INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The homeless encampment in Fountain Square is now gone.

News 8 first reported on the camp on July 22, and, days later, the city announced it was planning to shut down the site.

Crews cleared the site Thursday morning and left behind an empty lot where dozens once lived. For months, the Leonard Street encampment in Fountain Square was one of the city’s most visible homeless camps. Rows of tents filled the space, raising both safety and sanitation concerns for neighbors.

Homeowner Paul Lunsford said, “It’s great to have the area as it was this time last year and have it back to normal.”

On Thursday morning, the remaining people at the encampment were removed from the site, with the city cleaning up any debris left over. Thursday was the Indianapolis Office of Public Health and Safety‘s latest deadline to close the site.

Lunsford said, “The Department of Public Works did a phenomenal job. They just swept in, and it was gone within an hour.”

Lunsford said he first noticed tents along Leonard Street in November. Homeowners had previously told News 8 that it’s been hard to sell homes in the area, and 911 had been called due to fights. “There were some needles that were found, and we had a lot of minor break-ins, fences being tried to be forced open occasionally, and, honestly, it could’ve been other people, but those things didn’t happen before the encampment was there, and I hope they don’t happen anymore.”

Lunsford said, “I very much hope that the homeless people that were here are taken care of by the city because that’s really our responsibility as a city is toward those people, not to let them live in a situation that will cause problems for them in the long run.”

The Coalition for Homeless Intervention and Prevention, known to some by the acronym CHIP, aims to connect people living in camps with long-term housing and services rather than moving them from one area to another. The program, called Streets to Home Indy, worked with some of the residents of the encampment. The program hopes to house up to 350 people in the next year.

City leaders on Friday were expected to hold a news conference about the former encampment.

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