Occupy Seattle broke down its tents at Seattle Central Community College on Friday and prepared to move, but no one knew exactly where. The group of protesters started camping to make a political statement. Now, many of them are camping because they have no place else to go.

"I'll stick with the group," said William Irwin, 60, folding tent poles. He would have preferred to stay, but was persuaded to break down his camp. "People are just saying, 'Hey, we're past time, and we're expecting a raid.' "

There was no sign of police at the noon deadline set for Occupy Seattle's eviction. Still, protesters were at work filling Dumpsters with mattresses, old clothes, hay, wooden pallets, boxes and other trash. A 24-hour "teach-in" planned for overnight Friday was under way on an edge of the encampment, and a community-college professor was giving a talk about nonviolent protest.

It wasn't clear Friday where campers would spend the night, but they seemed to be breaking up for the time being. Some planned to stay at the college. Others were going to local parks, camping in backyards or attempting to squat in empty homes and buildings.

Occupy Seattle set up tents in Westlake Park this fall to "occupy" the city's downtown financial and shopping district. It moved to Capitol Hill Oct. 29. But as the protest has evolved locally, it is now also a homeless encampment. Movement members say finding a new place to occupy is only partly about protest at this point. It's about helping members of the movement who have no place else to live.

"I don't know what to do with them," said activist Carol Isaac. "I am really concerned about them. We've got to deal with these people."

As the deadline loomed late this week, social-service providers circulated in the crowd, offering food and shelter. Some said they would go, but others planned to stay at the encampment until police forced them out.

The college voted Nov. 23 to evict the protesters, but Seattle Community Colleges Chancellor Jill Wakefield said administrators learned afterward that there were at least 50 "chronically homeless" people living on campus. They contacted the city to ask them to provide services, she said. The mayor's office said the city sent outreach workers to the site Friday.

While protesters spray-painted protest signs on one edge of the encampment Thursday, the part of the camp where tents were set up was buzzing with worry and discussion about where to go next.

Andrew Eason, 27, started sleeping at Occupy Seattle about 2 ½ weeks ago, he said, because he came to town and heard it was a free place to camp.

"I've become slightly more involved in the political movement," he said. But he's not camping out as a protest. He has no other option, he said.

"You get free food and stuff, so it's cheaper in that respect" than living on his own, he said.

Other campers said they had homes when the movement started, but have become homeless during the protest. Christopher Anderson, 24, came to Seattle from Wenatchee, leaving his home and job behind. Now that the encampment is breaking up, he said, "I have nowhere else to stay."

Marissa Adams, a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who is studying the movement as part of her community-studies major, said the movement has highlighted homelessness. But she's among activists who say Occupy Seattle should focus less on encampments and more on offering services and staging protests.

"We've been spending so many resources on surviving," she said, adding: "It's hard on my conscience to encourage people to sleep outside in the cold."

Occupiers have approached several local churches and SHARE/WHEEL, a nonprofit that provides shelter and bus tickets to the homeless. And while they feel personal responsibility about helping the people involved, they say the government agencies that have cut assistance to the poor are really to blame for the problem.

"It's not like we invented all these homeless people," said activist Tsukina Blessing. "We just collected them."

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com.

On Twitter @EmilyHeffter.