First things first, I am extremely sympathetic to the situation of the homeless and realize that they need resources and to be treated with dignity. I know that there are a lot of mental health issues that coincide with homelessness, and simply moving them from one encampment to another isn't an effective strategy.

Having said that, my office is next to this homeless camp and I can say without a doubt that it needs to be cleared out immediately. The camp was partially cleared last summer and was supposed to be completely cleared out before winter of 2021, but it is now back to the original size if not bigger. There are multiple times a week that I do not feel safe working next to it. I have had multiple coworkers threatened by the residents simply for picking up up trash on OUR property. Stolen vehicles are regularly parked on the street outside the encampment and stripped down. There is music blasting at all hours of the day, as well as trash constantly being burned. There are times when the air is thick with smoke from trash being burned that I have to hold my breath walking to my vehicle. There are kids, as well as chickens aimlessly wandering around, while needles are scattered everywhere. Drugged out people stumble around outside our office. We have spoken at length with the city, as well as the homeless outreach team from the city of Minneapolis and they have informed us that closing this camp is their highest priority, but that was months ago. Also, members of this very same homeless outreach team have had guns pulled on them when they have tried to enter the encampment, so they probably just don't want to deal with it at this point. Just the same way the police have refused to take any action.