And then the amount of money it's gonna cost to destroy this encampment, right?

Not only destroy what they have, you're talking about it over I looked into what it was saying about three hundred thousand dollars to move these encampments.

Why don't you take that money and invest it in some type of housing, whether you like if they get high or not?

That doesn't matter.

They're people.

And these are not all people on drugs.

These are people who have been abused.

These are people who have to choose between a car or a home, and they're choosing their car because then they can still get to work.

Why?

Because they're convicted felon.

Welcome.

Hi, my name is Israel Dupree.

I'm a resident of St.

Paul, Ramsey County.

It's been years.

Um, I don't even know if y'all know that.

We're not going nowhere.

Yeah, we do but not.

We got kicked us from with the trains and the other ones, Bruventos, and we ended up in Lorient.

Now what?

We already set up.

We got a community there.

We got villages in there.

Come walk down there right now.

Each one of y'all come down here and walk.

We got it.

How about y'all send some construction workers to teach us how to build the we've already built up and build it real nice?

Give us some skills.

We got bikes down here.

Most of people who ride on bikes.

Teach us how to build a bike.

Send some of them workers that appoint some people to come down here and teach us some skills because we're not going nowhere.

I don't know what y'all thinking.

Y'all think y'all can what?

Kick us down the road?

Yes, we're going down the road again.

We already heard.

Come meet us where we get.

Hi, my name is Jacqueline Levanier.

I'm a resident in St.

Paul over in Mounds Park, Ward 7.

Um, and uh I'm also an educator.

Uh but I came because this is just deep on my heart.

And I the city says they want safety, but the city also says the shape shelters don't have enough space, which they don't.

So tell me, how is it safe for our neighbors to be without their tents and their belongings?

How is it safe for our unhoused neighbors to have no community and nowhere to go?

This so-called plan isn't addressing safety.

It's spreading out individuals in an effort to make safety concerns invisible, to make our unhoused neighbors invisible, making our unhoused neighbors invisible does not respect their humanity, does not create safety, and is not how I want our city to create to treat our community members.

Aside from the lack of safety in the plan, this plan will only create a cycle of destruction and pushing people around, repeatedly wasting resources.

Resources that could be better used to improve access to resources, right?

And to housing.

So as a resident of Ward 7, I would much rather see resources put into outreach and housing, stop clearing of the encampments, and let our neighbors live.

Good evening, Council President, members of the council.

My name is Adam Beers, and I'm a person who has personally experienced homelessness over 10 years ago.

I now hold a BA in sociology and psychology and worked in behavioral health and substance use services for nearly a decade.

Throughout my career, I've worked with people navigating housing instability, poverty, trauma, chaotic substance use, untreated mental health conditions, and barriers to health care.

Those are some of the social determinants of health.

And today I'm asking you to look through a public health lens with me because we're talking about people.

If people would have forgotten about me, I wouldn't be standing here today.

This isn't a budget meeting or a meeting about parks and recreation.

This is a meeting about people.

And as you say, their health, safety, and dignity.

The city's own data says heart houses only 75 total people in 2023.

While identifying an average of 115 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness every week.

And those numbers have probably tripled today.

They tell me we're asking those numbers don't tell me we're solving homelessness.

They tell me we're asking an overwhelmed system to do the impossible.

And that's not improving community health, safety, or dignity.

The city also says heart connects people to critical health and housing services.

I am grateful for their hard work, but to inform many of you who have never interacted with a person living on the streets, those relationships take weeks or months to build.

And a sweep can destroy that trust in one single morning.

We already know the better options.

Seattle's tiny home villages help 63% of residents move into permanent housing.

Austin's community first village has maintained an 88% housing retention rate.

These communities invested in stability instead of displacement.

Evicting hundreds of people from these encampments without a plan separates them from medications, identification, case managers, and the outreach workers.

I don't see many city workers, but many of outreach workers who are sitting here today who spent months or years building that trust.

Sweeps increase instability, make people harder to reach, and will increase the risk of overdose and death.

This means a lot to me because I know what it's like to have nowhere safe to go.

But I also know what it feels like when one person believes you're still worth helping.

Tonight I'm asking you to have the courage to tell Mayor her that public health doesn't begin with a bulldozer.

It begins when we decide every person deserves a chance to have their own set of keys, a couch, a hot shower, and a safe place to sleep at night.

Because six months from now, these encampments won't be the question.

The question will be whether the people who live there are still alive.

Make sure to sign in.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Guadalupe Fongen, and I am homeless.

I've been homeless since March.

Me and my husband, we were uh became homeless because of the fraud situation.

Um I had to leave some at Academy School.

I had lead housing.

Now I know when there's crimes committed, there's a restitution.

What is the restitution to the whole to the people that are being caught in between the cracks of the fraud situation?

These people are not being held accountable.

Not everybody, every day, people just get to shut down change or name shut down the business, and they take all our finances, and we end up on the street.

Me and my husband have been there since March.

Okay, we have all the resources, but we there needs to be um the vision is to create community, wholeness, and stability.

The plan, organized workers for prior for prioritizing who's ready and help create a plan so those can get ready.

Need.

We need compassion, empathy, opportunity, and their due diligence with networking people to stable housing.

Connection is important.

We need that.

There is no reason why we need to be out here.

Not everybody is on drugs, everybody wants to live in a tent.

I don't want to wash myself with a bottle of water every day, okay?

It's not my husband's fault.

We have everything.

We are the surviving of a fraud situation, and it's not fair.

You know, it's dangerous out there.

It's so dangerous.

You don't know whether you're gonna be raped, kidnapped, and I have my husband, but what about those who don't have a husband and don't have somebody else?

Please think and consider humanity.

God bless you.

Just a quick quick reminder to folks to please make sure you sign in after you're done testifying.

Welcome up.

Siblings at home and here in the chamber, please turn your iPhones, smartphones to Isaiah chapter 5, verse 20, and while I ask the council members a question very pointedly.

The American Public Health Association, the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world.

What data has Assistant Mayor Baker shown you that contradicts their evidence that these sweeps are ineffective, they're deadly, and they don't do what the intended plan is for the city of St.

Paul.

What evidence have you seen from the assistant mayor or mere her that suggests the oldest and most wise organization on public health is wrong?

What data actually went into this discussion?

In fact, how many people were actually talked to?

How many residents of the encampments were talked to?

On July 8th, as a newish member to the county wide call, I was floored to see the frontline workers of this county had no goddamn idea that these camps are gonna get enclosed.

I didn't know who's there until that's right.

There's some of the best people on the front lines here in this city after we saw what happened with Operation Metro Surge, and I would like to remind you all that they have not left.

ICE is still here.

The beautiful bill is going to cut snap benefits.

It is going to cut Medicaid.

It is going to result in more of our friends and our neighbors falling into an unhouse situation.

I didn't see nothing from the presentation today.

From Mr.

Cedric Baker.

I haven't seen anything that actually shows the semblance of a coordinated plan.

You can put paint on this and say whatever you want.

But Isaiah 520 says, woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

This plan is against science.

This plan is against the people of St.

Paul who want to show up but weren't at the table.

We can do better, we should do better.

And I say, woe unto you, Cedric Baker.

I say woe unto you, Mayor Herr.

I say woe unto you, every council member who supports this, as well as our county commissioners and the mayor of St.

Paul, who is not in this room.

Woo!

Welcome up.

I come here in love.

I come here in peace, and I love every single person in this room.

Okay.

Talk about it.

My name is Mariah Anderson.

Go ahead, plain.

I'm 17 years old.

And I've recently graduated from high school of recording arts.

And I'm currently I'm currently a participant in the same pope program youth on boards.

I'm speaking to you as a same po youth resident from Word 4 Planning District 12, who has previously experienced a lack of staple housing.

When I first saw the headlines regarding the issue, I thought it was fake.

It shocked me that this was the chosen solution over a long-term resolution.

If you truly wanted to solve the issue of homelessness in our city, we wouldn't be talking here today.

I would suggest that the city of St.

Paul invest in a long-term situation solution rooted in empathy and compassion.

A solution that is safe, effective, sustainable, and accessible.

Something like allocating the $300,000 to renovating the many abandoned buildings to provide to our unhoused neighbors for three.

I've met many of you personally.

I saw all of you last week.

Um and I've discussed with some of you about how difficult it is to engage the community in poor issues.

Well, we are here, and what we want is clear.

It's not all of us, but it's enough.

So I trust you.

I trust I put my full trust in you to advocate for the unhoused youth, especially.

They may not be living in a home, but they are living, they're living human beings.

And to the spectators and speakers here today, I urge you to do what you can, how you can.

I personally leave, I keep snacks and water bottles in my car, so every time I drive by and I see someone on the street, I I give it to them.

I give it to them.

And that's not everyone's thing, but being here and speaking today can be your thing, and that's important.

It's important that you show up.

And to the elected officials present, please remember that you serve the people of St.

Paul, including the unhoused ones.

I leave you with this.

Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

Have an amazing day.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Hi, uh, my name is Kumi Smith, and I'm a professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota.

Today I speak on behalf of uh myself, not the university.

Um the St.

Paul officials are framing the planned closure of these encampments around public health.

The concerns that they cite, like fire overdose, these are very real threats.

However, the proposal to use closure as a solution to them does not make any logical sense.

It doesn't take having a PhD to know that sweeps do not put out fires, sweeps do not reverse overdoses, sweeps do not create shelter beds.

Uh when we're interviewing encampment residents, they have really logical and uh effective solutions.

They want things like fire extinguishers, reliable emergency response, porter potties, hand washing stations.

Um without these services, though, residents and outreach workers have done an amazing job of managing a lot of these risks on their own.

But using sweeps to address public health is not only illogical, it is covering up the real detriment of sweeps to public health.

We know that when these things happen, that people lose ID, they lose medications, they lose survival gear.

It undoes critical progress that medical and housing teams make when they can reliably locate where their clients are.

Outreach nurses have told me that their caseload has doubled now that they can actually find their uh that they're their patients in these camps and that they spend most of their time actually treating them.

Um the scariest thing of all is research that my team has uncovered, showing that sweeps can actually take the manageable health public health risks that we face in these camps and turn them into fatal ones.

We have found that our data shows that the overdose rate consistently spikes in the wake of a sweep up to up to two weeks after.

I'll say that again.

The overdose risk of not just encampment residents, of everybody spikes in the two weeks following a sweep.

Our statistical models can't tell us why, but people with lived experience can tell us why.

They talk about severed medical access and the community network that keeps people alive being broken apart.

I implore the city to halt these uh closures in the name of public health.

Um, if if the city wants to base their decisions in public health evidence, we have plenty for you.

And we we do want to ask these thank you very much.

Thank you, and to stop treating our neighbors as a visibility problem and to start investing in the systems of care that keep them alive.

Make sure to sign in.

Thank you.

Welcome.

My name is Melissa Kennedy.

I'm a mother.

I'm a grandmother.

And I've read that most people are two paychecks away from being where I'm at.

I've only been in the camp for about a week and a half.

I've experienced the camp for about three years.

I never thought that I'd be there, but here I am.

And I've had more help from people who have absolutely nothing to offer.

Who will offer their last bottle of water and hang up?

I don't understand how we got to this, but I know that it's gonna take everyone to fix it.

Just pushing it around to another space or separating us is not gonna do it.

And may I say that I feel like um having us in the encampment, we at least can band together and fight for what we need.

If you separate us all, we won't be able to even have a say.

Because we're scattered.

We're community.

A community that most of us were taxpayers, voters, and we will be again.

So I ask that you help us.

Don't hurt us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hello.

I'm Tuvia Bergson Michelson and I live in Ward One.

Other folks have spoken about the reality on the ground more eloquently than I can.

So I'm going to take a different approach.

I'm a public policy student at the Humphrey School.

And I have to say I would be scared to submit the mayor's plan in one of my classes, let alone my professors would ask what's the end game here?

People will form new encampments no matter how many sweeps you conduct, unless they have a meaningful path out of that cycle.

This plan will just create more deaths in the short term and more encampments in the long term.

Another question they'd ask is what the research says.

Studies in Seattle and LA show that a large majority of displaced people remain unsheltered after sweeps.

Baroque has calculated that overdose deaths rise by 71%.

Meyer and Chang found that there's a higher risk of violence in the aftermath of sweeps.

And that's all before the psychological cost.

I know encampments aren't exactly perfect, but the research almost universally agrees that sweeps are the wrong answer.

There's something I think a lot about in class.

When businesses leave town, vote with their feet.

We ask why, and we try to find a policy solution.

The same is true for homeowners.

But I think we often forget to do the same for struggling social services.

Folks often avoid shelters for a reason.

Encampments are a form of people voting with their feet just as much as anything else.

I ask you to work with our encamped neighbors to find real long-term solutions.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

My name is Jerson Lopez.

I've been homeless idea for about five years.

I've been in some of the the uh Kimball court for two years.

Um, the bathrooms filled with feces for weekends at a time.

Um people being kicked out for lies and allegations from the property management.

That's that's that's our shelter?

I'm going to the bathroom 50% of the time outside anyways.

Because somebody's nodded off in the bathroom, or there's feces in the bathroom.

Like a transverse rap screen with massive diarrhoea.

How is that right?

So much roaches that they clear out a bedroom, and it looks like I can stick my hand through the door of roaches.

There is no dough there, it's all roaches.

Covering the door.

I feel like I can stick my hand through it.

That's that's that's our our shelter.

Filled with lies, theft from our property management.

Bikes being taken because we don't have enough room to store our stuff and our bikes?

We can only have a friend over for so many so long.

We only get seven overnights a month.

Come on, I shouldn't be told when I can have and when I can't have friends over.

That's a freedom.

That's a freedom.

That's one of our rights.

Our rights are being taken away because of lies.

And neglect for people to actually look into the things that people are saying.

I feel more at home outside in these encampments than I do in the in a shelter.

That's not right.

By people that are higher than me and no more people.

Just because they can go to the courts and say, oh, he didn't he didn't pay his rent because you signed somewhere else.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Awesome.

Hello.

My name is Rebecca Homard, and I am a resident of Ward 7.

I have owned and lived in my home in Dayton's Bluff for two years, and I've been represent represented by Councilmember Johnson the whole time.

I am vehemently against the mayor's encampment plan.

Other folks have explained in thorough detail why this crisis or why this plan is less of a plan and more of a crisis in the making.

I want to call in our city council, and specifically mine, council member Johnson.

I expect an elected official to represent all of their residents of their ward, including those at the Fish Handry encampment.

I'm really disappointed that you're not.

Every human deserves shelter, access to clean water, and culturally sensitive and safe care, support, community, and shelter.

With this plan, many, many people will not have access to any of those things.

They already have a really tenuous grasp on any on all of these resources.

So why are we taking that away from that?

Why now, in the heat of the summer?

Why now, with so few extra shelter beds available?

Exactly.

Earlier today, um the the public safety committee reported that there are only an additional less than 50 beds for 49 beds for an estimated, an estimated about 200 residents of these encampments, which we've heard from several people who are active in the community that that's just not true.

So why now, with no advanced notice for real and strategic planning to occur across the city and the county.

Why also is city council proposing to expand their salaries to 70% of the mayor's pay?

When our medium income in the city is less than half of that.

Many, many people are just two paychecks away from losing their homes.

We all have family and friends who have either experienced homelessness, are extremely close to experiencing homelessness, or are homeless.

We need time and we need a real plan.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Also, it says that you need to have an address right here on this sign-in sheet.

And many of the people in this room don't have an address.

Thank you.

Welcome up.

I just think that uh the least dignified thing is being sorry, can you just start with your name and where you're coming from?

Oh, Michael.

My name is Mike.

Um I just think that the most or the least dignified thing is to um have to uh let the let you guys tell us that we failed and that you should tell us where to go.

We should sweep you guys out.

That's really how the government that's how that's how I thought America worked anyway.

So shit, I forgot.

I'm just gonna go.

That's okay.

Welcome up.

Hello, my name's Ixul.

You could name any ward, and I probably live there.

What I'm about to say is all connected and is inspired by black, Afro-Indigenous, and indigenous praxis.

As understanding the interconnectedness we have living beings have with each other and the land, despite what different councils, representatives, companies, departments, wards, or any other Anglo-Saxon or colonial embodiment tries to force people onto.

We do not live in an alienated or separated world.

And the smog in the air is proof of that.

And the lead coming out of uh northern iron, police blockades, drone usage, the criminalization of youth with terms like Somali gangs, or legal protesters being called political terrorists, or disabled journalists being attacked by SCPD.

And now what we are talking about is encampment sweeps.

These are all examples and reminders that colonialism is an ongoing project, an example of internal colonies being attacked.

And historically, like in Haiti, when the subjugated through struggle, take back their air, their land, their food, and their homes, and reject the heinous labels thrown onto them for labels of their own, such as human, such as liberator, revolutionary, or ally.

That is when we see things change.

But that's just descriptive.

And I don't deal with dogmatic prophecies.

But I can't help but ask the historical question to everyone here.

What is it gonna be?

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign up.

Hey, land back.

And uh revelation!

Land back in reparation!

My name is Nick Stary, and I live in the Frogtown area.

Good afternoon, members of city council and everyone here today.

I stand before you as someone who has lived this life.

I know the what addiction feels like and looks like.

I know what homelessness feels like.

I know what it feels like to be to believe that no one sees you anymore.

Today I also stand before you as someone who spends nearly every day down with these encampments, not to judge people, but to build relationships with them.

Over the past several months, I have helped connect many individuals into detox treatment and program and recovery programs and other services.

That success didn't happen be because I forced anyone into recovery.

It happened because I trust was built first.

That trust takes time.

Understand the concerns about the encampments.

I've seen the fires, I've seen the overdoses, I've seen the violence.

I watch people struggle and and with severe mental illness and addiction.

No one is saying these conditions are acceptable.

But closing the encampments without housing, treatment beds, or long-term support doesn't estimate doesn't eliminate those problems.

It changes where they happen.

My concern is that people will scatter throughout the city.

Outreach workers will lose contact with many of them.

Relationships that took months to build may disappear overnight.

Some people will become even harder to reach, some may overdose alone.

Um that is what keeps many of us, many of us awake at night.

I'm not here to just point the finger or point the problems at people.

I'm asking to us to work together and manager a coordinated six-month stabilization stabilization effort before displacement, wraparound services on site, medical professionals, mental health service, um health support available regularly, peer recovery specialists building relationships every day, housing navigator, navigators, helping people obtain identification, benefits and housing applic um applications, law enforcement to focus on reducing violence and drug trafficking while working alongside outreach groups, not against them.

Daily transportation to detox treatment.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Welcome up.

Welcome up.

Uh my name is Timothy Roderick.

Uh most people want me as we go.

But uh I just came up here to say a couple things.

And if y'all shut down this campaign, where do people gonna go?

They're gonna go back to the side of the road when y'all pull up on the side, you know what I'm saying?

Get up the E-way, you're gonna see all these tents lined up again.

I know y'all don't want that.

You know what I'm saying?

And uh what everybody gonna go what back to jail?

Yeah, because that's the first thing that's gonna happen, you know what I'm saying?

If we shut these camps, you're gonna go back to those days and back to the streets.

Oh, you know where they originally came from?

They're gonna go right back to jail.

I just I just got my my warrant squared.

I'm I'm trying to get housing, get my kids back, my wife over there, I got a dog.

Like there's a lot of stuff that needs uh uh adjustments over there, a lot of help.

Uh uh I I just I just we just lost uh uh good friend our uh name Mr.

Uh and I think the uh some trail underneath the uh bridge or something like that over by uh the the holiday over by uh yeah, Bruce Withels or whatever, yeah.

Like he has a good friend, I just I used to play football with him.

Like I can't even talk about it, but like if y'all take this by that's what you're gonna get is mister, you know what I'm saying?

With the rest of these people.

You feel me?

Like so they they need your help, any guidance, you know what I'm saying?

Any structure, you know what I'm saying?

They need encouragement, you know what I'm saying?

They need strength, you need help, love, hurt, you mean like looking down on you, y'all want to be homeless?

Yeah, yeah, you can take my shoe off and give it to you.

You ain't the last in my seats, I promise you you won't.

First time you put your foot in my shoes, you will fumble.

Boom boom.

You see, because you ain't gonna be able to hold that way.

I guarantee you won't.

So I just I just I just say you know, like we think what y'all trying to do because it's it ain't doing no good, you know what I'm saying?

So that's you know, like we need housing, we don't need people looking down on us, disgracing us, you know what I'm saying, judging us because uh uh uh uh this could happen to y'all too.

Tomorrow come and you could lose your shit and be homeless just thank you very much.

Thank you.

Welcome up.

How you doing?

Uh they called me Wolf.

I am the facilitator at uh Big Saiyan Campbell.

I've been living in an area since 2012 in those woods by myself until 2016 when somebody decided to burn my shit down.

So I went to the shelters.

No.

I came from prison in 2012.

And all I wanted was freedom.

I had no place to go.

I didn't speak to family.

So the next best thing is to just isolate myself and you know survive.

And that's one thing that people have to understand that are not like us is that we're survivors.

We survived the harshest of weathers.

We have survived the harshest conditions.

And unfortunately we have survived each other.

And one thing about these encampments that you guys fail to realize is that it gives us an opportunity to feel safe.

Gives us an opportunity to move to the next step, which is housing or anything of it.

To tear down these encampments is like saying that we don't care what happens to you.

We don't care if you get murdered, raped.

I have lost many friends out here who I consider family more than my own.

And as dysfunctional as we are, we are family.

And this encampments are are unique because I and I ran three of them, so I know they are unique because it gives us an opportunity to feel safe.

Feel that we could associate with others like ourselves.

To me, it upset me when I read the news about the report.

I'm so sorry I wasn't I got absorbed in your story.

That is time.

Please make sure it's assignment.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Ready?

Hello, counsel.

My name is Scout.

I work and do mutual aid in St.

Paul.

I also help run We Are Zine, which is a magazine of art and writing from residents at the Pig's Eye Encampment.

We are we are has been doing mutual aid and creative art with residents of the encampment for a year.

We visit weekly.

We've cultivated very close friendships with many of the community members.

Yesterday we took a survey asking for their thoughts and concerns around the eviction, as we would like to share the perspective of those who could not attend the meeting today but want their voices to be heard.

The mayor's office has said that the that living at the park is not safe or dignified, and that the residents should go to shelters or group resident housing.

But we all know between the wait list for availability and trying to get access to required documents, these processes take months and years, not three weeks.

Those that have actually experienced living at the encampment and the shelters have experienced the living conditions that the shelters have expressed the living conditions that the shelters they've been to are not livable or sanitary.

They've said there was, quote, a lot of drugs, that it is quote difficult to avoid violence, and that it felt, quote, more like a prison.

They've cited an infantilizing 8 30 p.m.

curfew for grown adults and being in constant fear of getting kicked out of their housing for any misstep or any inadvertent rule breaking, especially for many individuals who don't speak English and aren't given adequate access to translators.

For years, unhoused people in the twin cities have been displaced and told to move to this specific encampment.

Residents expressed frustration at the decision to send people here and then kick them out from where they were sent.

The city pushed hundreds, hundreds of people to the camp, and now they want to push them out all at once.

The residents express a swamp flood already scarce shelter availability, saying ha quote, hundreds of people have nowhere to go, and that this will cause quote total chaos, along with more arrests and overdoses.

The residents have largely said this decision will kill people.

If any of you have the opportunity, I would suggest you have a conversation with two of the other gentlemen who just were here.

They're two of the greatest people we know, and they have incredible stories to tell you.

Thank you.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome.

Hi, my name is Aaron.

I live in Ward 5 of St.

Paul.

I'm also a founding member of We R Zine, and I wanted to continue off some of the points uh Scott made from the survey we took at Big Sai.

One resident said they feel Minnesota is, quote, setting the field to make being homeless illegal and have has been targeting myself and other unhoused individuals, stalking and charging us with minor and major infractions to further displace us from getting adequate employment and housing.

Another resident said that they believe that the point of this decision is to disappear unhoused people to incarceration, abduction by ice, or death.

One of the reasons the city has given for the encampment closure is drug use and overdose.

The residents believe the evictions would make these issues worse, which is backed up by numerous studies saying that at the camp, they are able to look out for each other, have a higher likelihood of having Narcan around and somebody able to administer it using a loan kills.

The city says encampments are unsafe.

Professionals say encampment sweeps are deadly.

The residents of Pig's Eyes say, quote, we have a community and neighbors working together to thrive.

Quote, we look out for each other.

Quote.

It's all love throughout here.

Quote, we have people that take a lap every night checking in, making sure everyone is safe.

Quote, people actually have a heart and listen to us and care about all of us here.

If you go through with these evictions, you will be targeted targeting the most vulnerable population of the city and taking them away from one of the most essential parts of life.

Community.

Thank you.

Welcome up.

Hi, my name is Nen, and I live in Ward 4 of St.

Paul.

I am an instructor at the University of Minnesota.

I do not and would not speak for the university.

And to conclude our discussion of the survey results, when asked what they would like the city to do instead of the current plan, the residents said, delegate one of the many empty residential or business buildings to provide adequate shelter and personal hygiene capabilities.

Quote, give more time at the least, a three-week notice just isn't enough time.

Hotel vouchers until quote GRH is available.

They have said that the encampment is willing to work with the city to accomplish the changes they want to see, but to blindside them with a short notice eviction is dehumanizing.

They suggested use it.

They've suggested using the exorbitant funds required to destroy the camp to instead install heating, running water, many houses, hand washing stations, or more acceptable restrooms.

One resident says the city should, quote, use city council pay raise for the homeless instead.

When asked what they would like to say to the mayor and the city government, residents stated, quote, why would you pat yourself on the back and ask for a pay raise at this time?

Shame.

Quote, you caused the problem and you are still the problem.

And quote, please don't force us to leave.

I have here for each council member a summary of the survey results, some scanned copies of selected surveys and copies of the zine, the first issue that came out in October of 2025, and the second issue that came out in the May of this year.

Uh these zines contain the artwork, writing, and lived experience of these talented, intelligent, caring, beautiful artists.

I will end by sharing quotes that I believe you all should hear.

We are not animals and we deserve to get treated like human beings.

I don't know what we're gonna do.

A lot of us don't have family to help us.

We are struggling, but we live together.

Let us live.

No evictions on stolen land.

Please don't take away our home.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Hi, um I will be speaking on behalf of two people residing at Fish Hatchery who are unable to come today but left me with their words.

The first person is Styles.

This is an actual community of individuals faced with daily struggles.

The adversity we deal with is already stressful enough.

Now we have to struggle with being displaced.

For my fourth separate time since May 2023, removed from our homes, we built with our bare hands, and now have to watch it all be destroyed by the city.

Well, I know that it doesn't apply to every city worker andor law enforcement official that comes to our community to do their weekly visit and quotations.

It doesn't, however, it does, however, apply to the ones who display displayed some sort of personal prejudice.

I've witnessed tents be bulldozed for no reason, leaving it in my eyes unjustifies unjustified.

They bulldozed one of my tents during the winter with eight full propane tanks in it.

When can we be looked at as a community of individual human beings instead of homeless people?

That was by Styles.

And what is it going to change for the homeless across the city?

Because when we get put out, it's going to be the same if we are here or not here.

We just want a plan after August 5th, because it's not that many housing for everybody.

Please come up with a plan for the homeless.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome back.

Welcome.

Thank you for your time.

My name's Matt from War One.

You guys are elected officials, and you got a really tough job on your hands.

Very sensitive topic in front of you.

I think we know two realities to be true.

One is we know the encampment's getting shut down.

It happens every year, every few years.

It just moves along like they continue to talk about.

I think the bigger question is then what?

I love my city.

I couldn't see myself living in any other city but St.

Paul because I think we're a forward thinking city.

And with that being said, what are the solutions?

What are the alternatives?

Like what are the conversations that are being had?

And maybe they're being had outside of public eyes, and you guys do have a plan behind the scenes.

But one thought is Totem Town.

There's a huge lot, there's a facility there.

There's parking decks that are unused that we could use the house and have a safe place.

Now, you know, from the outside looking in, I'm a first responder.

For some places, it can be extremely unsafe.

Yes, predator and prey, but more importantly, it's a community for a lot of people.

That's a situation we couldn't imagine living in, but they're making it work.

And I think the other biggest reality is encampments or immediate needs for right now.

There's no other solution for immediate as in right now.

And I think if we could create some kind of environment or ecosystem that is a city ran, potentially encampment, I don't know if there's any other in the country.

Maybe we're the first.

Maybe we start something amazing.

But the idea that they go from one place to the next, like my brother said over here, they could be in our backyard.

They could be in our neighbor's backyard.

They could be in your backyard, or more importantly, like I said, in your front door.

Because they're move with now they have frustration and anger as opposed to empathy.

Um it's a tough conversation.

It's a very, very tough conversation.

You guys would like to handle that decision.

Thank you.

Make sure to sign in.

Appreciate it.

Welcome up.

Hello.

My name is Lucid, and I come from the West Side Ward 2.

I am also the housing justice program manager at East Side Freedom Library.

With the name Lucid, allow me to make some things very clear.

Encampment sweeps are the opposite of housing justice.

They are active cruelty.

Housing justice is many things, but ultimately it is about respect and dignity and finding solutions that center those concepts.

As a Unitarian universalist, I believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person and sweeps spit in the face of that very notion.

This decision is arrogant and cruel.

I want to make clear that if our neighbors could be housed in less than a month, the residents and organizers here would have already done it.

The timeline given is impossible to complete humanely.

Any argument that services and resources will be provided and all residents housed is simply a lie.

I have had the privilege of never worrying where I would sleep at night.

And I am strongly aware that it is not because I am better than anyone, but because of luck.

I think anyone who supports these sweeps have not contended with that truth.

I will not stand by as my neighbors are punished for their luck.

I will stand on the side of human dignity.

As Unitarians say, emboldened by faith, we dare to proclaim we are standing on the side of love.

And to those who stand with me, solidarity.

Solidarity.

Welcome up.

Welcome.

Anine.

I also lead and run a native foundation.

I'm not here representing that foundation.

I also um am an active member of the Metro Urb Metro Urban Indian Directors, which covers over 30 nonprofits in Minneapolis and St.

Paul.

Also not here on their behalf, but what I'm saying, and I have been a student of public policy, University of Chicago, have lived and worked in other cities that have had coordinated response.

And one thing I just want to name is I run a community foundation.

Technically, I I should just be living in philanthropy, right?

But what I do with my free time, and there's others here who have spoken, and I also am a child of God and I love Creator and I do his work, whether it's in my job title or not.

So that's an invitation.

I spend my free time in camps with faith-based efforts in these other cities, in just recently been to Pig's Eye a couple of times.

Um and what I want to caution is being from the other side of the river.

I was on the other side three years ago thinking, right, with camps with Nen and Kazi, this isn't healthy, hearing all the concerns from our elders, from our other community members, but in reality, what I learned and what we learned through years of those three years of lived experiences, it is not better now.

Right?

And so now I'm really good friends with Nicole, who used to run that encampment and who did it very humanely and cleanly.

So I'm not saying that, and she's not saying that encampments are the solution, but what we know is what is happening isn't working.

Millions of dollars are circling the drain in Minneapolis.

You don't want to see that happen here with these sweeps.

So we I really just want to bring up is it is a situation bad enough yet, right?

That we could think radically different.

I spend my free time with individuals to understand.

Lots of addiction in my family, relatives in these spaces as well.

But I mean, unless you are you are losing things in translation from the people that are communicating up, you need to be out there and not with camera.

Thank you.

Welcome up.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Hey, what's up?

Uh, can you hear me?

I'm Sam Lagner.

I am a worker at Catholic charities.

Uh, I do not represent them today, but I've been in this field fair enough around 10 years.

And like I got a lot of points.

Uh you know, housing is cheaper than emergency services.

How many ambulance rides do you think our people get?

How much cheaper would it be if they just were able to have a house to go to to go to the doctor?

Like that's where our taxpayers are going.

Um if it really is about drugs and the people that use them.

First take a look at yourself.

We'll probably all use drugs in some degree.

Maybe it's alcohol, maybe it's cannabis.

That being said, if it is about the site of drug users, if it is about drug user health to prevent people from overdosing, why are we not investing in safe consumption sites where people can go and use their drugs, use their drugs safely, test their drugs, and we can bring them back if they have a fucking overdose.

That being said, I have a couple of more points.

Look at our population of who's homeless.

We're seeing different demographics, so we're seeing elders more than ever.

And let me tell you, the option that they're gonna go to shelter is not the answer.

Not everybody is going to shelter.

There are reasons.

I bet you a lot of people over there have restrictions at shelter.

I bet you a lot of those people have bad information, like have had bad experiences or traumatized, or maybe just the fact of staying inside sucks and they feel constricted.

What would you do if this was your family?

Like, what would you do if your mom or dad or brother or sister were down in that encampment?

Because the way the world's going, one of your kids probably is gonna go the one wave with the waves we don't.

And what I'll say is this you also gotta look at the workers.

We have you like ask the experts, ask the people in the camp.

I could point to you multiple people in this community who do direct service work who have the answers and have done this for years.

We like throwing people out.

Thank you.

It's just not gonna work.

Thank you.

Make sure to sign up.

Welcome up.

Hey, I just want to do a quick time check.

As I mentioned at the beginning, we do need to end the meeting at 6 30 because council members need to leave.

So I want to make sure as I'm looking around, I'm not sure if we're gonna get through everyone at 6 30.

We will recess and we will reconvene at another time to hear from those we haven't heard from tonight.

But I do want to ask if you're in line and you are a resident of an encampment, um, followed by a resident of St.

Paul.

If we could prioritize those folks to speak tonight, I would really appreciate them being able to come to the front.

Welcome up.

Uh council members, Cedric Baker, uh, you know, office of the mayor.

Uh, my name is Linda.

I reside in Ward 1.

Um, and I know you were looking really tired and you want to go home, I get it, but we had to listen to uh your office below about things that you don't know anything about.

I get it, but we had to listen to uh your office below about things that you don't know anything about.

So you have to listen to us now.

I just want to call out how brave it is for our unhoused neighbors and residents to come here into this room and sleep.

And I want to say why.

I over I talked to one of my friends at the uh encampment, um, Donet Shepherd, and she said she overheard an SPPD officer laugh when they found a dead man in his tent frozen saying he turned into a popsicle.

I've also seen videos of skid steers uh smushing wheelchairs that were being used by uh disabled residents.

Um I've heard folks or I've seen videos of these so-called uh you know outreach workers from the county and from the city come to the site with Mara Fur with cameras, standing at the front of the camp and just kind of dawdling around, not handing out any resources or talking to a single resident.

There's literally so much that they have to go through, and they've been told over and over by the city we don't actually care about you with your actions.

You may use nice words, you may say, Oh, this is dignity, this is empathy, but it is not dignity, it is not empathy.

Okay.

What is dignity empathy is listening to these folks that took the time out of their evenings of struggle and survival to come here and tell you to your face we are dying and we need help, and you're trying to kill us with these sweeps.

Sweeps are not the the uh answer as people have cited study after study by actual health like uh institutions.

We see the overdoses go up uh and people die.

And so if you want people to die, go ahead with the sweeps, but stop pissing on us and saying it's rain.

Thank you.

Welcome up.

Um before I say my name, I want you to picture a person sitting in a tent tonight.

A mother who escaped violence, a person in recovery fighting for a second chance, a veteran who served our country, a child who deserves a safe place to sleep.

We don't choose this life.

We are people who have been dealt difficult cards and hard situations.

Have you, as elected officials, ever walked into these shelters?

Do you know that there are about 40 people sleeping in cops, heads of feet?

This is not the way of our democracy.

We need to make a change.

And we need to put our people before our systems, and we need not to push people who have embedded their lives.

Uh camp uh a tent is maybe something that they only have.

And we take it away and we're sweeping them, and then we get rid of our sober housing.

Have anyone ever experienced addiction?

Housing is number one.

People, places, and things is what is taught.

And addiction should be seen as an illness.

It is not something that is trying to destroy our economy or our world.

And so we need the 40 million dollars that was just invested for rental assistance to be invested in those people in those encampments.

And if they only got 30 days, then we should have three days to make sure they have somewhere to go.

Because we have the money to do it.

We are not broke, and we will not be silent.

And I've actually lost family to this type of situation.

And we can't keep bullying our people.

We have to stand with them.

It doesn't matter about money and power systems or project.

We have to stand with the people.

And that's all I want you all to know.

Freedom is now, and you cannot kick us out.

And we will not be silent.

So before we flood the encampment on August 5th, please stand with us.

And I am Natasha Bennett running for Snakes Senate in this district.

We need Welcome.

I just wanted to say that addiction, mental health, and the city.

Sorry, can you start with your name and where you're coming from?

Thank you.

Addiction, mental health, etc.

Is that of spiritual?

It's a spiritual nature.

Love conquers all.

Our world is clearly at a uh point of transformation, and I believe it's of spiritual nature.

Minnesota, the land of 10,000 treatment centers where broken spirits come to heal and they stay.

And there's a land with many natives that have been here and know a lot about our land.

You won't break us.

They can't break us as they've seen, like the country has seen, and I think we can do something very different as a state, starting with stuff like this, choosing to help each other versus choosing money.

Um, but you uh uh if if worse comes to worse, people the system breaks when we stop paying your taxes and put it to the money, put the money to where we believe it should go.

If that's what we have to do.

Thank you very much.

Uh Casper Boyles, Miriam Park.

Um, and I am an assistant professor of public health, but I do not speak on behalf of my institution and just as a resident of St.

Paul and a human here today.

Um, and I want to first echo the comments that people have made about the community in the encampments and how that can allow for support and help from within and from without and and um want to echo many of the of the comments that were said today.

Um, and to the stated interests of public health to reduce injury, illness, and death in the encampments that have been stated by uh the the mayor's office.

Public health solutions must meet the complex and wicked problems that our society creates.

Homelessness is not random, and it is the result of human-made conditions and inequities.

A sweep might look like a quick fix, but public health's real solution is going further upstream to prevent an encampment from being the only option that a person has to live in the city of St.

Paul.

In addition to the lack of thorough and transparent plans to support those currently living unsheltered, I urge the mayor and the council to thoughtfully integrate prevention into their stated agenda.

Uh in 2020, the US government accounting office found that when controlling for other factors, a 100 increase in the median rent of an area was associated with about a 9% increase in the rate of homelessness without adequately addressing the affordable housing crisis in our city and in many other places.

Sweeping the encampments drains city funds and inflicts harm on residents.

Researchers in LA have also demonstrated that temporary housing strategies are largely unsuccessful in the long term because many people return to being unsheltered soon after.

If the city does not move even further upstream to prevent the next generations from becoming unhoused, a future council sitting here will be asked to conduct another sweep, or will be asking to conduct another sweep.

As of 2025, 5% of St.

Paul public school students answering the Minnesota Student Survey had reported homelessness in the last year.

15% of the survey respondents reported two or more adverse childhood experiences, which do increase a likelihood of homelessness in the future.

Um so please uh the thank you very much.

Yep.

Thank you.

Make sure to sign up.

Welcome up to the President.

Hello, I'm Amanda.

Um I have been homeless according to the state of Minnesota since uh July of last year.

Um but I moved into a HUD project that didn't have reliable heat, didn't we have reliable um air conditioning, didn't have reliable appliances, and I moved in there because I could no longer live with my mother who was suffering dementia and was becoming violent toward me and my dad.

I have lived in a shelter since January.

I have been kicked out three times for different reasons, two of which was bug infestation.

This last time I was kicked out because I had a T-shirt and shorts, PJ outfit, one that you buy from Target, actually, because it was supposedly inappropriate clothing for a shelter.

But we do not have at the shelter where I go any clothing except socks and underwear, sometimes, if it's available.

It's only supposed to be a sleep place, just a place to sleep.

For me, that is almost as what I was living in at my HUD ho HUD apartment, because that's basically all I could do, except I had my service animals before I went into the ER in December.

I know that HUD, the HUD program did not work.

There was fraud.

There was payments that I saw under the table in my own apartment.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Please sign in.

Welcome.

Welcome up.

I'm Valerie Jarvis from Ward 4.

And since we can't all get to speak today, can people raise their hands if they're not in support of the encampment sweep?

That's the majority of people here.

Not in support.

Yeah, you don't want the sweep to happen.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Anyway, this proves my point that why should we listen to the people who won't come here to stand behind their opinions?

If they're not here to speak their minds and they want this to happen, they should be here and talk about it.

We're all here today, and we're going out of our way and taking time out of our day.

They should have to too.

A lot of us voted for Mayor Her.

And probably some of us in this room also didn't, because we thought that she was going to be more progressive, different.

Right.

But this is more of the same, and this is regressive.

And in this time, we need strong leadership and community more than ever, because we have a target on our backs at the federal level.

We have to protect our community as best as we can.

And that includes all of our unhoused neighbors.

Because if they come for the weakest of us, they'll come for all of us eventually.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Welcome up.

Sorry, I'm a little nervous.

My name is Julia Schaefer.

I work as a paramedic.

And experienced homelessness.

A few times.

I the last time was uh last February.

Uh I was at the encampment.

Um and I was welcome there with open arms.

Um I feel like if I didn't run into those people, um I don't know where I would be today.

Um I met some really amazing people.

Um I wouldn't have ran into my friend Kelsey.

Um and I ended up getting into treatment and I'm in a sober house now.

Um so I mean, yes, I understand uh the safety concerns and stuff, but I believe as an addict, the most the best thing you can do is have community, and taking that away from people is gonna cause death.

I overdosed twice there, and if I wasn't around people, I would probably not be here.

So that's what I have to say.

Welcome.

Uh Steve Tuckner, Ward 5.

Um I've been hearing from all the speakers today about the insanity of this plan.

Why would the mayor do something so stupid and so cruel?

It's the same reason that Mayor Fry evicts every encampment in Minneapolis shortly after it's found.

Mayor Fry is brought by the city is blocked by the city's landlords, and I suspect that Mayor Her is as well.

Landlords love nothing more than their renters looking at homeless people desperate for shelter.

Those renters will think twice about complaining about their shitty apartments or try to organize with our neighbors.

Just like employers love precarious workers, landlords love precarious renters.

In todayhouse.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Hello, uh, my name is Corey Cole, and I am a public health scientist and violence prevention worker.

However, I am speaking here today only in my capacity as a Ward 7 resident.

The um people living in the fish hatchery encampment are my neighbors.

I appreciate and echo the words of everyone who has come up here and cited the consistent and clear public health literature saying that there will be lives on city officials' hands if this plan goes through.

To pretend otherwise betrays a disdain for the facts that is disqualifying of a city official or a belief that people who live in encampments are not human, also disqualifying for a city official.

However, this overdose spike is only one of the things that will happen if this plan goes through.

The uh press release and FAQ website from the city paint a very friendly picture of how an encampment eviction looks.

They says, oh, uh everyone will get to keep their belongings, everyone will get connected in housing.

All serious people know that this is not the case.

Um, all of us have seen evictions take place in Minneapolis, in St.

Paul, and across the country.

We know that this will result in people having their belongings taken, their medications taken, their supportive devices destroyed, many of whom have disabilities, substance use disorders, and physical and mental health conditions that make them extremely dependent on stability and kindness of others for survival.

Um severing people from the mutual aid organizations and communities that have done more for them than the bleeding and um emaciated safety net that this city has will only serve to um will only serve cruelty and death.

Um even though the city people may have their best intentions and may be talking about this in a way that is very um enticing to the public.

Even though the city people may have their best intentions and may be talking about this in a way that is very um enticing to the public, there is no humane way to remove people from their homes via force.

There is no polite way.

There is no dignified way.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Sam Robertson.

My pronouns are they, them, and I work for women's advocates, a domestic violence shelter in St.

Paul as our domestic violence priority list manager for Ramsey COC.

While this is a comparatively new role to this COC, um I've also touched the coordinated entry system as an assessor for almost 10 years.

So this is a system I know.

I'm familiar with.

So as some people mentioned earlier, there's a meet a weekly meeting on Wednesday mornings for sheltered and unsheltered service providers.

And I was at that meeting on July 8th when the assistant mayor baker joined and shared the upcoming encampment plan closures and the approach the city would be taking.

We were told that the approach would be one, persistent helpfulness.

Two, using the coordinated entry system.

And three, working to expand shelter capacity.

And I want to look you all in the eyes as I say this.

That is not a plan.

That is an approach.

Right?

And there are so many easily identifiable gaps in the first and three approaches that I just listed, but the one that I really want to specifically talk about is a second leaning on coordinated entry.

If you talk to anyone that's done coordinated entry, that's been an assessor, that's been a priority list manager.

Um or you take the time to sit in on an assessment.

One of the very first things you'll hear them say and that you'll hear me say that coordinated entry is not quick.

Right?

It's not a guarantee.

Coordinated entry is a tool.

It is a tool.

It's not the be all end all and should never beep somebody's plan A.

This isn't a surprise.

There's a lot of people that know this before I talk with them, but when I'm doing an assessment.

But yet, the city's still choosing to lean on that as a plan.

Thank you very much.

Please make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

Thank you.

Tom Diamond, uh lifelong resident of St.

Paul.

Uh more than one thing can be true.

I think in this case, what uh there's been testimony of, there's a lot of truth in that.

But there's also truth in that the city has played a role in causing this problem.

And what I'm and I'm not saying that to be accusatory, but just it's a fact, is that uh what we need is a way out of this for the people.

Training uh efforts.

What I'd like to say about it is that already the city's regulations.

You in the park, you cannot be in a park between 11 at night and uh dawn.

You cannot have possession of alcohol, you cannot have a uh possession of weapons, you cannot have possession of uh drugs.

You uh uh cannot be in possession of weapons or threatening.

If those are all true in the city's enforcement, if the city would enforce it, that would be a big step in the right direction.

But instead what we are having is needles being handed out, supplies being provided, and what has happened is there's been a significant increase in crime.

Let alone this is a park, and the park visitors have been harassed, intimidated, threatened.

Those two things don't go to well together.

They're only a matter of time until somebody gets seriously hurt or there's a real problem that we're all gonna uh so getting help to those who are there uh today and getting uh the rules and the conditions of the sign in.

Welcome up.

Hello.

My name is Cal.

Um I've done a variety of outreach jobs in this St.

Paul and in Minneapolis.

And the first thing I'd like to do is second what Sam said.

I also am a Ramsey County assessor.

And the first thing I tell people is if you need housing, you should get an assessment.

And also you'll be really lucky if you hear anything within three, four months.

Don't make this your first plan.

So leaning into assessments in less than a month is ridiculous.

Um then I wanted to second what Nikki said.

Things are not better in Minneapolis after the sweeps.

When I was working in Minneapolis, I had a relationship.

I'm thinking there was a bunch of people that we lost, but specifically I had one youth that I had taken months to get to talk to me.

And after the sweep at near north, I couldn't find her for three months.

When I found her again, she was in another camp, and they had the same neighbors because these are communities and people look out for each other.

And when that camp was slipped, I lost her for a month.

And when then when we found her again, she had the same neighbors because these are communities and people look out for each other.

And then when I lost her again, I didn't find her.

So that's it.

Well, second in advance, whatever, Seneca said.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to sign in.

Welcome up.

My time is running out.

I get more than 53 seconds, right?

Can we resist?

Is that the time of the case?

There we go.

Okay.

Hi, my name is Seneca Krueger.

Um I am a longtime resident of St.

Paul.

I actually bought the house that I grew up in, so I have lived in your ward, Molly, ward four, for 35 years.

Um I am also a street outreach worker, and I spend much of my time in um working on the streets in the um Snelling University Avenue corridor.

I am also a therapist, and I work in addiction medicine right now, currently.

I also sit on the Ramsey County Steering Committee, right?

The heading home Ramsey Steering Committee.

Johnson is the um is the vice chair of the governing board there.

Um on that steering committee, I chair the youth advocacy work group.

And this call that Sam talked about, the provider call was the first time I heard about this plan.

Right.

I sit on the board on Ramsey County that is supposed to oversee things like this.

And I did not hear about this plan until then.

I have real concerns.

Yep.

I also last week had a meeting with my partners.

I work on both sides of the river.

I partners with Hennepin County COC and Minneapolis providers.

They said, What's going on in St.

Paul?

I told them.

I said, Are you gonna come and help?

They said nobody has asked asked us.

Nobody has asked us.

Yeah.

I have real concerns about what we are talking about when we're talking about a collaborative effort and partnership, because I have not seen that in my experience.

Not with my work in Minneapolis, and not with my work on the steering committee.

Assistant Mayor Baker, I heard you earlier say we want to look at creative solutions.

I am so in.

So in for creative solutions.

Those come before we do camp closures.

This is putting this putting the cart before the horse.

I just want to stress that to you.

Thank you very much.

Make sure to say welcome up.

I think we're gonna have I think we're gonna have time for about three more speakers.

I am sorry to have to end at 6 30, but we'll get as many as we can in.

Welcome up.

Hi, my name is Julian Shoffler.

Um, I've lived and worked in wards three and four.

Um I want to share a particular story.

Um this winter, a friend I know told me that someone we both knew in the camps had had a miscarriage and brought this information to me because she knew that I had the numbers of three midwives in the neighborhood.

And we were able to provide this person in the in the camp midwife care within hours of suspecting she had a miscarriage.

We provided pads and also companionship and laughter.

Um, as well as confirmation that she had not lost the pregnancy, and we offered to follow up care with her in a few weeks.

Um she told us that if she hadn't gotten this information that she still had the pregnancy, she would have started using it again, and she'd been staying sober because of the baby.

Um this care was timely, it was friendly, it was in a private place, and it was on her own terms with that requirements or expectations.

Um she could not go to a hospital at the time because largely because of the fear that the city would interfere with her shelter and her belongings while she was getting medical care.

How will the city provide care of this quality?

And if the city can't do it, how are neighbors going to provide this care when the trusted relationship is destroyed and we can't find each other?

I also want to point out that unhoused youth are disproportionately um LGBTQ plus.

And when you have a plan, you need to guarantee that trans folks will be respected in housing and in health care.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Welcome up.

Welcome up.

Thank you, members of the city council.

My name is Lily Eggers.

I'm a Ward 1 resident.

But what I will say, what I will ask directly is after hearing all of this testimony.

Who among you, by a show of hands right now, stop wants to stop the mayor's sweeps?

This is not a QA for us, so please testify, but no hand raised.

I will continue talking, and I will tell you about two of us.

I will tell you about two worlds.

Two worlds that diverge right after this session ends.

There is a world where you all leave, put on the agenda as soon as possible a moratorium for the mayor's office's disastrous plan.

Work with the county, who I'm happy to pressure in this same way.

I get that y'all are in a bad position with funding.

Work with the county to pursue innovative strategies like a vivo's tiny homes, right?

Pursue these grants, right?

We will continue to fight for the dignity and justice of our unhoused neighbors and those who support us.

I will remember that till the day I die.

The other world, the other world is where you all take a recess, maybe do another opportunity for us to vent to get our public comments out there, and then do nothing to publicly oppose or stop the mayor's sweeps.

People will die.

My friends and neighbors will die.

I will lose contact with many of them.

But you know what?

This is not flash in the pan.

Right here, all of us, we will continue to fight for the dignity and justice of all of us, including our unhoused neighbors, and for those who continue to support or do not speak out against the mayor's sweeps.

I will remember that until the day that I die.

At the ballot box, in how I deal with the city, in how I remember each and every one of you.

I will remember that forever, and I'm not the only one.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

I think you're gonna be our last speaker, so welcome up.

Thank you.

I do not deserve to have the word last words here today.

My name is Ben Ames.

I'm a resident of Ward One.

I've been a public defender here in St.

Paul Ramsey County for several years.

I speak on behalf of myself and not on anyone in my office.

I see a lot of familiar faces around here tonight.

A lot of people that I have had the unfortunate pleasure of having to represent and protect their rights.

People who I have represented for unfortunately committing the crime of having nowhere that they can legally being victims of having the only disease addiction that we decide to put people in cages for.

It makes no sense that we are going to criminalize encampments here in this city.

I'll tell you what faces I don't see here today.

I do not see any prosecutors from the city attorney's office.

I don't see any prosecutors from the Ramsey County prosecutor's office.

I do not see any judges.

And the only police that I see here are here for control and not care, compassion are here to listen.

The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment.

Unfortunately, this plan isn't unusual, other cities do it, but you cannot convince me that it's not cruel.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you all very much for coming out today.

Talk about our next test.

But if we can't, we'll just go all very much for coming out.

We've really appreciated the courage that it took to be here tonight.

We want to encourage people.

We will have another meeting.

We are recessing tonight, but we will have an opportunity for people who did not get to be heard tonight to come back.

We also want to remind folks, especially if you spoke tonight, we appreciate people speaking only for two minutes.

We will let you know when we've scheduled the next opportunity.