Homeless encampment on Minneapolis man's property cleared after months of asking city for help
MINNEAPOLIS — After months of calling for help, a homeless encampment on a man's property in south Minneapolis has been cleared.
At it's height, as many as twenty tents were set up on 15th Avenue South. Neighbors watched as a tent city grew on a vacant lot on their block. They sent pictures to WCCO showing what they described as open-air drug dealing and prostitution.
The encampment grew to the point where the people living there installed fencing across the front and back of th eproperty, covering them with tarps to keep outside eyes from seeing what was going on inside the mini community.
"From far away it was easy to get upset because they were on my property, but when I got down there and I talked to them I mean, they are people like us," said Duylinh Nguyen, who owns the property.
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Duylinh Nguyen said he learned quickly that it was not a homeless issue but an addiction issue.
"Addiction, that's holding them there so instead of focusing on a housing issue for them, we should provide some sort of treatment for them and I'm hoping that's the approach that the city takes," Nguyen said.
For months Nguyen said he contacted police and the city with no results. Then WCCO shed some light on the issue.
"Thanks to you guys," he said, "the police came out."
Early Wednesday morning, crews moved in and moved out the tent city and its occupants.
"They moved in with a cleaning crew. They had a Minneapolis transit bus to help with transportation, to help with any of the folks that wanted to leave out of there," Nguyen said. "Our neighbors came out and thanked us, thanked the police and said 'finally our nightmare is over.'"
Some of the people moved from that encampment accepted help for addiction. Others just moved on.
Nguyen says he plans to put a fence around the property before deciding what's next.