Minneapolis homeless encampments — a thing of the past? The role policy advocacy may have played
The impetus for change
Advocating for public safety policy change is a “win some, lose some” venture. Even the wins are often difficult to recognize, coming after months or even years of evolving work.
Progress on the issue of homeless encampments in Minneapolis has been difficult to recognize. However, significant progress has been made in 2025. The impetus for that progress came in part from a joint advocacy effort between Center of the American Experiment (CAE) and the Minnesota Justice Research Center (MNJRC), two public policy groups that traditionally have differing views. That dynamic was leveraged over the past year and was an important factor in legitimizing the need for change in Minneapolis.
History of the problem
Homeless encampments had existed on and off in Minneapolis for more than a decade, but the emergence of fentanyl into the illicit drug market in the late 2010s led to an increase in addiction and overdoses, and a corresponding increase in the number and size of homeless encampments.
Early on the Minneapolis Police Department took the lead on the issue and addressed it as a public safety and enforcement issue. Over time, homeless activist organizations began interfering with encampment removals, labeling them “evictions.” Physical confrontations and arrests became the norm during the removal operations. The issue became political and the City Council’s willingness to work with the mayor became fractured.
Between 2020 and 2022, the MPD lost nearly 40% of its officers to retirements or resignations, which made homeless encampment removals even less of a priority for the police.
Minneapolis began transitioning the lead for the removal process to Regulatory Services. Partnerships with Hennepin County, public health, and a variety of housing and chemical dependency resources were formed. A formal process for removing encampments was developed, which dramatically increased (sometimes by months) the amount of time an encampment could exist before being removed. This delay was devastating to many Minneapolis neighborhoods and harmful to the encampment inhabitants as well.
Then in December 2023, the Minneapolis City Council formally resolved that homeless encampments were a public health issue, further reducing the likelihood of using enforcement as a strategy for removal.
The new approach, while well-intended, was misguided and only exacerbated the conditions in and around the encampments. Gangs solidified their hold over many of the encampments and controlled the open-air drug dealing and human trafficking in the encampments, knowing that the police would not interfere.
Beginning in the fall of 2023, the encampment situation rose to a crisis level, predominantly in south Minneapolis. Shootings, stabbings, overdoses, stillborn babies, burglaries and thefts from neighbors, and fires which destroyed encampments and neighboring houses punctuated the ensuing months.
Yet the political divide on how to address the problem remained.
Addressing the problem — in partnership
In mid-2023, I, in my role as the Public Safety Policy Fellow with Center of the American Experiment (CAE), met with MNJRC’s Executive Director Justin Terrell to identify an issue our respective organizations could agree needed urgent policy change. We quickly identified the growing problem of homeless encampments in Minneapolis.
I then partnered with MNJRC’s Policy Director Will Cooley to develop an advocacy project aimed at finding policy solutions for the city to consider in its efforts to deal with the encampments.
We agreed that allowing homeless encampments to exist in public spaces violated the social contract between the city and those who resided in, worked in, or visited the city. Encampments also represented a societal failure toward the encampment inhabitants, many of whom had demonstrated an inability to care for themselves or to avoid becoming victims to those who prey on the vulnerable.
During the summer and early fall of 2024, our partnership convened six (6) hours of meetings with city, county, and community homeless encampment stakeholders. To their credit, several key stakeholders from the City of Minneapolis Mayor’s Office, Regulatory Services, and Police Department became heavily engaged in the discussions to find a better policy going forward.
Many of the participants reported that the encampment crisis was not the result of a lack of available shelter but was the result of fentanyl addiction. In fact, many encampment inhabitants were choosing to live in the encampments rather than shelter or housing that had been set up for them, because the encampments offered a permissive environment and a steady supply of fentanyl.
One of the participants, a Native American representative having decades of experience with the matter, described the number one obstacle standing in the way of stable housing to be the existence of the encampments. They acted as an irresistible draw for the addicted, which prevented them from escaping their cycle of addiction and hopelessness.
Following these sessions, we drafted a joint CAE and MNJRC policy proposal. The policy proposal asserted that:
1) Encampments predominantly result from and enable chemical dependency, especially to fentanyl.
2) Encampments are dangerous crime hot spots.
3) A policy that prohibits encampments from forming or existing is the only way to prevent the devastating human tragedies from continuing.
In order to more effectively address the encampment problem, the policy proposal stated:
“Homelessness encampments are a societal failure. We can do better.
Encampments negatively impact on the unhoused population who suffer from high rates of victimization and untreated mental health and chemical dependency issues. The encampments lower the quality of public space, have a detrimental impact on the surrounding neighborhoods, and negatively affect the city as a whole.
Minneapolis has adopted harm reduction measures to address the opioid epidemic, but the encampments increase the harms of drug abuse. Many people living in encampments contend they are in search of community, but these spaces quickly turn into places of despair and become a hurdle to moving people into low-barrier housing. Encampments are a visible sign of the breakdown of the social contract, and we have a shared responsibility to prevent their occurrence.
To respond to the encampments, we argue that governmental bodies and their partners must urgently build the infrastructure to ensure that every person has the option to find shelter, assistance, and readily accessible treatment options. A coordinated effort must be made to show unhoused people and the public that there are alternatives to the encampments and that encampments will no longer be allowed to form.
When encampments of three or more tents/structures spring up, a rapid response team consisting of regulatory services, public health, community safety, and law enforcement must be dispatched to clearly and respectfully disallow the encampment from establishing, by first providing viable housing and treatment options for every unhoused person present and then following up with enforcement of ordinances as necessary.
An immediate and sustained response to each new encampment of three or more tents/shelters will ensure that the camps are dismantled and are not merely reconstituted elsewhere.”
Throughout the fall and winter of 24/25, we shared our policy proposal with the Mayor’s Office and those stakeholder departments within the city dealing with encampments.
What followed?
During this time, the messaging coming from the city began to shift towards a less permissive, more proactive response to encampments. Multiple statements from officials mirrored many of the policy suggestions in our proposal.
In January 2025, Chief O’Hara issued a Special Order to the police department empowering officers to take on a more proactive stance to prevent encampments from taking root. The order directed officers to respond quickly and consistently and work collaboratively with regulatory services to ensure any potential encampments were disallowed.
As of late March 2025, the MPD reported that it had prevented at least 17 encampments from forming, and that for the first time in years there were no significant homeless encampments in the city, and fewer than 50 people choosing to remain unsheltered — down from several hundred on any given night in recent years.
Chief O’Hara summed it up nicely, saying, “We implemented this special order to stop this crisis before it starts. The results are clear: fewer encampments, fewer shootings, and safer neighborhoods.”
Sometimes a win comes indirectly. Sometimes that’s just fine.