Spike in Minneapolis homeless encampment shootings fuels disagreement on cause, remedy

A wave of shootings at homeless encampments in Minneapolis in recent weeks that left four people dead and at least four more seriously injured has reignited a long-simmering clash between city officials and advocates over one of the city’s most vexing problems.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and other city leaders say the shootings and other violence associated with encampments is driven by the drug fentanyl. Advocates who provide outreach at the encampments say the city should focus on the fundamental causes of homelessness if it hopes to solve the safety problems at the camps.

Three shootings have occurred in three south Minneapolis encampments in two weeks. On Friday, a man and woman were shot in an encampment in the 2200 block of Cedar Avenue S. close to Hiawatha Avenue.

“It’s an ongoing tragedy in our city, and we are seeing gun violence play out in many, many places, and particularly neighborhoods less resourced and communities of color that are bearing that gun violence,” said John Tribbett, a service area director with the nonprofit Avivo, which operates a tiny home village inside a North Loop warehouse for homeless people.

Around 13% of all crime in the city’s Third Precinct, and 19% of that area’s gun violence, happens within 500 feet of encampments, Police Chief Brian O’Hara said in late October. The precinct stretches across the southeast portion of Minneapolis, including east of Interstate 35W to the Mississippi River.

O’Hara and Frey were holding a news conference near one of the shooting scenes. At the time, Frey told reporters that crime near encampments is “not about a lack of shelter” or “even most of the time about a lack of housing.” The mayor said drug trafficking and drug use at encampments have been the largest factors.

“Is [fentanyl] the only thing? Of course not, but it is a major driver,” Frey said in an interview days after the shooting. “I think we’ve got to be honest, and we’ve got to be real about it, otherwise we’re not going to make progress on the issue.”

The recent shootings have rattled nearby homeowners and renters, some of whom said they have been scared to leave their homes. Quantina Beck-Jones, who lives near the site of the triple fatal shooting on Oct. 27 near the train tracks on Snelling Avenue, said she would frequently find drug paraphernalia on her property, witness public defecation and hear gunshots.

“This is just zero regard for anybody,” Beck-Jones said.

Several people in two south Minneapolis encampments said in interviews that they have felt unsafe at times and that fentanyl is a common problem. But they also said it depends on the encampment.

Caleb Lau, who was resting in a tent near the intersection of Blaisdell Avenue and Lake Street, said that encampment has been “pretty quiet.” Lau’s friend Rickayla Day agreed but said that encampments overall are “pretty dangerous.” They both think homeless people get stigmatized following major crimes even though not all in the encampments are involved in violent altercations.

“We’re stereotyped, and we’re targeted, people our age, to be seen as thieves and drug users and stuff like that,” Day said. “But there are a lot of people that don’t do any drugs at all out here.”

In response to the violence, Frey’s office has called for staff to expedite encampment closures. Encampments, which data shows continue to grow and when closed often spring up nearby, have been a frustrating issue for Frey, who in his 2017 bid for mayor promised to end homelessness in the city in five years. The response to encampments is likely to continue to be a hot topic in the 2025 mayoral election.

The city’s encampment response policy has been a divisive issue politically, with some progressive council members accusing Frey of inhumane tactics in clearing camps. Frey has increasingly pushed back on those accusations, noting that outreach teams from the city and other agencies regularly visit encampments to offer services but that some refuse the help.

Some advocates and council members said the comments from Frey and O’Hara, who also speaks frequently about the increase in crime associated with encampments, were unhelpful.

City Council Member Jason Chavez, who has repeatedly criticized Frey’s response to encampments, said in an interview that Frey’s focus on drugs doesn’t address the challenges of poverty, job opportunities and eviction.

“It’s irresponsible to assume that this issue itself is only because of the fentanyl issue,” Chavez said.

Nicole Mason, an advocate and previously an organizer for the large Camp Nenookaasi encampment, pointed out that “a lot of these killings and some of these crimes seem like they wouldn’t have happened if [the victims] would have had a safe place to be.”

She agreed with Frey that encampments aren’t safe, but she said “it’s not just about fentanyl, it’s also a lack of resources.”

Tribbett, of Avivo, said fentanyl is indeed an epidemic, but he also said the conversation on homelessness can sometimes become “dehumanizing.”

”What’s frustrating to me is when our rhetoric is not humanizing and demonstrating that we recognize that the people that are outside are suffering, and that we have to meet that need,” Tribbett said.

According to Danielle Werder, a senior department administrator for the county’s Office to End Homelessness, the shelter system is “overwhelmingly” able to meet the need of people seeking shelter each night.

Between Oct. 22-31, there were three nights when people were turned away because there wasn’t enough shelter space, Werder said. On those three nights, no more than two people were turned away, Werder said.

Werder said she and her colleagues meet with people in encampments to figure out why they don’t visit shelters or other service providers. They want to discover, “what do people need? What would they come in for? And how can we better bring those services online?” Werder said. “It’s a complicated problem.”