"We just want to be warm": Activists call on Minneapolis to stop winter homeless encampment evictions
MINNEAPOLIS – There were more calls Sunday for the city of Minneapolis to put a stop to evictions at homeless encampments.
With temperatures plunging, the community grassroots group the Minneapolis People's Council held a cold-gear supply drive for people without housing. There was also a meeting for unhoused people to speak on the realities of living without a home.
"Just because I look like this doesn't mean I'm like some super grimy, out-here-on-dirt person," said Nate, an unhoused man. "I'm not looking for pity. I don't want like anybody to feel bad for me. Because it's my bed, I made it. I'm going to sleep in it."
Nate and his partner lived in a broken-down car last winter, huddling for body warmth.
MORE: Metro homeless encampments grow as temperatures drop, shelters fill up
"We don't want to steal or cheat," she said.
They're in a tent now with a heater, but they say the cold is their largest threat.
"You don't got to feed us nothing," Nate said. "We don't need clothes, nothing, we'll figure that out. We just want to be warm."
Activists are concerned if Minneapolis shuts down encampments this winter, like it has several times already this year, people's lives could be in danger.
"[Winter survival supplies] are the sort of things that get destroyed and seized by the police and by city workers during evictions, and people have to often start from scratch," said Simeon Aitkin, an advocate for unhoused people.
Aitkin and others want a full stop on winter encampment evictions. Mayor Jacob Frey has said a moratorium is not something he plans to do.
Unhoused people say shelters often feel unsafe, if there are even any available beds, and they have little faith in government resources.
Activists are also pushing for longer-term measures, like a city-sanctioned encampment or lobbying for some of the state's $17 billion budget surplus.
Click here for more on the city's response to homeless encampments.