Homelessness in Minnesota rose 10% from 2023 to 2024, while the national average increased about 18%, according to the 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report. 

The Hennepin County Point in Time (PIT) Count, a community survey meant to determine the breadth of homelessness, reported that the county found about 3,370 people staying in shelters and about 500 experiencing homelessness in 2024. 

Among the increase in homelessness locally was a spike in families experiencing homelessness, leading to an increase in shelter usage, according to the PIT count. Shelter use in the county increased by around 30% in 2024 and about 79% in 2023. 

Council Member Elliott Payne (Ward 1) said Minneapolis is fighting this increase with its Housing First program, which helps people get stable housing and then provides additional help for issues like mental health or outstanding warrants. 

Payne said a problem with Minneapolis’ current policy of evicting encampments is that when outreach workers in the Homeless Management Information System build trust with homeless people and their encampment gets evicted, they are often unable to find that person.

“As a unit becomes available for housing or a place in a treatment center becomes available, the outreach worker would go to the encampment to find the person that they know would be a good fit for that next step in the continuum of care,” Payne said. “If that encampment (has) been evicted and the residents of that encampment have been scattered across the neighborhood into other encampments as a result, you lose track of that person.” 

On Friday, Payne said the City Council also passed $100,000 of emergency contingency funding to support the Minnesota Indian Women’s Center. The center created a warming hub for those in need and a navigation center to allow a more direct connection with Hennepin County to access more permanent housing solutions. 

To contribute to the homeless work Minneapolis is doing, members of the City Council are working on the Humane Encampment Response Ordinance which would give more accurate data around costs and resources needed following encampment evictions, Payne said. 

“Our theory on City Council is that evicting an encampment doesn’t change the number of people struggling outdoors,” Payne said. “It just uses a bunch of city resources to move the problem around the city in a whack-a-mole way.” 

Payne said the City Council does not decide whether to evict encampments but can dictate where the city’s resources are going and how much. 

Jason Urbanczyk, a Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless community outreach fellow, said he experienced homelessness six years ago and is now writing legislation to help solve unsheltered homelessness through the process of clearing encampments. 

“I lost everything I own numerous times over. When I mean everything I own everything except the clothes on my back,” Urbanczyk said. “We did the best that we could trying to keep law enforcement out of the actual process. So they’re still there, but we took them out of the legislation and we were taking it out of there. We’ve defined what encampment is inside the legislation.” 

Urbanczyk said that once signed into law, the coalition will be able to store belongings left behind by people after encampment clearings. The legislation is currently at the state research office, where its final language is being drafted before they begin looking for support from other nonprofit homeless advocacy groups, Urbanczyk said. 

Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless Executive Director Jessica Mathias said she attributes the rise of homelessness to the increased cost of living, possible chemical dependency and mental health issues. 

“There’s a huge gap between the amount that people can make an income and what the cost of rent is and rent has continued to go up year after year while income has remained stagnant and it’s that simple,” Mathias said. “I think it’s even people that aren’t necessarily on those poverty thresholds right now who in the past few years have really been struggling to just maintain their livelihoods.” 

Open Your Heart is an organization that helps fund organizations who do “boots on the ground” work to give resources to the homeless, Mathias said. 

Mathias said it is important to highlight barriers homeless people deal with daily. 

“People are really at this point of one job loss, one sick kid, one of those life-altering events away from becoming homeless,” Mathias said. “There’s a huge percentage of people that don’t have that safety net, they don’t have savings, so just really being mindful that everybody that’s unhoused is somebody’s child, it’s somebody’s sibling, somebody’s friend and these are humans that need our help and are not to be looked at as a problem.”

KATRINA BAILEY: Located on Arlington and Pleasant street, Fraser Hall is getting remodeled for the upcoming 2025 Fall semester.

The building will be used to house 1,000 and 2,000 level chemistry classes.

Construction workers Haley Brennan and Mike Aberathy said the construction process is doing well. 

MIKE ABERATHY: “The U has been great to us. Everything has worked out really well. The students has been polite. Give us time to move our materials. I know we block off roads. Nobody has really been too upset.” 

BAILEY: The chemistry department already has two buildings, Smith and Kolthoff Hall. These buildings will still be used for research. 

The Chemistry Director of Undergraduate Studies Angela Perkins said the new building will open up space for the current buildings and lower student to faculty ratios.

ANGELA PERKINS: “24 students per TA instead of the 28 we have here but we also get a little bit more space per student we pick up and they’re not as crowded and more functional to how we run as labs.”

BAILEY: Perkins said the department is slated to take possession of the building July 7, with classes beginning in it at the start of this upcoming Fall semester. 

PERKINS: “The project manager, who’s running the project is on it, she’s, things are moving. They have a schedule.” 

BAILEY: The building has five floors with a basement. The bottom floor will consist of a study space, with labs facing the Mississippi River.

Perkins said several classrooms in Smith and Kolthoff were not ADA compliant, but ensures rooms in the new building will be. 

The newly remodeled Fraser Hall will keep its historic front with new rooms and spaces in the back. 

This is Katrina Bailey with the Minnesota Daily. 

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is seeking his third term as mayor after officially announcing his reelection campaign Wednesday. 

Frey, who was first elected in 2016, is running against several candidates which include current Council Member Emily Koski (Ward 11), Sen. Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis) and Rev. DeWayne Davis. 

Frey has increasingly been at odds with the progressive-majority Minneapolis City Council over the city budget and homelessness.

The Minnesota Daily: Why did you decide to run for a third mayoral term?

Frey: “We’re moving through our big city challenges, and Minneapolis is coming back with real results in virtually every category. Let’s be clear though, the job is not done, and I am running right now to finish the job, to set Minneapolis on an extraordinary trajectory, to set the next mayor up for success, and to set our residents and the people who love Minneapolis up in a place where the city is excelling in a number of different areas. So, if you look at, for instance, housing, we are recognized as the national leader in affordable housing policy. You don’t need to take my word for it, you can talk to the former secretary of HUD (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development). We are producing eight and a half times the amount of deeply affordable housing since before I took office. The work we’ve done to help desegregate the city through the 2040 comprehensive plan and to provide more affordable housing is a national leader.”

“In the areas of safety and police reform, we’re making great strides. We are recruiting a police department that is diverse, that looks like the city at large with police officers that are committed to the city and even live in it. That’s something that people have been asking for for years and we’re actually making it happen. We are seeing a huge and full-scale reform come through in the way of both the settlement that are in the settlement agreement and the consent decree, reforms that are underway, transforming the way that we do community policing in Minneapolis. We’re providing a comprehensive approach. We had heard calls to have an office of community safety where it wouldn’t just be officers responding to 911 calls, but we have a 24/7 mental health response that we’ve implemented.”

“These are things that other cities around the country have not been able to get done. We’re doing it. I’m so optimistic about where we’re going, and here’s what I’ll tell you, and this is kind of the bottom line, is I am not the same mayor that I was when I took office. I have learned lessons that made me a better leader and a better person, and I use those lessons every day. And let’s face it, right now, with everything that is going on around the world that kind of experience matters. That kind of experience matters right now, and I’m sure all of us have learned a lot over the last several years and we’re in a position now to really set the city up for success.”

Daily: If you get elected for a third term, do you plan to run for a fourth? 

Frey: “It would be three. Yeah no, I’m not. As soon as I knew I wanted to be in politics, I knew I wanted to be mayor of Minneapolis. I’m a believer in that, and it was an area of policy where I had passion. There were things that I wanted to get done, but I don’t need to be in this job of politics forever. And I certainly don’t need to be mayor forever, but we want to get a job done and we want to set the city up for a beautiful trajectory for success and we’re making that happen.” 

Daily: If re-elected, what would be your top priorities for “finishing up in Minneapolis” that you’re talking about? 

Frey: “Yep, the overarching priorities have not changed. The overarching priorities are a focus on housing with the focus on deeply affordable housing. It is safe, and that is inclusive of police reform. They go hand in hand. It is recovery and this economic comeback following COVID-19. 

Climate. The climate work we’ve got going and for this next term it’ll be implementing our climate legacy initiative, which is a national leader where we’re providing about $10 million annually every year to do work around reducing our per capita carbon footprint.” 

“And then the final one is just getting the basics right which is a huge one that you can’t forget about. We got to do the basics well. We got to show that Democratic cities can work and yeah so those are the five areas that I have been focusing on. I will continue to focus on those five areas.” 

“There is a ton of other work, and I mean just to let you know, give you a few examples within the area of housing. It is to work with our homeless community. We’re seeing reductions right now in homelessness, and we want to see that continue. Within that obviously, we have work around addiction and prevention care and treatment in the areas of safety. We’re looking to continue on both police recruitment, getting a diversity of officers and backgrounds and mentalities, and also getting people that really care about the city deeply and we’re doing that now. But it’s not limited to that. It’s making sure that we’ve got mental health responders, social workers, people that can respond to a 911 call providing a unique skill set to whatever the unique experiences that are happening on the ground. And then in terms of business and the economy, it’s making sure that we are setting up small businesses for success. They are the backbone of our city. Small businesses and workers are a backbone of their success in the city and we need to make sure we’re supporting them.”

Daily: How do you feel about the other candidates running for mayor? Do you see them surpassing you? 

Frey: “We obviously anticipate winning this election. We’re in a better spot than where we were in 2021. We have a track record of bringing the city back. Also, a track record of making decisions. Say what you want about me, but I’ve had the courage to make decisions that are not politically popular in the immediacy but over time have proven right, and I’ll just give you a few examples. When we first pushed for this 2040 comprehensive plan that, again, would push back on the intentional segregation in our city over 100 years, we got a lot of pushback. It wasn’t easy, but we got it done and now it’s the leading housing policy in the country.”

“When 2,000 people came to my home and demanded that I defund the police, I said no, and it wasn’t easy when people were spitting at me or throwing stuff at me, but it was the right decision for the city. We need deep reform. We need a culture shift, yes, and we also need police.

It was lonely at the time, but it was the right decision. There are countless decisions more recently where, again, it may not have been the politically popular thing to do at the moment, but it was the right thing to do. I’ve got a long history of taking a stand for what’s right even when it’s tough to tell people at times what they don’t want to hear and right now in politics, we need people that have the courage to tell their own side what they don’t want to hear.” 

“We need Republicans that have the guts to stand up and say out loud that Donald Trump is doing things that are ruinous to this country. At times we also need Democrats that are willing to stand up to the far left and say, ‘Hey you know what, hang on a second let’s think. Let’s think things through, let’s do it right and I’ve had people come to me, I’ve had elected officials, I’ve had council members that have said ‘Oh you know, Donald Trump’s elected, we need to go harder left.’ But the opposite of extremism isn’t the opposite extreme. The opposite of extremism is good, thoughtful government where we’re listening to experts. We’re following what the data says and we’re doing it right and that’s what I’ve offered, and it’s a steady approach that works. I’m not making decisions around what social media points are. I’m making decisions around what’s best for the city.”

“So by the way I guess your question, I think the strongest candidate appears to be of those that are challenging, at least on paper, appears to be Sen. Omar Fateh. I respect anybody who’s got the courage to put their name on the ballot. Look, I respect that. It’s a courageous thing to do.”

This interview has been edited for clarity, grammar and length.