SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) – The moving truck backed into what was left of Sanctuary City last week, ready to be filled with suitcases and trash bags overflowing with clothing, blankets and whatever else the homeless can’t carry with them.

The tents that were their homes for five months were broken down and thrown in the trash. A bicycle with a bent frame sat unclaimed, next to a collection of chairs with broken arms and backs.

“It’s all over,” said Julius Robinson, 57, who has been living for the past few months in Sanctuary City – the name given to a patch of dirt on the corner of School and Temple streets where as many as 400 homeless people have stayed in nylon tents for at least a brief period since the summer.

The cold is forcing everyone inside. Some have landed jobs and apartments. Some will stay with friends or relatives.

But many others, including Robinson, are finding refuge from the upcoming winter in shelters.

“We’re still homeless,” he said.

A few blocks away, the smell of bleach and disinfectant was drying off the basement floor of the Christ Church Cathedral. It was 6 p.m., and what had been a dining room for the Loaves & Fishes soup kitchen during the previous hour was being converted into a bedroom that could accommodate up to 75 people.

That night, with the temperature still above freezing, only about half that number would show up.

With the floor mopped, Bob Plaine started covering it with mattresses. The thin, mushy mats are coated with vinyl that can be easily washed to prevent the spread of hepatitis and other infectious diseases.

“When you volunteer here, you get some perks,” Plaine said as he threw a mattress for himself alongside a wall. The spot assured that he wouldn’t have anyone sleeping on at least one side of him. “That’s prime real estate,” he said.

Plaine, 44, spent five months at Sanctuary City. He started sleeping at the church about a week ago, when it opened for the winter season.

The basement serves as a so-called “warming place,” funded with $60,000 in city money and operated by the Open Pantry, a social service agency that also owned the lot where the tent community sprang up.

The warming place offers an alternative to the Worthington House, a state-funded homeless shelter that many who have stayed there say is too overcrowded and dangerous.

But like the Worthington House, the warming place closes during the day, leaving many of the homeless with no definite place to go.

“Many of us fill the afternoon going to a case worker or going to a doctor or trying to get some kind of services from an agency,” Plaine said. “Or sometimes, you’re saving one of your buddies by dragging him to a detox center.”

That rootless lifestyle, combined with high rates of substance abuse and mental illness among the homeless, often leads to problems. Jails and courts fill up with those caught committing petty crimes, and emergency rooms become overwhelmed by those who have no other place to turn for even the most basic medical care, advocates say.

“Homelessness becomes a burden on the entire system,” said Joe Finn, executive director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.

The lack of storage space is also a problem. The tents at Sanctuary City not only provided a place to sleep, they were also storage centers. With the tents gone, the homeless are forced to take with them only what they can carry.

Open Pantry rented a moving truck last week to haul bundles of clothing and other belongings to a storage facility that the agency will rent for a few weeks. After that, individuals will either have to pay for the storage or risk having their things being thrown out.

“I’ve been hiding my stuff in the woods and around town,” said Kevin Lynch, 45, who stayed at Sanctuary City for about a month, and was last week trying to figure out where he’ll stay now that it’s gone.

Some of the homeless say they want the city to establish a 24-hour shelter where they could sleep, leave their belongings and stay warm during the winter days.

Springfield Mayor Charles Ryan has said the city can’t afford such a facility, and advocates for the homeless say more money should be directed to affordable housing programs rather than expanding the shelter system.

“Getting stable, affordable housing for the people who have been chronically homeless has to be the first and foremost priority,” Finn said. “Then you’ll see an impact on the shelters. They’ll be there for the people who have an emergency need, rather than people who just don’t leave the system.”

Finn said his agency is working with state officials to do a cost-benefit analysis to see if it would be less expensive to put money into affordable housing programs for the homeless instead of directing funds solely to shelters.

The state now spends about $250 million a year on shelter programs for homeless families and single adults, Finn said. Last winter, as many as 4,000 people were staying in shelters across Massachusetts on a given night, and the facilities have been running over capacity for the past six years.

Short of having a place of their own, some who have stayed at Sanctuary City say they will form another tent community when the weather gets warmer.

Not only did Sanctuary City give them a place to stay, it also gave them a way to raise awareness of homelessness in Springfield.

“It’s a protest. It sends a message,” Plaine said. “People need to realize that the homeless problem isn’t just going to be swept away and disappear if they don’t see our tents anymore.”

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On the Net:

Open Pantry: http://www.openpantry.org

AP-ES-11-06-04 1327EST