With election looming, encampment violence tests Frey's record
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Minneapolis police swept an encampment near Lake Street and 29th Avenue South last week after a shooting that wounded seven people. Photo: Kyle Stokes / Axios
A recent shooting at a South Minneapolis encampment that killed one woman and wounded six other people has put a spotlight on November's mayoral election and Mayor Jacob Frey's approach to homelessness.
The big picture: In January, the Frey administration issued new orders to Minneapolis police officers: Proactively break up small encampments before they turn into tent cities.
- The orders were meant to break a vicious cycle of police clearing encampments only for new ones to form blocks away, with most residents no closer to permanent shelter.
What they're saying: "The time for hedging is over," Frey told reporters last week. "Encampments must be closed after services are offered.… It is not safe" for residents to "languish" in places so exposed to violence, drugs, traffickers, fire hazards and other threats.
Driving the news: The 75-person Lake Street encampment where violence erupted a week ago sprouted via a loophole: A property owner had welcomed the encampment on his lot.
- "I won't push vulnerable neighbors around the way Frey seems to love to do," owner Hamoudi Sabri said in a release.
Friction point: Critics say that without enough shelter beds, the mayor's current approach will drive the city's unsheltered residents into hiding, not stable housing.
- The Lake Street encampment "is the direct result of a mayor who declared war on our unhoused neighbors instead of fighting to house them," mayoral candidate Omar Fateh said in a campaign video.
- DeWayne Davis told Axios earlier this year that Minneapolis officials have been too reliant on Hennepin County to address the issue.
What we're watching: Fateh has said that if elected he will "pivot" away from sweeps. He also supports legalizing city-sanctioned encampments, as some City Council members have proposed.
- "I'm not saying we need to invest in encampments to make them permanent, " another opponent, Jazz Hampton, said in a video. "We need to invest in people to help them move on safely and quickly."
Frey counters that the trends show his strategy is working — the county's unsheltered homeless population has shrunk 30% since 2020 — and said affordable housing production has skyrocketed in Minneapolis since his election.
- Wraparound services are available after an encampment eviction — but city data suggests that residents rarely accept those offers. The latest Lake Street sweep was no exception; only one of the remaining 30 residents accepted shelter after the shooting.
What's next: A judge is weighing city officials' request for a restraining order barring Sabri from reopening the camp. Negotiations between Sabri and the city broke off late Monday.
- Frey called the shootings horrific but the ending inevitable: "We knew that something would happen. We told [Sabri] that something would happen — and it did."