WHERE ARE WE TO, WHERE ARE WE EVER TO GO –   

Oct. 6, 2022 – Minneapolis, MN – On Oct. 6, 2022, the City of Minneapolis evicted three encampments of unhoused people, leaving over 100 people displaced without tents and blankets as a cold front swept the region. SWAT teams forced residents of the Near North, Van White, and Cedar-Franklin encampments to leave their tents as city workers bulldozed and threw away their belongings. … Hundreds of people are unhoused on any given night in Minneapolis and the city’s shelters have not been the solution for everyone. Some unhoused residents don’t like the restrictions and non-private manner of the shelter system, which Xaba says is “broken and corrupt.”

Dr. Rosemary Fister, a nurse practitioner who used to work at Hennepin County doing street outreach, pointed out that each encampment eviction increases drug usage among the unhoused population as they face further violence and destabilization. Fister noted a study by Yale Professor Ryan McNeil which stated, “abrupt changes to drug use patterns occurred due to post-eviction disruptions.”

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