There's a new effort to crackdown on homeless camps in Youngstown.

What was once known as "tent city" is no more.

The homeless camps set up under bridges near the city's downtown have been shutdown and cleaned up by the Youngstown Community Police and the Youngstown Parks & Recreation Department.

The crackdown began after a fire at one of the camps destroyed the tents a few weeks ago.

Youngstown Police Chief Robin Lees tells 21 News, "As a result of the fire the tents and associated structures were destroyed. It left behind an accumulation of trash and some fire barrels which was quite likely the source of the fire that started down there. We've had complaints routinely about the encampment down there and the folks from it."

Chief Lees says they're cracking down on the homeless camps for a number of reasons -- and one major concern is safety issues.

"We've had a couple of crimes of violence occur down there and then most recently with the fire it became very clear that we have a public safety issue down there. There's not a quick or safe access to get safety services down there be it police, fire or EMS," Chief Lees said.

So the Police Chief and Mayor John McNally saw this as a good opportunity to shut the camps down and clean things up.

"We're hoping that this will force a few of them into programs or situations that they can get help. We're also working with the social service agencies through our community police as well as our health department is going to be engaged in this as well to try and find these folks some assistance. Because a lot of them have alcohol abuse issues, and some have underlying mental health issues that need to be addressed and taken care of so that they're not a danger to themselves or anybody else," Chief Lees said.

And the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley says its doors are always open. Ron Starcher is the Rescue Mission's Director of Church Relations, "We want to help you help yourself. We're not going to enable you and we're not going to make it easy for you to stay in the situation you're in, but we want to help you."

Assistance that could give those with no place to call home a chance at a better quality of life.