Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey doubled down on his reasoning for why he believes homeless encampments need to be shut down across the city.
“There are areas of the city like the Northside that have seen crime drop significantly. Why? One, because our officers and office of community safety is doing a great job,” Frey said. “But, two, you do not see homeless encampments around those areas in the same numbers.”
Frey shared his thoughts after two shootings broke out inside south Minneapolis encampments over the weekend, one of which was fatal.
While speaking with News Talk 830 WCCO’s Adam and Jordana, Frey said the encampments are dangerous hotbeds for fentanyl, which is a complicated problem to clean up.
Frey stressed that work needs to be done to shut down the encampments, calling on city council members who have so far refused to do so.
“This is about doing the upstream work to prevent these drugs from coming into the city to begin with. This is about doing the downstream work of prosecution of some of these dealers. This is about making sure people have prevention services, healing services, harm reduction, and all of the above. None of it is easy.”
Frey noted that the vast majority of the city’s homeless population live in shelters, not encampments.