Jorge Grijalva had 90 minutes of notice before Minneapolis city crews and police arrived Tuesday morning to clear the camp he had called home for the past month. It was the second time this month Grijalva and others have been uprooted as the city evicts homeless encampments that many unhoused Native residents rely on.
Grijalva pushed a bike and a shopping cart filled with his belongings down 14th Avenue S. about 12:30 p.m. He carried out the essentials: a fire extinguisher, an ax, a lawn chair, a small generator, and a backpack, among other items.
“Being that we only had 90 minutes, it was quite chaotic and quite time-consuming to achieve this [in the] timeframe,” said Grijalva, who is not Native.
He was headed towards the Franklin Library to charge his electronics and drop off books.
Grijalva and his wife, who is Native, left behind many of their belongings, including clothes, so they could “just move on, rather than having to experience the whole start-to-finish eviction. It’s better we just get out of there.”
The city restricted public viewing of the eviction by using police tape to block off a two- to three-block perimeter around the encampment at E. 26th Street and 14th Avenue S. Members of the media were allowed closer to the site, and police monitored volunteers who were allowed into the camp, which was peacefully vacated.
The encampment was formed by occupants who left Camp Nenookaasi when it was evicted by the city on January 4. The new camp formed two blocks south of Camp Nenookaasi. Both camps had a large Native population.
A camp organizer said there is no plan to move camp residents to a third location, and that it’s unclear where they will go.
Grijalva and his wife have been homeless for about seven years, but are trying to find other accommodations.
“I’m confident we’re going to get housing soon,” he said. “Almost half a year I’ve been with Nenookaasi. That’s crazy. No other encampment made it six months like that, and actually got more than half of the encampment housing.”
The city issued a media advisory Tuesday noting that it was closing the new encampment in the Phillips neighborhood “due to ongoing public health and safety concerns.”
Community Safety Commissioner Todd Barnette said at a news conference that the second camp and Camp Nenookaasi have experienced health and public safety issues, including death threats among residents, property damage, vandalism, and fentanyl use.
Over a week ago, some camp residents fell ill with a viral “stomach flu” outbreak, Barnette added. City staff delivered cleaning supplies, such as bleach, and discussed cleanliness with camp residents.
Barnette also highlighted a Monday shooting where a 29-year-old man was shot just outside the camp by a suspected shooter who had “emerged” from the camp. The man suffered non-life threatening injuries and was transported to the hospital; no one has been arrested in the case as of late Tuesday morning.
Barnette also said that the city’s health department has been monitoring the air quality around the camp because of the fires that were lit inside the camp. The city estimated that about 25 people were living at the second camp; camp organizers said the number was over 100.
City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher said Avivo, a nonprofit aimed at ending homelessness, offered 20 beds to Camp Nenookaasi residents at the time of its closing. However, she believes that not all of the beds were taken by the residents.
Kelliher said at a Tuesday news conference that there have been 80 to 90 shelter beds available “every single night” since the start of January. At a committee meeting with Minneapolis City Council members on Wednesday, she clarified herself and said that there have been 80 to 90 beds available “most mornings,” but that at night, around 20 beds have been available.
Kelliher said the city has likely spent “hundreds of thousands” of dollars to evict Camp Nenookaasi and the second camp.
Asked how the city will respond if the second camp relocates to a new location, Kelliher said, “I think that it is in the best interest to not have another large encampment form, and so we are working actively with partners to try to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Grijalva and a few other camp residents said they plan to relocate to a developing “new camp,” but didn’t share specifics. However, Grijalva said, the constant relocation takes its toll, and sometimes causes camp residents to lose important documents that would help them obtain housing.
“[The] city of Minneapolis continues to spend money at keeping us playing a game of musical chairs,” Grijalva said. “We ourselves looked out for ourselves, and we made sure that half of our people got off the street, so they didn’t have to experience what I’m doing right now.”
UPDATE: This story has been updated with new comments City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher made a day after the eviction of Camp Nenookaasi.
