On Aug. 3, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) granted four permits for temporary encampments for homeless people. Northeast parks include Marshall Terrace, Boom Island, Logan, Beltrami, and B.F. Nelson. The permits are issued to a person who acts act as a camp coordinator.
As of Aug. 15, an estimated 434 tents were spread over 43 city parks, although the board intends to lower the total number of parks considered suitable for encampments to 15. MPRB has established specific tent limits for each encampment. Marshall Terrace Park is allowed 15; Boom Island, 20; Beltrami and Logan, 25. (Logan and Beltrami Parks were full as of Aug. 21.)
MPRB Superintendent Al Bangoura said, “While serving those without shelter is clearly not the role of the Park Board or park staff, we have committed significant energy and resources to providing support to temporary encampments and to doing so in a humane manner.”
Among the factors MPRB is dealing with is the State’s May 17 executive order, which bans local entities from closing encampments unless there is equivalent alternative shelter available or if public safety is threatened. Bangoura commented, “I believe there are many Minneapolis residents who do not understand the impact COVID-19 has had on reducing shelter spaces, and the impact the governor’s executive orders have had on encampments and the Minneapolis park system.”
MPRB workers provide portable restrooms, handwashing stations, and trash containers to all parks where tents are pitched. They also serve notices to vacate to encampments with documented crime, without temporary permits or in areas, such as safe school zones, that cannot accommodate a temporary permit.
Among the 40 residents of the Beltrami encampment are children living in tents with their parents. Some of the adults came from Powderhorn after that encampment’s closing. One of the Beltrami residents said that temporary permits have been applied for, for both Beltrami and Logan Parks.
Residents at both parks said that lightweight tents are wearing out from their sustained use. A Biffs employee at Logan said the portable toilets are serviced every day, and trash and recycling collection continues. James, a Logan Park volunteer, said the camp doesn’t need more canned goods, and food is generally available. The volunteer said what they really need are sanitary wipes, shaving razors, paper towels, soda and sports drinks, and battery-operated mini-fans, and added that social media has been a source for crowdfunding for the encampments.
People living in vehicles, trailers on street
Northeast also has homeless people who aren’t staying in parks. In at least two areas in the Marshall Terrace Neighborhood, people are living in cars, RVs and small house trailers.
The three-block stretch of Columbia Ave south of St. Anthony Parkway is bordered on the east by rows of three-story warehouses and on the west by Xcel Field Park. The park is leased by MPRB on land owned by Xcel Energy, whose power plant is on the other side of Marshall Street.
Columbia Avenue is often used by semi-truck drivers to park their rigs while waiting to unload or taking breaks. But for at least the past several months it’s become a refuge for families without fixed abodes. On Tuesday, Aug. 18, a half-dozen older RVs and a trailer home sat on the west side of the street. Folding chairs, coolers, tents and a few portable generators stood outside the vehicles.
At the north end of the street, David and Lily and their four children live in their 1980s-vintage Winnebago Sportsman. The windshield and side windows of the front cab are covered with canvas for privacy, and a green pup tent is pitched next to the RV’s side door. This is where David and Lily sleep. Unlike people at the encampment, they enjoy a bit more security from weather and predators; also unlike the encampments, they have no toilets or water available.
The family has been on the street for the past three weeks. Before that, they were in a motel they couldn’t afford and stayed with friends for a few weeks. David had been a roofer, among other occupations, and receives SSI for a disability acquired partly as a result of a car/bicycle accident. Lily had a cleaning business that collapsed after the onset of COVID-19.
David said they fill jugs with water when they visit a nearby laundromat. The children (ages 14, 12, 4 and 3 years) watch online school classes. Lily said the Minneapolis Police have been by a couple of times but have generally been supportive. David said they have been looking into “Family Promise,” an Anoka County nonprofit advocacy group that works with churches to provide temporary shelter and programs for “housing independence.”
The group of residents on Columbia is somewhat smaller than it was several weeks ago; a half-dozen vehicles having moved to Technology Drive, a few blocks northwest. The street resembles Columbia in several ways. The east side is a two-block-long wall of loading docks. When semi drivers back up their trailers, half of the street is blocked.
On the west side a narrow strip of grass and shade trees bordered by a black steel fence surrounds the campus of Open Access Technology International (OATI). Five RVs and a house trailer sit along the curb. A recent storm felled a nearby tree, and large branches still litter the street.
Scott and Robin are close friends. They live on Technology Drive in separate RVs but share expenses. Scott receives SSI for a heart condition. The fallen tree brought down an overhead power line that hit Robin’s gas-power generator and disabled it. While her RV has a septic system, there’s no power for lighting or her refrigerator, and she can’t start her RV to move it. They get their water from the grocery store. Robin said the ten people living on their street have formed a small community, and they look out for each other. Like almost everyone else living in the parks or on the streets, they say it’s not a shortage of housing that keeps them there; it’s that they can’t afford the housing that’s available.
COVID-19 has severely limited the capacity of emergency shelters. And winter is coming.
More information can be found at https://www.minneapolisparks.org/encampments/
Below: Not only are people camping in local parks, but in cars, recreational vehicles and small house trailers along Columbia Avenue along Xcel Field Park. Another group is along Technology Drive, a few blocks northwest, where a storm-downed tree damaged one of the trailers. (Photos by Mark Peterson)
