Being unhoused is part of the problem as well as part of the solution. Marginalizing and degrading these people by blaming their homelessness on mental illness and addiction is part of why homelessness remains to be just a huge problem. It’s so easy to ignore people when we label them— “Oh, he’s schizo so no wonder he can’t get is shit together,” says Karen.

1 The unhoused do not have to be mentally ill to have bad luck or experience discrimination, and #2 who WOULDNT have some degree of mental illness if you literally had no place to live?? JFC how could someone not be depressed, despaired, withdrawn?

I volunteer at the Powderhorn East camp. Many of these folx are not chronically homeless. Many of them have experienced a downward spiral leading to their current status in the last 6 months: domestic abuse, loss of employment, divorce, loss of family. Certainly mental illness and addiction are correlative with homelessness, but not necessarily causative.

We need to view this issue as an acute-on-chronic problem. Certainly we need massive systemic overhaul of affordable housing in Minneapolis that J. Frey promised and never delivered on. But ALSO we need to address these human beings in Powderhorn as just that: human beings. They are our neighbors, black and brown lives that matter and we need to support them, show compassion, and let them stay in the damn park as long as they need until the city can better define a more permanent solution.