MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – This school year families living at the Mino-Bimaadiziwin Apartments are worried about their children’s safety, with residents saying a neighborhood that once felt like home has morphed into an open drug market and a haven for drug dealers among dozens of people experiencing homelessness.

Encampment problems

“Our kids can’t even go outside,” father Devon Smith told FOX 9 on Tuesday. “You don’t want your children to be exposed to that, and see these different things, to see these people in this form. I can look to the left and see them in tents with guns, sticking needles in their arms and necks.”

Smith says he’s been calling the city government, police, and politicians, but hasn’t received responses.

“They haven’t addressed us, they haven’t told us anything, and we’re living among this,” Smith says. “School just started today, school buses have to drive past [this].”

At their school bus stop alongside the tents, on Tuesday, Endonnis Lookingelk says she was approached by a man trying to sell her fentanyl, as she held her baby in her arms.

“It’s scary to come outside. We see these people shooting in their arms and legs using in plain sight,” she said. “I don’t come outside. I’m never outside. I don’t let my children come outside.”

City response

Council member Jamal Osman says his office is aware of the burden on residents, and has also received calls from the school system. Now he’s asking Mayor Jacob Frey to take action.

But Osman admits change has been slow to come as the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), Hennepin County, and the city of Minneapolis work together on a plan.

“This is not acceptable, and we continue to deal with it,” Osman said. “But it’s a process, where we have to make sure the dignity and respect of unhoused folks, or even people with addiction, are met.”

“This issue of homelessness and addiction in our neighborhood is not going to go away. We’re all in this together, including the residents,” Osman finished.

The city of Minneapolis sent FOX 9 this statement:

“Encampments do not provide safe or dignified housing. They create health risks for people living in them, as well as in surrounding neighborhoods. The City’s homeless response team is coordinating with a number of government partners and service providers regarding this encampment, which is not on City property.”