Residents of K.K. Amini Scholarship Hall may see members of the KU Public Safety Office patrolling their area more.

A homeless person is believed to have been sleeping near an exhaust pipe close to the south side of the scholarship hall, according to a KU Public Safety Office report. Keith Visocsky, physical plant supervisor, discovered that the vent cover had been missing from the exhaust pipe every morning last week.

Visocsky believed that a homeless person had been sleeping there to stay warm during the night, but the KU Public Safety Office has found no evidence that anyone had been there.

A KU Public Safety officer examined the scene after Visocsky reported it at approximately 10 a.m. on Monday. The officer found the vent cover off of the pipe about 10 feet away. The officer reported that air pressure from the pipe may have blown the vent cover off.

Ken Stoner, director of student housing, said that air pressure alone couldn’t remove a vent cover from a pipe but that a person would have to remove it.

Capt. Schuyler Bailey, KU Public Safety Office spokesman, said that while sleeping in a pipe is not encouraged, the public safety office can’t do anything about it.

“It’s not against the law,” Bailey said. “All we can do is advise the person sleeping there not to do it.”

Stoner said that the Department of Student Housing was aware of homeless people sleeping next to vents and in exhaust pipes to stay warm, but he said that it wasn’t a huge concern.

“We’re aware that this happens from time to time,” Stoner said. “But it isn’t a big problem.”

Stoner said that when the department does discover that a homeless person has been sleeping in an exhaust pipe, a padlock is put on the vent cover so that it can no longer be removed.

According to the police report, Visocsky planned to screw the vent cover to the pipe so that the homeless person he suspected of sleeping there could no longer get inside.

Bailey said that the KU Public Safety Office will pay extra attention to that area for the next few days.