Minneapolis, MN
Camp Nenookaasi Brings Minneapolis' Policies Against its Unhoused Residents to the Forefront – UNICORN RIOT
Minneapolis, MN — The city of Minneapolis evicted Camp Nenookaasi, the city’s largest encampment of unhoused people, three times over the past month in an attempt to prevent encampments of this size and level of infrastructure from forming. After each eviction, Nenookaasi pops up again in a different spot. It gets smaller each time, but it has not disbanded.
Even after these evictions, residents and supporters of Camp Nenookaasi continue fighting to change the city’s prohibition of encampments. The camp has garnered support from legislators, housing service providers, and housed neighbors who are turning the camp into a launching pad for a campaign for a better approach to encampments.
In recent years, advocates have made numerous attempts to end the practice of evictions. They often point to the high price tag — each eviction costs anywhere from $40,000 to $265,000, per the city’s reporting — and the near-constant state of displacement that encampment sweeps force upon residents. Activists defending camps against eviction frequently get into scuffles with police. In October 2022, unsheltered people protesting eviction policies pitched their tents on the sidewalk in front of City Hall. Still, the evictions continued.
Camp Nenookaasi, a Beacon of Hope to the Unhoused, Faces Eviction
Minneapolis Continues Encampment Evictions, Displacing Hundreds in May
Nicole Mason, an organizer of Camp Nenookaasi, said, “I’m really dedicated this year to changing homelessness here in East Phillips and showing that if we listen to the people, we can make programs that work for them.”
During the five months of its existence, hundreds of unsheltered people have called Camp Nenookaasi home. Christin Crabtree, another camp organizer, said the recent wave of support for the camp has played a significant role in its staying power. Crabtree said, “We’ve been able to build more awareness. We’ve been able to help draw the connection between people who are experiencing homelessness and other things that help people see how this affects them too. That solidarity has really been a part of it, having people show up.”
Lex Horan stood outside Camp Nenookaasi in the predawn darkness on a January morning with a box of fliers to distribute and a pile of trash bags to fill. Horan, a resident of the Phillips neighborhood where all four iterations of Camp Nenookaasi have been, was part of a group that had self-organized to clean up the camp area and foster conversations with housed neighbors. The group provided information about the camp, invited neighbors to ask questions, and urged them to take action in pressing city officials to create long-term solutions.
“The city of Minneapolis and the Frey administration are fanning tensions between housed and unhoused neighbors by not providing the support that our unhoused neighbors at Nenookaasi need. We’re here to say that actually, a city that works for housed and unhoused neighbors is possible by providing the solutions that folks at Nenookaasi want,” Horan said.
Community members are coordinating widespread efforts to make sure the camp has what it needs to operate. A group that calls itself the Autonomous Yurt Union has built dozens of yurts with wood-burning stoves for Nenookaasi and other encampments across the Twin Cities. Supply drives and meal deliveries keep the camp stocked and fed. They have received over $65,000 in donations. The city delivered portable toilets and trash cans, services that organizers fought for months to receive.
Over 100 former residents of the camp have found permanent housing and started recovery programs since late August. Many organizers and housing service providers attribute those numbers to the relative stability of the camp.
“When evictions happen, it’s hard for outreach to do their job. It’s hard for people who live in that camp to stay connected with their provider and do the work they need to do to get to that next step if that’s what they want. That often gets disrupted. It is a really strange way of trying to house people because it’s disruptive to the process,” Crabtree said.
John Tribbett, the director of the Ending Homelessness division of Avivo, a prominent housing organization in the Twin Cities, said, “If encampment displacements worked, then we would not have a situation where we have well over 100 people still here today in our community.”
Despite fierce campaigning to allow the camp to stay, police came to evict three times since the beginning of the year. According to a Minneapolis city ordinance, temporary structures used for shelter are prohibited on any public or private property. The city cited drug use, unsanitary conditions, a high volume of complaints from neighbors, and violence, among other concerns, in its reasoning for closing the camp.
The encampment response guidelines that the Frey administration established in 2022 require notice of eviction to be posted at encampments facing closure 72 hours in advance. However, the guidelines state that less than 72 hours notice is acceptable if the encampment meets any one of a list of broad criteria such as posing “imminent community safety risks,” or “inhibiting or interfering with the normal operation of a business, school, daycare, or sober living facility.”
The eviction tactics escalated as the city’s tolerance for the encampment thinned — for each of the three sweeps within one month, police arrived earlier in the morning and with less prior notice than the previous one. The taped-off area grew. Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette estimated that 70 Minneapolis Police Department officers were dispatched for the first eviction on January 4, and 90 were dispatched for the second on January 30. Fewer volunteers were allowed to enter the enclosure to assist residents. Squad cars guarded more intersections and alleyways. By the third eviction on February 1, police were stationed at vacant lots around the neighborhood to prevent unhoused people from settling there.
City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher said at a City Council hearing on January 31, “We need to continue to do our work as a city per our ordinances to have continuous and coordinated efforts to deter encampments within the city.”
Several resolutions have been proposed in the City Council in recent years aimed at stopping evictions altogether or restricting their use. All have been voted down or vetoed by the mayor. On January 25, three city councilmembers tried a different approach, giving notice to introduce new legislation regarding encampments. If passed, the three proposed ordinances would provide “safe outdoor spaces” for unsheltered people, establish a “humane encampment response policy,” and require the city to prepare after each eviction a comprehensive public report.
Councilmember Jason Chavez, whose Ward 9 includes the new Camp Nenookaasi, coauthored the three ordinances. “It’s time that we as the City of Minneapolis restored the dignity of unhoused residents across the city,” Chavez said.
Camp organizers and residents met with Mayor Frey and representatives from several city departments in January to discuss possibilities for the future of the camp. In the following weeks, Kelliher announced that the city had identified two possible sites for construction of the Indigenous cultural healing center that camp advocates have pushed as one of their top priorities. She did not specify where the sites are.
With the fight continuing to play out in city government, the residents of Camp Nenookaasi are trying their best to stay together and survive the winter.
Jorge “Chico” Grijalva was unhoused in the Twin Cities on and off for eight years before he moved to Camp Nenookaasi. After the eviction of the first camp on January 4, he moved with his girlfriend and his tent to the next spot. Chico said he cycled in and out of the shelter system during that time, but he prefers camp life to the restrictions and dangers he experienced in shelters.
Shelters in Minneapolis opened 90 additional temporary beds — cots and mats in an overflow room — in early January. Crabtree said the arduous process of getting a spot in a single-night shelter deters many camp residents from even trying.
“It’s a really big risk to your life to go stay in a shelter bed because the next day, you may not get another one. If you go stay in this shelter, and you can’t have all your stuff in there, your stuff could get stolen or go missing. Also, you could lose connection with whoever you’ve been with outside, who you’re staying safe with. So it actually can be worse for people to choose a shelter bed for a night than it is for them to stay outside,” Crabtree said.
Chico said that the reliability of the camp compared to shelters or being alone on the streets made it worthwhile to stay there. “The fact that I don’t have to set up camp every day, and I’m not worried about me being evicted on a daily basis is the best part for me. Knowing that resources and food and water is constantly brought here is comforting — to know that there’s some kind of help other than us finding it all on our own.”
On January 30, the day of the second eviction, Chico had whatever belongings he could salvage piled high into a shopping cart and a wheelbarrow. He said he was going to spend the day in a library and figure out where to go next.
Camp organizers said they understand that the camp is not forever — nor do they want it to be — but they weren’t ready to pack up yet. They had four months, then three weeks, then two days between evictions. “Before we had to leave, we wanted to at least be stable where we were to hopefully get more permanent indoor solutions for the relatives and move in,” Mason said.
Now, in their fourth location, the roughly 70 people of Camp Nenookaasi are putting down roots again while they still can.
Looking ahead to the future she wants for the camp, Mason said, “Tearing our community apart here? I’m not going to let that happen. I’m going to keep everybody together until we have some real results.”
Unicorn Riot’s 2020-23 Unhoused Crisis in Minneapolis:
- Crisis of the Unhoused – Landing Page for Unicorn Riot Coverage
- Camp Nenookaasi, a Beacon of Hope to the Unhoused, Faces Eviction – Dec. 14, 2023
- ‘Wall of Forgotten Natives’ Encampment Revived After Five Years, Gets Evicted – Sept. 4, 2023
- Minneapolis Continues Encampment Evictions, Displacing Hundreds in May – May 26, 2023
- Samatar Encampment Eviction Leaves 100 Displaced Mid-Winter – January 24, 2023
- Dozens of Police Evict Quarry Encampment – January 2, 2023
- Quarry Encampment Faces Eviction in Minneapolis – December 28, 2022
- Three Encampments and Halfway House Evicted, Displacing Hundreds – October 12, 2022
- Personal Belongings Trashed as Minneapolis Encampment Evicted – July 22, 2022
- Minneapolis Community Resists Encampment Eviction – July 20, 2022
- Southside Minneapolis Encampment Faces Eviction Threat – June 28, 2022
- Eviction Defense Successful Despite Aggressive Contractors – June 9, 2022
- Uptown Streets Blocked During Protest Against Police Attack on Houseless – March 23, 2021
- Five Arrested as Minneapolis Police Attempt Raid on Near North Houseless Encampment – March 23, 2021
- Homeless Tenants Union: Unhoused Self-Advocacy in the Twin Cities – February 17, 2021
- Winter of Coronavirus: Seeking Shelter in Minneapolis During COVID–19 – December 14, 2020
- Unhoused Community Forms Tenants Union, Constituents Protest at Commissioner’s Home – November 11, 2020
- Minneapolis Prioritizing Park Sweeps Over Sheltering the Unhoused – October 29, 2020
- ‘No KKKops, No Pipelines’ Banner Dropped in Minneapolis – October 6, 2020
- Reclaimed Space Sprouts From Uprising’s Embers – September 28, 2020
- Peavey Park Sanctuary Homeless Camp Evicted in Minneapolis – September 24, 2020
- New Month Brings Added Urgency To Minneapolis’ Housing Needs – September 2, 2020
- Sanctuary Camp Residents Pressured To Move, No Housing Solution In Sight – August 22, 2020
- Minneapolis Police Sweep West Powderhorn Encampment, Pepper Spray Defenders – August 15, 2020
- Authorities Visit Loring Park Tent Encampment, Bring Eviction Scare – August 10, 2020
- Minneapolis’ Unhoused Speak Out Against Years of Evictions – August 3, 2020
- Minneapolis Park Police Displace Sanctuary Encampment – July 22, 2020
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MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – A blast of wintry weather Wednesday dumped an inch or less of snow across the Twin Cities metro.
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport saw about 0.75 inches of snow, with some areas seeing slightly more where it snowed for most of the day. Meanwhile, western Minnesota saw 1–4 inches, with higher snow totals closer to North Dakota.
Snow totals from Wednesday’s storm
Snow at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on Nov. 20, 2024. (FOX 9)
Here’s a look at snow totals across the state from Wednesday’s snow:
- Moorhead: 3.8 inches
- Grand Forks, North Dakota: 3 inches
- Warren: 2 inches
- Kimball: 2 inches
- St. Cloud: 1.9 inches
- Waseca: 1.5 inches
- Maple Plain: 1.5 inches
- Chanhassen: 1.3 inches
- Watertown: 1 inch
- MSP Airport: 0.75 inches
- White Bear Lake: 0.5 inches
Note: This story will be updated as snow totals are confirmed.
Snow led to slick roads Wednesday, Thursday morning
WEATHER FORECAST: Gray, windy and dry on Thursday
Roads remain slick following Wednesday’s snow
FOX 9’s Bill Keller is monitoring slick road conditions Thursday morning, following overnight freezing temperatures and snowfall from Wednesday.
The snow started in the Twin Cities before sunrise on Wednesday when air temperatures started to dip below freezing, but the roads were in pretty good shape until the evening commute.
This is because the freeze/thaw cycle for soil is delayed by air temperature. It takes a while for the ground to catch up to colder air temperatures, especially during daylight.
Multi-vehicle crash in Burnsville: Traffic cameras
MnDOT traffic cameras captured a multi-vehicle crash in Burnsville around midnight on the Interstate 35W bridge over the Minnesota River. The driver of an SUV had already spun out when two other drivers lost control and spun across the ice, before they all collided.
Well, after several plus hours of sub-freezing air temperatures on Wednesday, the ground started to freeze. Add a snowy burst for a few hours around and over the evening commute as that is occurring, and that spells accumulating snow on our roadways and some slippery conditions.
READ MORE: MN weather: Slick roads Thursday following Wednesday’s snow
The exact opposite will likely happen on Thursday as air temperatures start the day above freezing, but the ground is still frozen, so our snow will take a little while to melt on our roads and grassy surfaces.
MN weather: Gray and windy day Thursday
Temperatures return to above freezing in the Twin Cities metro on Thursday, though it will be rather windy with gusts topping out at 40 mph. FOX 9 meteorologist Cody Matz has your forecast.
Minneapolis, MN
Minneapolis mayor calls on teacher group to cancel event with activist over alleged antisemitic comment
The mayor of Minneapolis is calling on a local teacher group made up of union members to cancel an upcoming event amid claims the speaker has made antisemitic statements.
The event, titled Being an Educator in a Time of War and Genocide, is being hosted by MFT Educators for Palestine and is set to cover topics like Zionism and anti-Zionism, how to talk to coworkers about Palestine, teaching Palestine in the classroom and the State Board of Investment and Divestment.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey initially expressed his frustration with the speaker choice on Tuesday, claiming that the speaker, Taher Herzallah, had previously made antisemitic remarks, including that Jewish people are “enemy number one.”
Herzallah, who lives in Columbia Heights, says his comments are being taken out of context.
The comments come from a video posted on YouTube by the Muslim American Society a year ago, in which Herzallah spoke for around 20 minutes. That video can be viewed in full HERE.
In a post on X from Mayor Frey on Tuesday, accompanied by a minute-and-a-half-long video of the mayor speaking, he said, “Students should be learning about love, not hate. The MFT Educators for Palestine should cancel their seminar with Taher Herzallah, who has openly expressed anti-Semitic views, including calling Jewish people “enemy number one.” Schools must be spaces for unity, not division.”
Herzallah then responded to Frey’s comments, saying, “Mayor Frey’s comments are grossly deluded as it is clear he did not care to investigate the full context of what was said before engaging in a malicious attack on me. Clearly, I misspoke and did not mean Jewish people but meant Jewish zionists, which is evidenced by the context of what I said before and after that comment. If you watch the complete comments I made in that video, starting at 50:12, you can see that I was discussing Muslim normalization with Zionists and addressing the roles of Jewish and Christian Zionists as adversaries of Palestinian liberation. I also highlighted the crucial support of anti-Zionist Jewish solidarity in our struggle. Those who doctored the video and spread the misquote have one goal: to assassinate my character and prevent me from accessing spaces of influence and power.”
Herzallah continued, saying, “I am most disappointed that Mayor Frey, instead of doing some soul-searching, chose this misquote as an opportunity to attack the incredibly principled teachers and organizers at MFT. Their commitment to objective facts and justice will strengthen their ability to teach students how to become upright global citizens. Educators are not the enemy; they are the backbone of our society.”
“I will continue my advocacy for Palestinian liberation despite the relentless attacks leveled against me,” Herzallah continued. “It is absurd that while my family in Gaza is being starved, maimed, and killed, I have to defend my right to speak about their plight here in the United States. No smear campaign will deter me from speaking the truth and fighting for justice.”
Mayor Frey sent back the following response on Wednesday, “If Mr. Herzallah is now clarifying that he does not think Jews are the enemy, then Mayor Frey certainly appreciates the clarification. School-age children inherently want to befriend everyone, regardless of their background and beliefs. Adults should be following their lead, not teaching them to hate.”
A flyer for MFT Educators for Palestine can be found below.
Herzallah’s full transcript of what he said can be read in full below or watched HERE.
“Not only has the Muslim community engaged in discussions about the situation in Palestine, Muslim leadership… have come out forcefully and aggressively against the genocide. Now, more than ever, people are questioning the State of Israel’s use and strategic benefit to the United States of America. Now, there are questions about whether or not Israel is, in fact, indeed, a strategic ally of the United States of America, and I tell you right now, if the United States of America decides to pull the plug, then Israel could not continue its occupation. There is no way it can continue its occupation. This week shows that. This week shows that this occupation, instituting a system of apartheid, engaging in ethnic cleansing and genocide is not the way to keep your citizens safe. It’s not the way to secure the future of the State of Israel. This week was the biggest example and case in point. All of these past 75 years of this possession and displacement of the Palestinian people will never break the determination of the Palestinian people. Will never make them want to not fight back. Will never make them believe that Israel is a power that cannot be messed with. No, in fact, this will only fester. Do you think the man in Gaza, who lost all of his family due to an Israeli airstrike or bombardment… who lost his wife, his children, his relatives; all of them dead in one hit, 43 members of the same family, do you think that man is going to wake up tomorrow and say ‘I’m done, I give up?’ No. That man will rise with more determination to fight back against the State of Israel. That is what’s happening in Gaza today; they are standing in the streets protesting that we are ready for whatever is to come. I have family members in Gaza City, the same city that has been given evacuation orders, who told me over the phone that we will not leave. We are determined to stay, no matter what is to come our way. We are ready to die of thirst, of hunger, but we will never leave our homeland. This is a people that cannot be broken… The question is, what are we going to do in this moment of difficulty to support them? I’m not worried about them; I have gone through all the stages of grief this week. I’ve gone from immense sadness and depression to now a complete and utter determination to keep fighting the fight for this just cause. To keep fighting the fight, in our community, to ensure we have a United States against the State of Israel and Zionism. Yes, we shall question the foundations of Zionism as an ideology rooted in white supremacy… Yes, absolutely, we will call out any Muslim leader who engages in normalizing this settler colonial regime, whether here or abroad. We do have these people in our community, unfortunately, and we do have those people who try to normalize through interfaith relationships with Jewish organizations who are explicitly in support of the State of Israel. And it is a fact, that we do have an enemy in this country, absolutely, we’re not operating in a vacuum. We have enemies who support Zionism, who are trying to make their inroads in our community, trying to say that we will support you to build a mosque, but, if you want to engage in interfaith relationships with us, you must not talk about Israel. You must not criticize Israel. There are conditions for their solidarity; we will not accept that. Anybody who has any relationship or any support or identifies themself as a Jewish person, or as a Christian Zionist, then we shall not be their friend. I will tell you that they are enemy number one, and our community needs to recognize that as such. This week has shown us the power of solidarity and the power of those working against Zionism and the occupation.”
A Minneapolis teachers union is under fire after Mayor Jacob Frey called on the union to cancel an event featuring a guest speaker who has been accused of making antisemitic remarks.
A subgroup of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers called “Educators for Palestine” is set to host a 3-hour event on Friday with Taher Herzallah, titled “Being an Educator in a Time of War and Genocide.”
He is a member of the Columbia Heights Park and Recreation Commission and a community organizer with American Muslims for Palestine. Herzallah has openly supported Palestine and criticized Israel and has been embroiled in controversy over comments he made in October 2023 in a widely circulated video.
Critics have zeroed in on something Herzallah said at a virtual event for the Muslim American Society less than a week after Israel invaded Gaza in response to Hamas-led militants attacking southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping hundreds.
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“Anybody who has any relationship or any support or identifies themselves as a Jewish person or as a Christian Zionist, then we shall not be their friend. I will tell you that they are enemy number one and our community needs to recognize that as such,” Herzallah said.
The criticism picked up after a post from Canary Mission, an organization that publishes a watch list of anti-Zionist college students and faculty, sometimes leading to doxxing, death threats and more.
“It is not surprising that the Minneapolis Teacher’s Union is hosting Taher Herzallah, a terror supporter & Jew-hater,” the Nov. 18 post read.
In response, Mayor Jacob Frey, who is Jewish, said in a statement on Twitter that the group should cancel the event with Herzallah for his “anti-Semitic views” and that “schools must be spaces for unity, not division.”
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas also denounced Herzallah’s comments.
“It is unacceptable for MFT to allow into their space a notorious antisemitic activist who said just days after the October 7, 2023, massacre that Jews are ‘enemy number one.’ This same activist has also openly and repeatedly advocated for terrorism against Israelis,” said Ethan Roberts, deputy executive director of the council.
Herzallah has since said his statement was taken out of context and said the misquoting was an effort to “silence Palestinian and Muslim critics of Israel’s policies.” In the October 2023 video, his quote was part of an overall point calling for people “to ensure we have a united stand against the state of Israel and Zionism.”
“Mayor Frey’s comments demonstrate a clear lack of understanding of the full context of my remarks,” Herzallah said. “It’s evident I was referring to Muslim normalization with Zionists and addressing Jewish and Christian Zionists as entities opposed to the liberation of my community and people. I also highlighted the importance of anti-Zionist Jewish solidarity with Palestine.”
He vowed to continue his advocacy “despite the smear campaigns aimed at silencing him.”
“I am most disappointed that Mayor Frey used this misquote as an opportunity to malign the incredibly principled teachers and organizers at MFT. Their commitment to truth and advocacy makes them staples in our community, and their work will continue to inspire students to become upright global citizens.”
The Educators for Palestine group said in a statement on Instagram that they support Herzallah.
“The misinformation being spread is racist and offensive. These attacks are meant to silence Palestinian perspectives by weaponizing baseless accusations of antisemitism. Organizations like JCRC attempt to speak for all Jews and conflate Zionism with Judaism. We firmly reject these forms of racism and unapologetically stand behind Taher.”
The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, MFT Educators for Palestine and American Muslims for Palestine, where Herzallah serves as director for outreach and organizing, did not respond to MPR News for comment.
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