The topic of encampments was on the agenda of the recent candidate debate hosted by the Citizens league. Though he had the floor for over 6 minutes, Fateh exasperated the moderator with his refusal to give a straight answer. In reading the non-answers from Fateh in the transcript below, this writer concludes that Fateh would not clear encampments, but rather provide support services to enable them. Frey had the mic for about 30 seconds during this exchange and made his position clear. Below is the transcript, followed by embedded video of the full exchange:
[00:39:34] Question: Thank you. Great. That’s my next question. Uh, so, and I’m gonna start, uh, Omar Fateh with you. When, if ever, would you clear an encampment? Is it when it reaches a certain size? When people are offered services and shelter and they refuse it after a certain amount of time? Is it when violence breaks out?
[00:39:55] Sen. Omar Fateh: That’s a very good question. And so, uh, there’s a few things to that. Number one, uh, the city needs to do a better job at having good faith efforts in reaching out to our unhoused population. Um, I visited many, I visited many encampments and I’ve talked to many people on the ground. And when you speak to them, they say that when the staff comes to them, they sort of come and say like, they’re grossed out by the folks that are out that are there, right?
[00:40:17] Sen. Omar Fateh: And number two, when they provide this, say, Hey, we’re providing you with this paperwork. Uh, here’s the resources that you need. A lot of times they look at it and they say. Well, this number doesn’t work anymore. This shelter is, uh, bed is, uh, this shelter doesn’t have enough beds. Uh, these, these aren’t resources that I can use. They get that paper and then they get their stuff.
[00:40:35] Question: The question though, specifically is about, are there conditions in which you would actually move forward with clearing the encampment?
[00:40:41] Sen. Omar Fateh: So two things to that. Number one, we need to take a proactive approach and not a reactive meaning that we have to not allow them to form, uh, in terms of not fending them off, or not breaking them up, but in terms of actually providing the services that they need to thrive and be successful.
[00:40:57] Sen. Omar Fateh: That’s number one. Uh, number two, uh, we wouldn’t have to break them up if we make those good faith efforts and providing them, uh, housing, uh, the, that the fact that they’re rejecting these services, uh, en large is just, that’s not true. That’s a, that’s a fake, that’s a false statement. Uh, anyone that can go on the ground to talk to folks, no, that’s not true.
[00:41:15] Sen. Omar Fateh: Uh, folks need help. Uh, but they’re not getting that good faith efforts to reach out to them. Uh, we need to make sure that we’re providing them. If they need mental health services, provide ’em that if they need treatment, provide them that. We need to make sure we’re supporting our shelters. We need to partner with our county and our state to do so.
[00:41:29] Question: I appreciate it. These are all I I, I doubt you are gonna find disagreement like on, on stage in terms of wanting to provide more of those services. I didn’t hear an actual answer to the question though. Is there any condition in which you would eventually say, we have to clear this encampment?
[00:41:45] Sen. Omar Fateh: There’s no situation in which we can throw away people’s belongings, like their social security cards, like their IDs.
[00:41:51] Sen. Omar Fateh: Uh, last, a couple weeks ago we had a shooting in one of the encampments, for example, um, on Lake Street. And within 24 hours of that traumatic event, which was traumatic for also our unhoused neighbors, uh, we had one person say that not only did they take away my belongings, but they threw away the ashes of my child.
[00:42:08] Sen. Omar Fateh: Right. To me, that’s heartbreaking. No, no family member should ever go through that. And so we need to take an approach where we’re not just going in and throwing away everything. Uh, we need to take an approach where we’re actually dealing with folks in a humane and compassionate way because nobody wants encampments on our unhoused.
[00:42:23] Sen. Omar Fateh: Neighbors don’t want it. None of the challengers want it, right? None of our neighbors want it. It’s unsafe for everyone.
[00:42:27] Question: I’m gonna come to Mayor Frey, but I’m gonna try just for a third. So, ’cause I’m just hearing like that we, we, I think again, nobody wants encampments. Uh, and we could have a long debate about whether or not they are something that you can entirely prevent from ever happening.
[00:42:43] Question: And so again, the reality on they, they have happened, they do exist. Yes. And so, and you know, you named a time when there was violence at one. Is that still not a place where you would say, no, we need to shut this down?
[00:42:56] Sen. Omar Fateh: The reason why the violence occurred is because we have an administration that didn’t take a proactive approach.
[00:43:01] Sen. Omar Fateh: And what I’m, what I’m saying is that okay, you wouldn’t have to get to a point where you have to bulldoze, uh, neighbors, uh, bulldoze encampments if you’d allow them the space, uh, to not form by giving them the resources they need to succeed in the first place.
[00:43:14] Question: So the answer is no, there’s not a situation?
[00:43:16] Sen. Omar Fateh: There would not be a situation in which encampments would grow in that large manner. No.
[00:43:22] Question: Okay. Uh, I will, um, Mayor Frey, Jacob Frey, I will come to you. Uh. I mean, you have cleared encampments. Yeah. Uh, with the city cell.
[00:43:31] Mayor Frey: Yes. Uh, fact matter, uh, and with the particular encampment that Senator Fateh was referencing, we went out again and again and again to provide services.
[00:43:42] Mayor Frey: We went out with a mobile medical unit to provide healthcare. We went out with our homeless response team in the county to make sure that people had access to both shelter and service. In this case, we even went so far as to authorize a lawsuit against the private property owner and to, so to say that we weren’t taking a proactive approach is just wrong.
[00:44:03] Mayor Frey: And let’s be clear, this is a place where seven people got shot. And so do we clear the homeless encampment for the safety of the people there and the surrounding neighborhood? Absolutely we do. This was a crime scene. There were bullet casings all over the place. You know, as mayor, you don’t just deal with these situations as hypotheticals. I was out there at 1:30 in the morning to deal with the circumstances of this particular case. And so after all of that, to still say that you should keep the encampment in place is just wrong.
[00:44:38] Question: Um, Senator Fateh, I, I’ll come back again. I, I give you 30 seconds to respond to that. Do you disagree that, once you get to a place where there’s actual violence and shooting, that it’s not something to clear?
[00:44:52] Sen. Omar Fateh: Well, first we shouldn’t have to get to a point in which, uh, a private citizen, um, gets a land, buys a land, and, uh, has encampments form on that land because the city’s not doing their job. That should not be happening in the first place. But the response that I want to get is, once you bulldoze our unhoused neighbors, once you push them out, where do they go?
[00:45:12] Sen. Omar Fateh: Where are they expected to go? We are saying that we’re doing good faith efforts to put them in housing, to place them in, help them with treatment, help them in shelters. Where do you expect them to go? The answer to that is to the next neighborhood, and that no neighbors want that. None of our neighbors want that.
[00:45:27] Sen. Omar Fateh: Our, our unhoused population don’t want that. None of the challengers want that. So the strategy of just saying, we’re gonna clear them up, let them form in another location, that’s a failed strategy.
Here’s an edited version that sums it up. Please note it was created by Pro-Frey PAC All of Mpls:
With regard to the encampment problem, this interchange is discouraging. The Mayor, and Becker, blame the City Council and the City Council blames the mayor. Neither comes up with any new ideas. The best option I can see is to take a hard look at what’s going on in Denver and try it here. At least they’re not just yelling at each other while the problem gets worse.
Woods Halley
How would LaVern Turner answer this question?
What about Alejandro Richardson?
How about the other 10ish down ballot people?
We may never find out.
Every encampment in the city is here under Jacob Frey’s watch. He has had 8 years to address them and even been granted the powers of a strong mayor so the council can’t stop him. It was less than 6 months ago that Frey claimed that there were only 27 homeless people in Minneapolis, an obvious lie at the time but even more obvious now. The definition of insanity is trying the same thing every time but expecting a different result- at what point are we going to stop doing this with Frey. At what point is he held accountable for his failures, at what point do we acknowledge that clearing encampments over and over is simply a way to spend money, raise our property taxes without solving the problem in any way?