Minneapolis Sanctuary Hotel update
Volunteers pulled out yesterday night and stopped providing food, security and basic medical care. They tried to find people places to go and distributed tents for people to camp. Backstory here: minnesotareformer.com/2020/06/09/the…
Pretty much every room looks like this. Important to note that it’s not only residents who caused this damage (many residents took care of their rooms and cleaned the common areas). When volunteers pulled out, looters and others were able to move in
I spoke to a mother who came here looking for her daughter, to bring her food and a tent. She was in tears saying “this is just like out of a horror movie.”
I spoke to Angel Beaumaster, who volunteered here and whose daughter was living here. She was trying to clean up but was distraught over what happened. “The owner doesn’t deserve this. When the riots were at their worst he did allow people to seek refuge here.”
Not all the damage was caused over the last day (see story early in thread), but it got much worse. All the TVs are gone, the irons are gone. Someone tried to break into the vending machine
The main problems of what went wrong according to ppl with experience running shelters are:
1. too many people. The common estimate is around 200 ppl lived here (it’s really anyone’s guess). Some on the wait list (which had more than 300 names) slept in the lobby or other rooms
1. too many people. The common estimate is around 200 ppl lived here (it’s really anyone’s guess). Some on the wait list (which had more than 300 names) slept in the lobby or other rooms
2. Not enough trained staff. Many people experiencing homelessness are dealing with trauma, mental illness, substance use disorder and physical illnesses. It’s a lot to handle and many volunteers had little or no experience working with vulnerable people
3. Not enough security. You could just walk in, which means it was impossible to tell who lived there, volunteered there, or was there to do harm. Multiple residents described it as chaotic, unsafe and needing more rules to rein in ppl who were causing damage and drama
Let me underline/bold/italicize the following. People are also vulnerable living on the street (which most former residents were doing). Some said it still felt safer in the hotel.
Underline/bold/italicize cont. Nearly 20,000 people in MN are estimated to be experiencing homelessness on any given night. About 1/4 aren’t staying in a formal shelter. Here’s the most recent detailed report from @WilderFdtn. wilder.org/sites/default/…
Bold/underline/italicize cont. cont. Black and Native people are disproportionately likely to experience homelessness. 66% of homeless people are POCI while the state is 83% white.
COVID poses a serious threat because shelters and encampments are efficient vectors of comminicable diseases. There has been a massive effort to move hundreds of ppl into hotel rooms, which are much more successful than what you just saw. minnesotareformer.com/2020/04/20/mos…
I said hundreds of ppl moved into hotels but there are an estimated 20,000 people who are homeless on any given night. As things shut down because of the pandemic, the extent of the housing crisis became visible in the form of encampments. minnesotareformer.com/2020/05/08/met…
Here’s another story. These are from a month or so ago minnesotareformer.com/2020/05/01/gov…
So back to the hotel sanctuary. Some volunteers say this isn’t their fault because the government has failed to provide adequate housing. Point taken, but it’s also — objectively — a disaster.
Volunteers say they expected government or foundational funding to be on the way which gave them the confidence (and the owner the confidence) to move forward. When that didn’t materialize, the wheels really came off. Have called/texted the owner every day and have not heard back
Now I’m trying to figure out who or what gave them the impression that funding and support was on the way. But because it’s such a, er, “flat” organizational structure, it’s hard to find anyone who knows the whole story.
The upshot is that people are now scattered to the four winds after being in close quarters and potentially exposed to COVID-19 and outreach workers and mothers (see earlier tweet) are trying to figure out where they went. End thread. I’ll write a story when I know more.
