August 13, 2026
Last week, the City closed the Fish Hatchery Trail encampment, the first stage in a multi-phased approach to clearing large encampments citywide.
The decision to close the encampment was met with understandable concern and tension from many in our community. Those living in encampments are the people who have been failed by our regular services and interventions, unique individuals with their own stories, strengths and needs. Knowing how to best serve each resident - and finding the resources to do so - is a challenge and reasonable, empathetic people can disagree about the right approach.
Over the weeks leading up to the closure, I had the opportunity to meet with residents of the Fish Hatchery and Shepard Road encampments and hear their stories. They shared with me their disenchantment with the traditional shelter system, their difficulty finding long-term housing, the sense of community and freedom they’ve found in the encampments. I heard from service providers who have been working with those living outside about the lack of shelter and housing options. And I talked to nearby residents and business owners who are concerned about those living outside and who also want to reclaim the public parks and amenities at Fish Hatchery that should be everyone’s to enjoy.
From these conversations and from discussions with my colleagues and the administration over the last few weeks, I’ve taken away three major lessons:
We all want the same things. Difficult decisions, like closing an encampment, tend to exacerbate the divisions in our society, but what struck me throughout this process was how similar everyone’s goals were. We all want safe, stable and dignified housing - for ourselves, our loved ones and our neighbors. We all want autonomy, the ability to live in a setting we choose for ourselves. We all want the companionship of our partners, pets, biological or chosen family members. We may differ on how we get there, but we start from a foundation of shared goals.
Today’s problems have long-term causes and longer-term solutions - but they still need to be tackled today. We know an encampment is a symptom of much broader, systemic issues that have taken years to develop (see: Ronald Reagan) and that the solution is to build more affordable housing and more types of shelter - specifically the kind where people can stay with their partners and pets, where they can keep their belongings and where they can be in community, not in isolation. But large encampments create immediate problems that can’t be ignored - exploitation, fires, vandalism, drug dealing and threats to public health, both for those in and around the encampment itself. Often, those in the encampments are the ones being victimized by outsiders who use an encampment as an opportunity to prey on those who are vulnerable. We must address the immediate crisis of an encampment and use the moment as a rallying cry to address the slow-burning crisis of homelessness: funding more affordable housing, supportive housing and shelter.
- Partnership is important during a crisis - but it’s even more important beforehand. It was disappointing to learn that it wasn’t until the City set a specific closure date that Ramsey County sent social workers to the Pigs Eye encampment. As the social service provider for St. Paul residents, Ramsey County should have been on scene from the moment the very first tent appeared, helping encampment residents find shelter and housing and preventing the encampment from reaching the point where it became so dangerous that it required a full-scale closure. We also need ongoing partnerships with Hennepin, Dakota and Washington counties and with the state of Minnesota, because homelessness is not a local problem - it’s a regional one. People in need come to the core cities for the services that aren’t available in their hometowns, and those cities need to be compensated for the services they’re providing the region and the state. An emergency may be a good time to pull those partners together, but it’s the long-term, mundane, day-to-day work we do together before and after a crisis that will truly solve this problem. Our work now is to pursue a long-term collaborative funding solution with the same sense of urgency we felt these past few weeks as the closure approached. That’s what our unhoused neighbors expect of us and they deserve nothing less.