Eli Sherman is a renter in Minneapolis's North Loop and a University of Minnesota alum working in business analytics, happily door knocking for progressive candidates.
Heather Silsbee is a Minneapolis writer, editor, and organizer with the Southwest Alliance for Equity (SWAE).
"There are stories behind these individuals… some of them are experiencing homelessness, the vast majority, for reasons having nothing to do with any fault of their own. And so we need to start telling these stories.”
These were the words of then-Minneapolis City Council Member Jacob Frey at a 2017 mayoral forum on homelessness while running for his first term as mayor. His 2017 campaign website pledged to end homelessness within five years, stating, “Not only is ending homelessness the compassionate thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do.”
Eight years later, homelessness remains a massive issue, despite what the mayor says now. Although Frey claimed in a tweet earlier this year that only 27 people were experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Minneapolis, the Star Tribune reported on data from Hennepin County suggesting the actual count is closer to between 230 and 244 people. Susan Du’s Strib piece from September 20, days after two shootings at homeless encampments in Minneapolis, has the full county number up to “at least 400 who are unsheltered.”
During his 2026 Recommended Budget Address, Mayor Frey said “budgets show what we prioritize and what kind of city we choose to be.” At the same time, the first major TV ad for his 2025 Mayoral Campaign focuses on the Stable Homes Stable Schools program, which has helped 240 families with children in Minneapolis Public Schools afford their housing. While Frey touts the policy as a major success of his tenure, in his own recommended 2026 budget, Stable Homes Stable Schools is facing a “fiscal cliff,” falling short by $3.2 million dollars.
Not only is Frey unable to find funds to fill a hole amounting to less than 1% of the city’s $2 billion budget, he proposes cutting 100 emergency housing vouchers at the same time, pitting two vital programs against each other. These emergency housing vouchers were written into the 2025 budget, but Mayor Frey’s administration has failed to implement them. If we are to take Frey at his word on budgets as a statement of our priorities, it doesn’t seem like those priorities include finding housing for people who are currently unhoused, or preventing others from losing their housing.
What Mayor Frey does spend a lot of energy on, is decrying the danger of homeless encampments. We recently spoke with the owner of Solcana Fitness, Hannah Wydeven, whose Minnehaha Avenue business is just south of an encampment where a shooting occurred in September. Wydeven says she has directly worked with unhoused residents for years because the mayor hasn't offered any other solution.
"What is the city’s plan? What is the point of voting for a strong mayor if he can’t do anything?” she asks. She says the first elected official to reach out to her after the shooting was Ward 12 City Council Member Aurin Chowdhury.
“[Chowdhury] called me right away. Made time to meet with me at 8am the next day," Wydeven says. "When she showed up she had a plan. [Chowdhury] listed off things she planned to do right away that day to help with this.”
Wydeven stresses that the most responsive city officials during this crisis have been City Council members. In addition to Chowdhury, she cited Jason Chavez and Jamal Osman. Mayoral challengers Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis, Jazz Hampton, and state Sen. Omar Fateh also met with Wydeven to address how this sort of response would be different under their leadership.
“The main thing I really took away… the mayor currently has a very toxic relationship with the City Council and doesn’t value their perspective or work directly with them," she says. "All three candidates want to flip that.”
Wydeven, those council members, and that trio of mayoral challengers all recognize that bulldozing encampments and throwing out peoples’ belongings is not a path forward. It doesn't solve homelessness or any of the safety issues that often accompany it, but only disperses them throughout the community. While Frey shows up with police, bulldozers, and incurious TV news crews, the responsibility for helping our neighbors often falls to caring citizens.
Wydeven has been working with folks like Jamie Schwesnedl (owner of Moon Palace Books), Ingrid Rasmussen (lead pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church), and Twin Cities DSA members to help the victims of the shooting and former residents of the encampment move forward.
“Those are the people in the encampments right now," she observes. "DSA is bringing them water and food. Trying to help connect them with other city and county resources. Twenty-something year old kids… trying their best to help their neighbors.”
Our mayor’s policy of spending taxpayer dollars to clear encampments without long-term plans has failed both our unhoused neighbors and the broader community. His inability to work with council members to adequately utilize available resources, like Emergency Housing Vouchers or the Mobile Medical Unit, lies squarely at his feet. And his plans for his next term, as displayed in his proposed budget, suggest he’s more concerned with shutting down council members’ ideas than suggesting any of his own.
