Camp Nenookaasi resident Melanie Hanks lost all of her belongings in a fire that tore through the homeless encampment Thursday, including her birth certificate, social security card, and clothes. She’s struggled to secure stable housing the last six months after losing contact with outreach workers, and feels more lost after recent events.
“It’s horrible. It’s like you don’t have nothing, like you’re all alone” she said Friday.
Hanks, 47, has lived at Camp Nenookaasi since it formed last August, moving to new locations each time the camp was evicted by the city earlier this year, and settling into its fifth site after the fire. Like most of the camp’s residents, Hank is Native, and is tribally affiliated with the White Earth Nation.
Minneapolis City Council Member Jason Chavez, homeless service providers, and Camp Nenookaasi organizers held a joint news conference Friday to outline their “coordinated encampment response” to help people like Hanks, and to address the city’s broader homelessness issues.
Chavez reiterated initiatives he and Council Members Aisha Chughtai and Aurin Chowdhury are pushing in three proposed ordinances that would change the city’s approach to homeless encampments.
Service providers from organizations such as Let Everyone Advance with Dignity and the Twin Cities Recovery Project said there’s an urgent need to increase capacity in shelters and to improve access to substance abuse and mental health resources.
“I know the importance of having faith in people,” said the recovery project’s program director, Christopher Burks, who experienced homelessness four years ago.
Chavez said the recovery project has expressed interest in facilitating “safe outdoor spaces,” an element in one of the proposed ordinances. Such spaces would allow homeless people to legally occupy certain parking lots and campsites.
The second ordinance would create a public health response to encampments by providing health and sanitation supplies. The third would require the city to provide detailed reporting on encampments, including information about what happens to unhoused individuals.
When asked if the proposed ordinances’ three co-authors have discussed them with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Chavez said he told one of Frey’s staffers to not “get scared about what we’re doing.”
“We’re not legalizing encampments in the city of Minneapolis. We’re not legalizing encampments on sidewalks. That is not what we’re doing,” Chavez said.
Chavez represents Ward 9, where Camp Nenookaasi is located. The homeless encampment has occupied five different sites in south Minneapolis’ Phillips and East Phillips neighborhoods after being evicted by the city multiple times, and after Thursday’s fire pushed the camp out of its fourth location.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, and no updates were available Friday.
The fast-moving fire destroyed the camp’s yurts, residents’ belongings, and supplies such as wood and food. About 50 residents, mostly Native, were living at the site at S. 11th Avenue and W. 28th Street.
A new camp was created a few blocks away at 2839 14th Ave. S. Camp occupants, organizers, and volunteers set up over 20 tents on the vacant lot.
“We really want a safe place for people to be,” said camp organizer Christin Crabtree. “These guys are all on lists for housing. There just isn’t housing available. So at this point, it’s a bit of a waiting game. But we are really hopeful that we can create some longer term solutions at this point.”
The fire was called in at 12:07 p.m. and took 30 minutes to extinguish. Two people were treated at the scene for non-life threatening injuries, one for minor burns and another for smoke inhalation.
Frey said at a news conference Thursday that the fire underscores the dangers of encampments. He said the best course of action is for camp residents to get into shelters and then stable, long-term housing.
“Homeless encampments of this significant size are not safe,” Frey said. “They’re not safe for the people living at the homeless encampment, they’re not safe for the surrounding neighbors.”
Crabtree disagrees with Frey. Camp Nenookaasi, which previously featured several heated yurts, provides a community for residents, who feel safer because they live together in a large group, she said. Many shelters only have temporary housing, and residents say they don’t feel safe and that their medical needs often go unaddressed at such facilities, she added.
“It’s important to understand that there’s context to what these shelters are and how they work,” Crabtree said Friday. “It is a fundamental misunderstanding of how the system works to frame it the way that it was framed yesterday.”
Nicole Mason, a longtime camp organizer, said at Friday’s news conference that culturally-based treatment and healing support greatly contributed to reducing the number of residents at Camp Nenookaasi.
Mason and Burks also said that following a “harm reduction model,” which focuses on providing mental and health resources regardless of an individual’s sobriety, has been successful in helping the unhoused.
Blake Stevens, 38, has been in and out of substance abuse treatment centers for about four years. He has lived at Camp Nenookaasi with his cousin for the past week and a half.
Stevens, who is Native and tribally affiliated with White Earth Nation, said Camp Nenookaasi is better than sober houses because of the community. He has applied for a single-unit apartment, and he is waiting for approval.
“We know each other and help each other,” Stevens said of Camp Nenookaasi. “It’s one big family.”
How to help
- Donate items at:
- 2839 14th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55407
- Items needed include:
- Tents
- Blankets
- Water
- Portable “Buddy” heaters
- Firewood
- Donate money at:
- Venmo: @Nenookaasi-Camp
- Cash App: $nenookaasi
- Volunteer labor:
- Visit the camp at 2839 14th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55407, or contact Camp Nenookaasi via nenookaasi.com.
