Minneapolis encampments focus of city leaders’ discussion

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - One day after fire swept through a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis, no sign remains of either the camp, the fire that destroyed it or a permanent solution.

The lot on East 28th Street is cleared of debris, fenced in, and covered in rock to prevent a new camp from forming. But a few blocks away, a new camp already formed.

Camp Nenookassi organizer Nicole Mason, who was there when flames erupted, is still shaken up by what she experienced.

"Yesterday was very scary," she said at a press conference. "I don’t know what I would have done if we would have lost anybody at our camp."

There were two minor injuries among the 50–60 people who lived in the camp, which was heated with open fires and propane-fed heaters.

Mason was among a large group of homeless advocates who joined three city council members on Friday to call for changes to how the city responds to homeless encampments, calling the current system a failure.

"The whack-a-mole approach we see from our mayor and his administration is not getting us any closer to a solution," said council member Aisha Chughtai.

The biggest proposal is an Outdoor Safe Space Ordinance, modeled after Denver, Colorado, which would create an authorized encampment site with security and services such as electricity.

It would be run by nonprofit organizations, many of which already work in the camps to help people find addiction treatment and stable housing.

"And they would need to go through a city permitting process, have security and safety on site," said council member Jason Chavez. "Have supporters and providers on-site to make sure that we can permanently house people."

A second proposal currently being drafted is a Humane Encampment Response Policy, which would create rules for how camps are cleared. Nonprofits complain that they’re often in the middle of working with residents when evictions occur, which creates chaos in trying to connect with them again.

"You go out there on a consistent basis, and it takes time for them to begin to talk to you," said Christopher Burks of the Twin Cities Recovery Project. "But by the time you get them to talk to you, what happens is the encampment’s gone. Now it takes two to three months to find the person you were trying to help."

A third proposal is an Eviction Reporting Requirement, to track how much time and money the city spends clearing illegal encampments, only to see them pop up somewhere else.

Mayor Jacob Frey responded to the proposals by reiterating that he sees no outdoor camp, even one authorized by the city and run by nonprofits, as a safe place.

He says a huge problem remains drug addiction, which is why people often remain in camps rather than work to find affordable housing the city is working to provide.  Some agree to go to treatment, but others don’t want to.

Frey said he’s open to all suggestions, but didn’t find these to be necessarily realistic toward a permanent solution.

But advocates, like Nicole Mason, say constantly moving around due to evictions, or from Thursday’s fire, just makes bigger barriers to helping those in the camps.

"Evictions are not the solution. We need housing for people that are out there. They deserve a good place to live," Mason said.