Minneapolis plans to close the city's largest homeless encampment next week

The city of Minneapolis announced Friday it will shut down the city's largest homeless encampment — known as Camp Nenookaasi — on Thursday, following multiple delays of the closure.

In a news release, the city said it would close the south Minneapolis encampment due to "ongoing public safety and health concerns."

The camp was founded this summer on a plot of long-vacant city property at E. 23rd Street and 13th Avenue S., and it has since become the city's largest homeless village. It supported roughly 180 occupants at its height.

On Friday, the city placed a sign on a wooden board outside the camp's entrance informing its residents of the planned evictions. The sign reads "NO TRESPASSING" and says people need to vacate by Jan. 4. It also lists three shelter services and their phone numbers.

The city has moved back the closure date for the camp multiple times in the last month, with officials saying the city and its partners need more time to help its residents find housing solutions following the closure.

"All of our community members deserve safe and dignified housing," the city said in its release. "Encampments, especially in winter, do not provide that."

The camp was previously set to be dismantled on Dec. 19. But after the fatal shooting of a camp resident inside a tent on Dec. 12, the city put the closure on hold without providing a new date. The man killed was Tyrone J. Mohr, 45, known as "T-Bone."

In the Friday announcement, the city outlined its ongoing efforts to help residents find more permanent housing.

The city and collaborators have connected 104 people from the encampment with housing or shelter options, and another 14 are scheduled to move into housing soon, according to the city's release.

Street outreach teams, including Hennepin County's Streets to Housing team, will continue working with people who have expressed interest in moving into a shelter or permanent housing, the city said.

Streets to Housing has reported that 31 people have moved from the encampment into shelters, housing and other alternative-living situations, the city said.

Earlier this month, camp organizer Nicole Mason said she still believes there needs to be a direct site lined up for residents to move to after the city closes the encampment.

"Give us a safe spot," she said. "We're not trying to keep this land at all."

The city said Friday it vetted a request by organizers to make a temporary, 24/7 indoor shelter, but four service providers the city reached out to expressed that "they were not willing or able to take on" the project.

After the closure, the initial phase of work will start on a new community center at the encampment site, the city said.

That center would include "office and clinic space, a commercial kitchen, a community garden, a small theater, an art workshop and gallery, and space to support neighborhood partnerships and entrepreneurship and employment training."

At the encampment Friday afternoon, one camp resident said she was planning to move in with an uncle, while several said they were still unsure where they will go, adding that they are concerned for others in their situation.

"I'm worried for all of us," said Jacob M., a camp resident who declined to give his last name.

The camp was operating as normal on Friday, with people carrying out trash bags and visitors going inside the walled-off village to see their friends.

Star Tribune staff writer Susan Du contributed to this story.