Homeless beggars

BY ED FELIEN

You see them standing by the side of the road and your heart breaks.
They are begging for money, for shelter, for food.
And, maybe, sometimes, they are begging for money for drugs.
It’s gotten out of control at 46th and Hiawatha.
Nicole M wrote on Nextdoor, “My ex-husband took our children to dine in Thursday night at Burger King on 46th and Hiawatha and said the back of the diner was filled with junkies nodding off. He said his breaking point was when one of them started smoking a foil right there in the restaurant. He stood up said he lost his appetite quite loud and stormed out with our children. They nor the employees even blinked. Needless to say we will never be going there again.”

Other readers commented:

“Unfortunately, the 46th St. Station is a big hub, and there’s a lot of transients, who are under the influence of drugs, etc. in the area.”

“The word must be out that if you are using or dealing drugs, one of the best places to do it is 46th & Hiawatha. Take the light rail to the 46th stop. Panhandle the corner. Buy stuff from the guys propped against the walls of Walgreens. Head on South for a Whopper and a hit. And when you come down, hop the train, again.”

Clearly, there is a problem here.
Someone, somebody, some agency of government has to intervene to preserve domestic tranquility.
Surely, our City Council Member and our County Commissioner are aware of the problem.
Hennepin County supports NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center (formerly Pilot City) in North Minneapolis with a budget of $55.8 million for 2024.
Maybe Hennepin County should think about a Wellness Center for South Minneapolis that would provide outreach workers for drug users and homeless people begging for help on our streets.  Social workers and health care professionals who could tell drug users about free needles and Narcan (a drug used to stop overdose fatalities) at the Red Door Clinic. They could tell users about methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone, drugs that help with opioid use disorder.
Outreach workers could tell homeless beggars about housing options. Every homeless person is different. There are as many reasons to be on the street as there are people standing and sitting there. They have different housing needs. They may not be eligible for homeless shelters because they smoke or drink or do drugs. They may have children. But there are housing solutions available for everyone. We need staff from Hennepin County to be out on the streets telling people what is possible for them.
The closing of the Agate shelter downtown is body blow to the homeless (see page six of this issue). But there are many, many office buildings for sale downtown. Right kitty-corner from City Hall, the Grain Exchange (a beautiful old building) is for sale. Many of those office buildings could be quickly transformed into living units. All it would take is imagination and energy from our elected officials.
For the past few years, the city has had to move illegal Camp Nenookaasi encampments in the Phillips Neighborhood. The group is made up mostly of Native Americans. They like to be around their friends and family at Little Earth—the housing complex on both sides of Cedar going south beginning around 24th St.
They have been evicted from freeway embankments, from private and public property. Currently, they are at an abandoned gas station on Bloomington Ave. at 25th St. It’s only a matter of time before they discover the City public works lot between 26th St. and 28th St., between Cedar and Hiawatha. There’s an underused building at 27th Street and Longfellow Avenue with a large enough lot to accommodate campers. The area could be fenced off to protect the rest of the public works complex.
The site could be used as a central resource distribution point for free agricultural commodities. There is plenty of food available, from cans of beef chili to cans of peaches and corn, through the USDA Commodity Supplemental Food Program. There is no good reason for the city not to establish a five day a week, 9 to 5 operation distributing free Department of Agricultural commodities to anyone who needs them out of this location.
The city and the county working together could eliminate the humiliating disgrace of public begging. In as rich a country as ours, there is no excuse for anyone to go hungry, for anyone to be homeless, for anyone to go without necessary medical treatment, or for anyone to go without essential drug education and support.
We have the tools.
We have staff trapped behind desks who could be out talking one to one with a homeless and desperate person.
We lack the public will to solve the problem.