resident told him she found her lawn furniture in the makeshift homeless community after it had disappeared from her property. At the meeting, Roche submitted an order asking the chief of police to disperse the group.

The homeless settlement is located behind Broadway Brake, a local truck repair shop, adjacent to Route 93. Phil D’Angelo, owner of Broadway Brake, said he noticed the new inhabitants settle down behind his business in March. The property, he said, is owned by the Massachusetts Highway Department.

Calls to Mass Highway were not returned before The Somerville News deadline.

Somerville Police Capt. Paul Upton said officers have visited the site and reported unhealthy and possibly dangerous conditions. Upton said there was human waste, broken glass and possibly syringes at the site. He said police are reluctant to do something on the property because the land does not belong to the city. He said the area’s poor maintenance has added to the problem, allowing the camp to remain out of sight of passersby.

“The issues here go way beyond what police, or even the city, can do,” he said.

Somerville Homeless Coalition Executive Director Mark Alston Follansbee said a permanent solution involves finding a place for the people to live instead of just pushing them along.

“If we provided places for people to live, they would not have to live on the street. Nobody lives next to the highway for fun. They do it because they have no choice,” he said.

Roche said the problem could be solved by cutting down the trees in the area so the camp is more visible and harder to hide in.

Dick Riccio, director of Cambridge and Somerville Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Program (CASPAR), said more homeless people live outdoors in the summer because of the weather and as a way to avoid shelters that may require sobriety or have strict rules. According to a January 2007 survey conducted by CASPAR, there were 248 homeless people in the city, with 15 people recorded as sleeping outside without shelter.

Riccio said an outreach team from CASPAR recently visited the site and found only three Hispanic men from Everett who claimed to just be hanging out, not actually living, on the side of the highway.

Riccio said he heard there was a lot of “drinking and carousing” at the camp, and the issue may be more suitable to police than social service agencies.

State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino, D-Somerville, said severe budget cuts in 2002 and 2003 by then Gov. Mitt Romney crippled many local human service agencies and reduced the number of beds available to homeless people. Sciortino said Roche’s order will do little to address the real problem raised by the homeless camp behind Broadway Brake.

‚ÄúWe can‚Äôt just disperse people. They‚Äôll just end up in someone else‚Äôs lawn without any real solution,‚Äù said Sciortino.