Pig's Eye Park encampment residents voice fears over impending closure: "There's humanity here"

Isaac Thomas had plans when he graduated from high school. He wanted to go to college. He wanted to make music. 

That was around 10 years ago. Over that decade, Thomas said that he has been in and out of homelessness. For the past year and a half, he's called the encampment at Pig's Eye Park in St. Paul, Minnesota, home. 

"My goal out of high school was to go to college by the age of 30, at least have an apartment, a car and my kids. All of that failed for me," Thomas said. "For the city, man, it's not as easy as people want to make it seem being homeless. It's just, you gotta put yourself in someone else's shoes sometimes." 

Thomas' comments were directed at city leadership. St. Paul intends to shut down the encampment on Wednesday, drawing pushback from those who live there as well as some community activists. 

A man who introduced himself as Beekey said that he was directed to the encampment when he got out of jail about two and a half months ago. He said that this stint behind bars meant that he lost his housing. He's concerned about where he'd end up without the encampment. 

 "This is just our way of living. This is our own little city, you know what I'm saying? It's hard, but like it's all we got and we maintain at least," Beekey said. 

Both men said they were grateful for volunteers with the "Stop the Sweeps" coalition, on hand Saturday to help clean, provide services and protest the city's decision. Csonya Jackmon was among them; she said that she used to live at the encampment and only recently found housing, describing herself as one of the lucky ones.

"There's humanity here. There's a human spirit," Jackmon said. "There's no animals here, there's no villains here." 

City government estimates that about 140 people live at the Pig's Eye encampment. About 80 more live across two other major encampments that the city intends to close at later dates, citing all three encampments as major public safety and health concerns. 

City data shows there have been around 853 911 calls related to these encampments from July 1, 2025 to July 6, 2026. This includes medical emergencies, fires, assaults and drug abuse. 

Thomas said that he sometimes feels a sense of community, but said it could be "hell" living in the Pig's Eye encampment when people don't get along. 

"It gets real difficult for some of us. We get stolen from, or it's always over some drama over something stupid. The fentanyl overdoses are really bad," Thomas said. 

The city acknowledges that a shutdown won't fix homelessness, committing $1 million to Ramsey County to help expand access to shelter beds. 

Ramsey County granted $969,500 to the Catholic Charities emergency shelter in downtown St. Paul to establish and maintain 49 new beds for the next year. This includes the hardware for the beds themselves as well as funding for about seven new staff members, including a security guard. 

Keith Kozerski, chief program officer with Catholic Charities Twin Cities, said that their 172 emergency beds are full every night. Their overall campus, which provides 612 beds under various kinds of services, is also typically at capacity. Kozerski said that the shutdown of the encampments will put further strain on the system, but said that they are prepared. 

"I'm guessing this is really going to tap the system and we're preparing really hard to make sure that we can serve folks, as many people who show up here in a quality way and make sure they have what they need," Kozerski said. 

For Thomas and Beekey, they'd prefer to remain at Pig's Eye for the immediate future. But both men tell WCCO that they have five-year plans that include finding stable housing and going back to school.