I am ready for a real conversation about how we have just been moving unsheltered people around and out of sight for over a *decade* here in Minneapolis.

Some people are new to the housing crisis here but some of us remember clearing camps a decade or more ago.

Here are a list of ways that unsheltered people have been *displaced* since the start of COVID alone.

• shelters reduced capacity or moved people to hotels to reduce spread- folks are left outside
• public spaces including coffee shops, fast food spots, & public parks close

• no one can access bathrooms, water, or meals because everything closes
• Sabo Bridge & Stevens Ave camps get fenced in and monitored by police
• Sabo Bridge & Stevens Ave camps get evicted after George Floyd is murdered. They bus folks out to hotels in the suburbs.

• camps are evicted but the buses leave many people behind
• Sanctuary Hotel opens. Hundreds of people fill it in a day
• Sanctuary Hotel closes. Hundreds of people displaced again
• police and NIMBY neighbors threaten to evict Sanctuary encampment at Powderhorn

There is literally nowhere for people to go. No shelter space, no hotel rooms, no permanent housing anyone can afford or get accepted into, and not even anywhere to camp. It’s not acceptable to keep moving people around.

I remember being an outreach worker assigned to support people when police cleared Peavey Plaza downtown during Occupy Homes 10 years ago.

I remember 100 people coming to a shelter bed lottery that only had 12 beds available 12 years ago.

And let’s not forget that hundreds of people were using overnight transit but Metro Transit cut key overnight lightrail service to prevent folks from sleeping.

Unsheltered homelessness disproportionately impacts Native, Black, and Latino folks.

Maybe the revolution will finally get people housed.