Bringing the unhoused in from the cold

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With frigid temperatures bearing down on Minnesota this week, efforts like the Salvation Army opening up more centers for the unhoused to warm up are much needed. This week the organization that already provides some nighttime shelter for those in need is expanding that help by 40 beds per night and allowing people to access its service centers during the day to escape the frigid cold.

That’s the kind of help the Twin Cities and other places around the state need — immediately — to prevent those without shelter from freezing. Though there are other churches and nonprofits that offer that kind of assistance, even more help is needed. Many of the better-known shelters are full and are being forced to turn people away.

Still, for those who need it is still best to start with city or county services.

At the same time, city and county efforts to clear impromptu encampments of unhoused people in humane ways must continue. Too many of them have become dangerous, unhealthy places.

Recent fires, for example, at several Minneapolis encampments burned not only the tents but spread to nearby buildings. In the cold, camp residents often use wood or propane to alternatives such as alcohol-based hand sanitizers to light fires in order to keep warm. Propane tanks have exploded and spread the flames as well as shrapnel and other debris.

And criminal activity such as assaults and drug dealing has also occurred in and around the camps. A series of shootings in or near camps in Minneapolis a couple of months ago left four people dead and at least four more seriously injured.

The Twin Cities are among many parts of the U.S. with growing numbers of unhoused people and a shortage of places for them to go. According to recent U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development figures, homelessness peaked at record national levels in 2024.

Chronic patterns of extended homelessness reached their highest level since data was first collected in 2007 at more than 152,000 in 2024. On a single night about a year ago, HUD reported more than 771,000 were without shelter — about 18% more than in 2023.

It’s one thing to be unhoused in California or Florida — but quite another to be without a place to live during a Minnesota winter. That’s why it’s important for more organizations to open their doors to the unhoused — even on a short-term emergency basis — to help bring them in out of the cold.

And its equally necessary to continue initiatives to clear the camps and connect residents with resources to not only house them but address why they lack roofs over their heads.