Boy do I have some photos to show you. This was on MLK 2021. I think the guy was having a medical emergency so medics eventually showed. https://twitter.com/billlindeke/status/1362067738416599040

But before I report what I’ve been seeing six times since Sept, let me abide by journalism ethics and disclose I was one of the founders of @TCTRU and was involved from 9/2017 to 9/2018 and again from 3/2019 to 5/2019.

I’ve also testified as supporting MTP abolition where I was quoted in the Star Tribune in 9/2018, as well as supporting a bill to decriminalize fare evasion on my own behalf on 2/2020. I’ve done no transit-related lobbying since 2/2020 and...

...while I keep in touch with transit advocates and folks from @TCTRU, I’m no longer involved.

Back to the story. Metro Transit Police (MTP) since the pandemic began have been rushing folks off out-of-service trains at 38th Street. The service hour reduction resulted in 4 trains that leave MOA out of service after 1030pm, but folks are allowed to get on and off as needed.

I understand MOA transit center is closed once the last train leaves, but the last Route 5 from there doesn’t leave until 12:22am. Tried to get @mallofamerica to clarify but no one answered, and the on call person’s VM was full.

Next month, those out of service trains will be converted into in-service trains and operate all the way out to Target Field Station. But for now, they operate as far as Franklin and pull in to the maintenance facility there.

But the cops rush the train once it arrives at 38th Street. Why? They don’t want people near their facility, and folks can transfer to a bus going downtown. Most of the time MTP has been reasonable and have been explaining to folks why they need to get off. (10/2020, 2/2021)

Folks comply for the most part. Some wonder where they can go. Some may get help, like an Asian dude I saw last night with a shopping bag get a ride home from an Asian female officer after being rushed off the 4th train. She had to pat him down before he could ride in the squad.

And then we have this officer in the first photo physically grab and kick people off the train. Other times officers will simply order them off, help them with their bags, etc. (2/12/21 and 2/17/21, 1/18/21)

After cops rush the train, sometimes they’ll head back to their squads, leaving folks to fend for themselves. Sometimes people will wait for connecting buses, which comes shortly after the 1st, 2nd, and 4th trains get rushed. Others wander away from the station.

The 3rd train, however, misses connecting buses by minutes, leaving one homeless person I met last Fri who moved here from AR in the 90s to wait in a transit shelter for 40min in below zero temps.

Also, on 2/6/21 I saw a group of people kicked off of train #4 huddle around a fire started with hand sanitizer in a shelter to keep warm. As soon as the buses arrived, they left the shelter behind, as well as the fire.

So does Metro Transit Police really connect folks with services? Yes, apparently so. But “they have to agree to it”, said spokesperson Laura Baenen. I’m guessing that’s how the Asian dude got a ride home.

They’ve also partnered with the Met Council, which oversees MT and has an agency that provides Section 8 vouchers in the suburbs, to give them to the unhoused. Those who take them end up as close as Columbia Heights and as far as Dayton. The Met Council has won awards for this.

While it sounds like they are kicking people out of the trains and into the suburbs, they don’t leave them high and dry. They check in on them and hold workshops, such as “how to be a tenant” in Baenen’s words, as well as setting up a bank account and navigating transit.

The program recently celebrated two years and has housed almost 400 people, among them DV survivors.

So, tl;dr, Metro Transit Police does connect the unhoused to services but when all else fails they will kick folks off leaving them to fend for themselves in the cold.

One may think that’s fucked up, but can’t blame someone for not wanting to be in a shelter because they don’t feel safe there.

Goes to show how dire the housing crisis is. So aside from MnDOT wanting $ to make their freeways more hostile to prevent homeless encampments, what is the Legislature doing to ensure the housed are housed?

Gov’s recs: more shelter funding https://mn.gov/mmb-stat/documents/budget/2022-23-biennial-budget-books/governors-recommendations-january/human-services.pdf

also, $4M to provide direct assistance to homeless families, $7.5M for increasing workforce housing, $2M for homebuyer and down payment assistance, $1M to help 185 more families with schoolchildren pay for housing

Gov’s recs continued: $500k to house those with mental illness in supportive settings, $20M in bonds for private and nonprofit housing developers building new developments, creating community land trusts, and more https://mn.gov/mmb-stat/documents/budget/2022-23-biennial-budget-books/governors-recommendations-january/housing-finance-agency.pdf

Some #mnleg bills: expanding eviction expungement criteria (HF 265, SF 771, part of HF 835 which also includes further prohibiting renter discrimination), State Rental Asst Prog (HF 40, SF 333), money to rehab naturally occurring affordable housing (HF 1118, HF 443, SF 768)

#mnleg continued: fund workforce housing (HF 998, HF 619, HF 752), 30-year affordable housing requirement for multifamily units funded by MN Housing (HF 747, SF 889), fund housing discrimination investigations (HF 567), public housing resident right to counsel (HF 450)

#mnleg continued: public housing rehab bonds (SF 153), housing to integrate elderly and disabled into communities (SF 383), authorize VA to support housing veterans (SF 363)