Star Tribune
Drug use resource hub and safe injection site opens in north Minneapolis
Without a lot of fanfare, drug counselor Miles Hamlin opened a resource hub in north Minneapolis on Tuesday for drug users to get sterile needles, fentanyl test strips and Narcan. They can shower, do their laundry and cook a meal. People who come might even use drugs on site. The staff will be trained to reverse overdoses.
“We’re really trying to just focus on being a resource for people who use drugs to access no-barriers services,” Hamlin said, emphasizing that he would allow clients and the surrounding community to dictate how the center is used.
Hamlin founded the nonprofit Minnesota Overdose Awareness in 2022 after more than a decade holding vigils in Loring Park for friends and clients who have died, trying to bring attention to Minneapolis’ large racial disparities in overdoses. There were more than 1,000 fatal opioid overdoses in 2022 statewide, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. In the city of Minneapolis, Black people are four times more likely to die of an opioids than whites. For Native Americans, it’s 30 to 1.
To shift the public health response to one that embraces harm reduction — a medical philosophy that focuses on keeping drug users alive and reducing the spread of disease so they can eventually recover — last year the Legislature legalized and funded “safe recovery” start-ups that by definition include safe injection spaces, needle exchange and other health services.
Minnesota Overdose Awareness’ “Northside Hub” at 3859 Fremont Ave. N. technically includes every feature listed in the statute, but the nonprofit is keenly aware of the sensitivity surrounding ideas of “safe injection” or “overdose prevention” sites. Federal law still prohibits managing any facility “for the purpose of using a controlled substance,” and local communities don’t have much experience with them.
Last month, the Minneapolis City Council’s public health committee approved a joint grant application with Saint Paul to research and conduct community engagement around safe recovery sites, but the vote wasn’t unanimous, with. Council Member Michael Rainville opposed. He did not say why.
Before launching, Minnesota Overdose Awareness sought the approval of the Webber-Camden Neighborhood Association.
There was a lot of discussion. And while some community members attended the meeting to express their concerns and objections about how many people were going to congregate at the center and if there would be problems in the area after they left, the board felt their questions were answered “positively,” said Patricia Deinhart-Bauknight, the association’s executive director. “And you know, it’s a need in the community for sure.”
It’s no secret that public drug use exists in the neighborhood, and it would be helpful to have more candid resources, including naloxone training, she said.
“I just got a call [Tuesday] morning from a community member about drug dealing all around his house and he can’t get response from 311,” Deinhart-Bauknight said. “One of our past board members is having an issue because he owns a mini grocery store in the community and people are hanging out in the back and stuff.”
On Monday, Minnesota Overdose Awareness held an open house attended by dozens of harm reduction healthcare workers from across the metro. They showed off the renovated interior of what had been a dilapidated and water-damaged building that housed a former illegal nightclub run by the Zodiac Biker Club a decade ago. Board member John Roder fixed it up for about half a million dollars. There’s an office full of clean injection supplies, roomy bathrooms, washing machines, a kitchen and a den with a computer to browse job openings.
Other rooms are kept open for future partnerships. Board chair Paula DeSanto said the nonprofit is talking with Helix, a rapid homeless rehousing company, and the nearby Fremont Clinic, a primary care family practice.
“We have to try all kinds of things,” said Helix co-founder Adam Fairbanks. “So if the general population of Minneapolis is sick of having people on the streets, or super intoxicated at a bus stop … if we all decide that this is a good place for people to go, then I think there’s the support that’s needed to change the local laws to allow it.”
Jack Martin of Southside Harm Reduction Services, a group that delivers safe-use supplies, also attended the open house and came away with hope. In 2022, Southside Harm Reduction, as a sponsored organization of the Native American Community Clinic, received more than $5 million from the Bush Foundation to lay the groundwork for a south Minneapolis drop-in center that would provide a range of harm reduction services for people who use drugs, focusing on those who are also homeless and living unsheltered. That center is also envisioned as one that would be designed to pivot into a safe recovery center “if and when the community and city are ready.”
No Southside site has yet been identified, but the group is aiming to open in 2025.
“It’s beautiful,” Martin said of the Northside Hub. “And the services are absolutely needed over north, in terms of harm reduction, supplies, training and services staff. We’re really excited for them to open and can’t wait to see what happens.”
A jury found a longtime farmhand in southern Minnesota guilty in the killing of his boss, a man whose death prosecutors argued would bring the debt-ridden worker a “significant financial benefit.”
Travis Joel Bauer, 48, of Winthrop, was found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in Sibley County District Court on Friday. The jury, after deliberating until 9 p.m., also found him not guilty of first-degree murder with premeditation.
Bauer was arrested last year in connection with the 2022 shooting of his boss, Dennis D. Weitzenkamp, 79.
Winthrop police found Weitzenkamp in his machine shed, slumped over to the left side of his body, with a bloody gunshot wound in the back of his head and no weapon within reach, court filings said. Weitzenkamp appeared to have been about to shuck an ear of corn, police said.
Bauer had helped Weitzenkamp “farm his land for many years and was considered part of the family,” a complaint against him read. Weitzenkamp was an Army veteran who served during the Vietnam War and moved to the Winthrop area in 1998, his online obituary said. He was survived by his wife of 37 years, five stepchildren, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and enjoyed “watching sports, playing cards, bowling, traveling with family, driving trucks and wintering in Florida,” the obituary added.
Bauer told police that he never saw Weitzenkamp at the farm property after they left for separate lunch breaks. But law enforcement analysis of Bauer’s and Weitzenkamp’s cellphones showed they were both at the farm at the time of the killing. The cap and pants Bauer had on that day had gunshot residue on them, police said.
Law enforcement’s argued Bauer’s finances “had significant debt and was behind on bills,” and that he received calls that he could lose his home if he didn’t pay his debts an hour before Weitzenkamp was found dead. Trust documents disclosed to investigators that Bauer “would receive significant financial benefit” from Weitzenkamp’s death, prosecutors said.
Sibley County Attorney, Don Lannoye, said prosecutors were pleased at the verdict.
Roseville has joined the ranks of Minnesota cities with ordinances aimed at reducing the amount of Styrofoam and single-use plastic takeout containers in the trash.
On Monday, Roseville’s City Council unanimously passed a “Green To Go” ordinance, which requires takeout containers to be compostable, recyclable or reusable. Diners will likely see some changes when they pick up dinner.
“Any takeout food that they bring home from a restaurant, either if they’re getting takeout or if they’re bringing home leftovers from dining in, should be in something that they can put in the recycling bin, or it’s compostable,” said Noelle Bakken, the city’s sustainability specialist.
The city joins neighbors, including Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Louis Park and Edina in enacting ordinances designed to make takeout containers more environmentally friendly.
The ordinance affects restaurants and food trucks, gas stations and convenience stores, grocery stores and schools. It does not affect hospitals and nursing homes, businesses with no retail food or beverage sales or caterers.
The ordinance includes utensils, though single-use straws may be available in dispensers or given to customers on request.
To-go container materials allowed under the ordinance include recyclable plastics (#1, #2, #5), metal and compostable plastic, paper or fiber products. No longer allowed are black plastic (including #5), Styrofoam and other plastics, including #4 and #6. Prepackaged foods and plastic films are exempt.
Bakken said the vote on the ordinance followed outreach with residents and businesses. Some businesses have been early adopters, and the city will help connect others to more sustainable packaging resources.
Star Tribune
Bloomington offers hopeful model for reducing police clashes with people in mental distress
For more than a quarter-century, James Ayers met with some of the most vulnerable residents in Minneapolis. As the former director of Walk-In Counseling Center, a free and anonymous counseling center on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis that is staffed by volunteers, he witnessed the value of accessible mental health services.
“The tendency is to take a policing approach, to correct it without getting into what the hell is going on,” he told me.
It’s also why he and other counselors have praised a Bloomington police pilot program that aims to help residents gain access to counseling services when they call 911 during an emergency. The department has been nationally recognized after hiring two marriage and family therapists to help people address life challenges that may demand a mental health professional rather than a police officer.
“The whole idea is that people generally don’t deal with mental health issues until there is blood on the floor,” Ayers said. “And you can get ahead of the game by providing services as soon as possible when people are asking for it. The whole rationale for a walk-in counseling center is that you’ve gotta make it easy for people to talk. And that’s done by privacy, professionalism, timeliness. What’s going on in Bloomington is a good start.”
When I was a child, a relative of mine endured a mental health crisis outside our church. I was too young to understand the totality of mental health then, but I remember the moment when police arrived. One by one, they surrounded him. I was afraid. He wasn’t harmed but the possibility seemed real.
Every police department — and many have partnered with mental health organizations in recent years — should employ resources to address individuals facing mental health crises, as those situations can quickly deteriorate. Counselors and therapists, Bloomington’s program has shown, may help residents find solutions and avoid those encounters with police. They may also help families and individuals process their collective challenges before they matriculate and lead to violence and damage in their homes and communities.
The complexities and problems in policing here and elsewhere are well-documented. The model in Bloomington is one that could work throughout the Twin Cities, but only if patients’ privacy is protected and not improperly used by police. There is value in independent counseling services, but those services are not always attainable for those who need them most.
In Bloomington, more than 4,000 people are uninsured, according to the department, and the service gives those people access to therapists whom they might not see otherwise because of that barrier. To many, 911 is the universal number to call when there is a serious situation they can’t resolve on their own. That’s a habit we’ve all developed over time. Yet, a call to that number should not always start with a police response. If anything, the presence of counselors allows for nuance and patience in these scenarios, says the Minnesota Counseling Association, the local chapter of the American Counseling Association.
