Cam Gordon
BY CAM GORDON
The city’s failure to effectively respond to encampments made headlines again in September. Shootings at or near two southside encampments on E. Lake St., one at Stevens and the other at 27th Ave., resulted in 13 people being shot and injured. One of them, Jacina Oakgrove, died from her injuries a few days later.
The responses from city officials were predictable and divided. Some council members called for a new and more compassionate approach to group camping, while the mayor and police chief remained focused on the more punitive approach of forced closure they have relied on for the past few years.
Mayor Frey said, “This is tragic. It’s horrible. It’s unacceptable, and, sadly, it’s not surprising.” Why then, some wondered, wasn’t it prevented?
“We cannot continue to accept preventable violence in our community,” said Ward 6
Council Member Jamal Osman.
“The City’s current approach does not work,” said Ward 9 Council Member Jason Chavez. “Over the past few days, our community has seen the City’s failure to have a plan to address unsheltered homelessness.”
“We’ve repeatedly called for real, sustainable solutions to unsheltered homelessness,” said Ward 12’s Aurin Chowdhury, “and while I’ve offered and pursued many ideas, there’s been no real partnership with us as policymakers to make them a reality.”
A day after the shootings, the city cleared one of the group campsites, followed by the usual reports of people being treated poorly and having property taken from them and thrown away in the process.
“On Tuesday, Sept. 16, the encampment at 27th and
E. Lake St. was dismantled, and residents had nowhere to go,” said Chavez. “Including the ashes of a woman’s daughter, which were disposed of.”
“Unhoused residents experienced a mass shooting,” added Chavez. “Instead of immediately responding with care, mental health, housing, and support, they were met with ‘collective punishment’ and no plan to permanently house them.”
The mayor reiterated his commitment to closing tent camps as soon as possible and claimed that “We have years of evidence showing that encampments are unsafe” and “they regularly end with violence, fire, or tragedy. That is why we close them.”
Other approaches have been used elsewhere, and previously in Minneapolis, where camps and alternatives to them were managed and closed peacefully. This includes the city’s own navigation center that temporarily housed roughly 170 people and provided staff, Narcan, showers, restrooms and a safe place to store belongings in the winter of 2018-19, as well as some group encampments during the COVID pandemic when a harm reduction public health approach was used.
Harm reduction is most frequently associated with substance use but can also be an umbrella term for interventions aimed at reducing the unhealthy effects of any behaviors. It is centered in respect and compassion, rather than coercion and punishment.
While critics of it contend that harm reduction somehow enables or excuses poor choices, harm reduction supports any steps in the right direction.
Frey appeared to be making the case against providing harm reduction services, like clean water, safe needle depositories and trash removal, when he said, “making encampments more ‘permanent’ is not harm reduction—it entrenches harm.”
There does appear to be agreement on a core objective, however.
“Our obligation,” said Frey, “is to help people transition to safer, healthier alternatives.”
The debate is over how best to do that.
“Instead of sweeping the problem away,” said Chavez, “our community deserves actual solutions. It’s important to show compassion and recognize the humanity of our community members who just lost everything and are now experiencing trauma.”
Chavez said “evictions and fences are not strategies. They are not solutions. They ignore the humanity and needs of unhoused residents. Trying the same short-term tactics over and over and expecting different results shows just how unprepared City leadership is when it comes to addressing the serious problems facing so many people across Minneapolis.”
“Without low-barrier shelter options, housing, and strong resource navigation, clearing encampments only causes more trauma and leads to new ones forming. It doesn’t make any of us safer, it shifts the issues, and it makes acceptance of services harder,” said Chowdhury. “That’s exactly what happened after the mass shooting.”
The city currently has a mobile medical unit and outreach team that reportedly goes out daily to provide resources and offer shelter, as well as the police working to “ensure tents aren’t being set up.” It depends primarily on the county, however, to connect people to housing.
Still, many southside policymakers and community members are calling for more humane responses, which they see as more effective. Chavez has been working on longer-term,_housing-first options like a southside tiny home village. He is also calling for the immediate re-establishment of a city-run navigation center, and consistent deployment of the Mobile Medical Unit to the areas surrounding an encampment.
Chowdhury would also like to see the public health and harm reduction strategies re-employed in some cases. In the days following the closure, a new group encampment formed near Moon Palace books.
“Public health remains a major concern,” said Chowdhury, “with no bathrooms, handwashing stations, or trash collection at the site.” She is also pushing for the consistent presence of violence interrupters in areas impacted by gun violence and the immediate deployment of the medical mobile unit to support displaced residents.
“Our neighbors deserve timely emergency response, effective services, and compassionate care in times of crisis,” said Chowdhury.
“Unhoused_individuals have been displaced since the shooting and I am deeply troubled to see the lack of compassion for them and the rest of our neighbors who have just experienced a traumatizing mass shooting,” said Chowdhury. “Regardless if someone is unhoused, there needs to be care in the direct aftermath of a mass shooting for them and the entire community.”
Southsider and Ward 8 resident Cat Salonek Schladt, offered clear advice in a recent open letter to the mayor. Among other things, she called for the following three things from the city.
“1. We demand a pause to evictions of encampments on public property. Evictions drive our unhoused neighbors into our community’s alleys and onto residential property, resulting in more theft, public drug misuse, and violence near our homes.
“2. During the evictions pause, we demand you supply encampments on public property with portable restrooms, potable water, trash receptacles, and sharps containers. Peace monitors trained to administer Narcan, and social service providers should be available daily.
“3. We demand you immediately convene an advisory committee devoted exclusively to addressing encampments in and around South Minneapolis. We demand the committee consist of unhoused individuals and advocates; local providers and experts in housing, homelessness, substance misuse, and mental health crises; and tenants and homeowners from our South Minneapolis neighborhood.”
Those three short-term strategies could provide us with the time we need to stop the failed cycle of camp closures and find more compassionate and effective ways to help all our people transition to safer, healthier housing alternatives.
