At the risk of angering the city and his neighbors, Minneapolis developer and landlord Hamoudi Sabri has this week opened a private homeless encampment in the parking lot of a long-vacant building he owns on E. Lake Street. About 20 people have moved in.

Sabri says he plans to open a second encampment in the North Loop, at the same site where he had tried to operate a large encampment four years ago. At the time, overdoses, propane tank fires and heaping garbage led to its mid-winter closure by police.

He’s going to try again, Sabri said, because he’d fed up with the city’s homeless dispersal tactics, which have driven people struggling with mental illness and addiction from one hideaway to another. Homeless people end up breaking into his properties anyway, he said, so he would rather invite them to live in a contained place with portable toilets, garbage pickup and some form of management, where health and housing outreach workers could easily find them.

“I told the police, these guys, they’re exhausted,” Sabri said. “These guys are spilling around. So they need a place to stay, so I’d rather have them be in here, in one place, than have them every place.”

On Friday morning, police officers attempted to clear the parking lot at 2716 E. Lake St. Most occupants broke down their tents and fled into the surrounding neighborhood.

Then Sabri arrived to intervene. In an interaction he recorded and showed to the Minnesota Star Tribune, he demanded officers leave the campers alone. They eventually left without forcing everyone to pack up.

Minneapolis’ Regulatory Services Director Enrique Velazquez told the landlord on Friday that by ordinance, no tent may be used as a dwelling “anywhere in the city of Minneapolis.”

“It’s a tough situation for sure,” Velazquez said in an interview. “The [city’s] Homeless Response Team has been to that site a few times already. They have provided some referrals with individuals that are interested in moving into shelter. We’ve made the county and their providers aware. But for all intents purposes, it’s not allowed. And even if a property owner does want people to go to a specific site so that they do not target or do damage, if you will, at any other locations, it’s still not something that as a city or as an enterprise, we’re in a position to allow.”