In Minneapolis, homelessness is actually going down. As of 7/2/2025, there was one active encampment. Calls for emergency response services have declined substantially.
But homelessness, and the intertwined issues of encampment, mental health and substance abuse, remain stubbornly resistant to neat and tidy solutions.
Last winter, in his Better Minneapolis column, Terry White pointed to causes that are in addition to substance addition and mental illness: asylum seekers and natural disasters are some. So, too, are expiration of COVID-related eviction moratoriums and the end of emergency rental assistance programs.
Without necessarily advocating for them, White mentioned ideas to expand the availability of safe housing for marginalized populations. Currently vacant malls could be converted to shelters. We could reopen the long-shuttered state mental health institutions and commit those with severe mental illness who pose a threat to themselves or others. He acknowledged that there is little consensus on what constitutes responses that are both empathetic and effective.
Candidates for city office, White argues, should be willing to collaborate with Hennepin County and the state, to identify sustainable funding mechanisms that impose no undue tax burden on businesses and residents. He also says the city needs leaders who will cut spending in non-core areas before declaring there is not enough money to address homelessness and encampments.
Long-time Phillips neighborhood activist and advocate, Jana Metge, has pointed out some effective interventions, mostly by local community efforts rather than by public policy. In news interviews and public testimony she has made these points:
- We have a narcotic epidemic in the Phillips community, which has been growing for years and needs to be addressed.
- Identifying and addressing root causes of why people are in encampments is the only way to develop sustainable solutions.
- Gaps in housing needs can only be determined by gathering good data, in coordination with Hennepin County, on who is using camps and why.
- Solutions should come from County, and Community Services, not Regulatory Services.
- It is inhumane to leave vulnerable people to wander and struggle on their own when as city/county/state/community organizations we have the ability to coordinate and solve this problem for all: those in the camps, and households and businesses near the camps.
Metge notes there have been murders in Phillips (and other neighborhoods) encampments, in addition to these crimes: Break-ins, of homes, cars, garages. Thefts, of cars and bikes, water from households, propane tanks from hardware stores, even pets, held for extortion. There is gunfire related to trafficking of sex, narcotics, stolen properties. There are overdoses. There is public sex at all times of day. Victims of these crimes are, of course, businesses and households nearby. But those who themselves live in the camps are also victimized and terrorize by crimes.
Some of the useful interventions in Phillips, according to Metge, include supportive housing developments designed and funded by the Native American community. There is a community program whereby volunteers stand with parents and children at bus stops, creating a greater sense of safety. Some $1 million of Neighborhood Revitalization Program funds went into creating a Navigation Center in the American Indian neighborhoods. Although the center closed to make way for its site to be redeveloped, the AVIVO Village little-house project was a successor program.
Some policy experts have called for low-barrier shelters with no behavioral requirements (such as being “clean”) for entry. Such shelters require segregation of users from the rest of the population. But the idea is to get the person sheltered first, then address treatment. Wichita, Kansas has been cited as a model for success of this strategy.
While the problems of addiction and homelessness sometimes seem insoluble, David Hewitt, Hennepin County’s Director of Housing Stability, pointed out in an interview with the author, that Minneapolis and Hennepin County’s levels of homelessness, per capita, are about half the national averages for comparable cities. The unsheltered homeless population is below that of pre-pandemic and down 33.5% since 2020. About 87% of homeless people are in shelters on any given night.
Hewitt noted a sharp increase – from about 20% to 75% – of sheltered homeless being in 24/7 facilities; just a few years ago they needed to leave every morning. Not only is the much higher level more humane, but it is more effective, according to Hewitt, because homeless people can then work with case managers, and benefit managers; they have a home base from where they can seek jobs.
Hewitt says in most ways Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis collaborate well; their staffs meet regularly and a joint powers agreement codifies responsibilities. But he points out that neither unit of government has any statutorily assigned responsibilities to do anything about homelessness, and there is inherent ambiguity.
David Therkelsen has been a homeowner in Minneapolis for 50 years, and attentive to city and school affairs for all of that time. Professionally, he headed two American Red Cross field units, and at one time was co-chief of staff to the President of American Red Cross in Washington, DC. Later he was executive director of Crisis Connection, a state-wide mental health counseling agency. Dave held faculty appointments at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and recently co-authored a book about the history of transfusion medicine and blood banking.
