St. Paul City Council approves plan to better address unsheltered homelessness
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The St. Paul City Council presented a plan Wednesday for how it wants the city and its partners to respond to the needs of unsheltered residents, including those who live at two long-standing encampments that the mayor’s administration plans to close.
Their resolution comes two and a half months after Mayor Kaohly Her directed the clearing of the Pig’s Eye Park encampment, a move that triggered an exodus of residents to relocate to a wooded encampment near Shepard Road that has more than tripled in size.
Ahead of the unanimous resolution vote, council member Hwa Jeong Kim said her brother-in-law lives outside and was last known to be at Pig’s Eye. But after the August closure, her family has been unable to contact him.
“Everyone can agree what we’re doing now isn’t working for anyone,” she said. “What is clear is that St. Paul needs a plan, and the council is providing a blueprint for how we move forward.”
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The resolution calls for 60 days of heightened outreach with a housing navigation tent, ahead of any future clearing, as well as the creation of both temporary and permanent shelters that drop several barriers that can prevent people from opting into traditional emergency shelters.
It is not legally binding and does not detail projected costs, but is the first alternative plan city leaders have promoted since the August clearing. Council member Molly Coleman said it’s a commitment to “be a part of this work as long as it takes”— and to find the funding. That would require partnership with the county and state.
“Our administration is looking into the viability and affordability of these proposals,” Her said in a statement. “Every spending choice we make comes at the expense of other priorities and essential services our residents depend on.”
Council advocates for 3-part plan
Ahead of the first closure, which cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars, the city approved $1 million to expand shelter bed capacity. But at the end of August, the city reported that only seven Pig’s Eye residents had utilized those beds.
Many residents who wanted to stay with their partners, pets and possessions, or felt unsafe in emergency shelter spaces, ultimately relocated outside. MPR News followed one couple who moved from one encampment to the next.
For months, residents at the remaining tent communities have wondered how much time they have left — all while long-term housing remains out of reach for many who are eager for a place of their own. There are 2,928 individuals and families on the county’s waitlist for supportive housing.
The resolution does not put a moratorium on encampment sweeps, as many volunteers supporting encampment residents had advocated for. However, barring an immediate safety threat, it encourages the city and county to take an “intentional 60-day strategic investment period,” with a report midway through documenting how many people were identified, assessed and placed in housing or shelter.
During this time, there would be a navigation tent with a minimum of two weeks of “intensive services,” three weeks of casework to find each person a housing placement and two weeks of “wrap-up” to reach anyone not reached.
John Slade, the senior organizer at the Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing — and a member of the Stop the Sweeps coalition — said the resolution was a good first step, but he would have preferred a six-month pause, especially during the winter. He also flagged part of the resolution that allows for a more immediate closure if there’s a threat.
“Every camp closure in the Twin Cities is framed as an emergency,” Slade said. “So folks are going to be watching.”
In recent weeks, Ramsey County workers have been stationed on a bridge above the Shepard encampment, for two hours twice a week, connecting residents to benefits and housing navigation support.
Noecker said ideally the proposed navigation tent would be closer to the camp and operate for several hours each day: “10 a.m. to noon on Wednesday might not be the hours when you are ready for help, and if at 1 p.m. you are, we should be there for you,” she said in an interview with MPR News.
While it operates, the council also advocates for establishing a temporary, indoor low-barrier shelter inside a gym, or similar indoor space, that would include semi-private sleeping space, storage, options for pets and partners and wraparound services. They said it should open for six months this winter.
In Minneapolis, a similar solution was explored in 2018 to help transition residents from a large encampment into stable housing. The city partnered with the county and nonprofit providers to temporarily shelter 175 people at a Navigation Center with 24/7 security and access to bathrooms, showers and a cafeteria. Although not without bumps, the six-month operation cost around $3 million and led to successful housing outcomes for more than 100 residents, according to city staff.
Lastly, the resolution pushes for expanding low-barrier shelter capacity, such as an indoor village model. That’s a nod to spaces like Avivo Village in Minneapolis, where residents get a locked tiny home, and are offered more privacy and independence than traditional emergency shelters. Earlier this month, Avivo opened another tiny home village in St. Cloud.
At a press conference ahead of the council meeting, John Tribbett, a service area director with Avivo, likened the village model to a hospital ICU.
It offers a model that can serve individuals with high complexity needs and “a community that’s built around people, so that they have some opportunity to really experience themselves differently,” he said. “What we find is when we treat people differently, they have some opportunity to really experience themselves differently.”
One resident at the Shepard encampment, Jason Lopez, shared his support for what he said was “getting these steps started.” Lopez shared how earlier that morning, a fire broke out at the encampment, but through a community effort residents were able to put it out, even before the fire department arrived.
“We stand as a community as ourselves. All we really want is to be left alone so we can live our lives and get back on our feet in our own ways, but we do understand that we do need shelters for these times of year,” he said. “Let’s do it right. Let’s show everybody else how we do it.”
