St. Paul shifts approach on homeless encampments, plans closures before winter
The city of St. Paul, Minnesota, is taking a stand and closing encampments amid growing concerns.
Officials point to health and safety risks as primary reasons for the shift in approach.
The city said making this transition now, before winter arrives, gives people a better chance to transition into housing and support services.
St. Paul officials say they made the decision after documenting serious problems at encampments, including fires, sexual assaults, thefts and two overdose deaths.
"Their approach to us is that we're just homeless vagrants that's picking up — taking space. But we're not," Wolf, who lives in the Pig's Eye Park encampment, told WCCO last week. "Not all of us are out here just to do drugs and cause havoc and mayhem. We're just trying to live, trying to survive. That's the biggest thing that people don't understand, is that being homeless means surviving. That's what we're just trying to do is survive out here."
Over the next four weeks, outreach teams from St. Paul, Ramsey County and more will inform people living in those encampments about the upcoming closures and help connect them with resources.
Wolf said the solution isn't that easy.
"People are here, they come from all walks of life. A lot of them are here because they, unfortunately, when COVID hit, they lost their house and they lost their jobs. I, unfortunately, was one of them," Wolf said. "Mental health is a real thing. People do suffer from their illnesses. And what's really sad is that society doesn't view it as it is. They think it's, oh, they can just get help and they'll be better. That's not how it works. It does not work that way at all."
The encampment at Pig's Eye Park is scheduled to be closed first on Aug. 5. From there, more closures will happen on a rolling basis.
"It's not as if we are going to go in one day and take everything and remove everyone and just put them out on the streets. That's not ever been the process. We will continue to do the work of working with individuals, trying to connect them to resources," St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her said.
She said the city is working to set up a space to house people's documents and materials.
St. Paul, Ramsey County and other partners plan to be on site at Pig's Eye Park every day leading up to the closure. They also say they're looking into how they can expand capacity at local shelters.
Her says the city does not deliver health and human services. It relies on partners from both state and local organizations and nonprofits to make sure those living in encampments get the help they need for safe and stable housing.
For more than 11 years, Todd Feske's organization, Walking with a Purpose Minnesota, has stepped up to help.
He knows clearing encampments is nothing new to the city of St. Paul. He hopes they continue to do what has worked in the past, concentrating on housing and treatment for those who will accept it.
"If they have adequate housing and the treatment, the treatment has to be continuous, you just can't sit there and say you got 30 days. That doesn't always work after 30 days. They are just going to come right back out. There has to be follow up programs," Feske said.
"You can't have a cookie-cutter approach to any one individual out here because everybody has a unique situation," Sammy Watkins with Union Gospel Mission Twin Cities said.
