Star Tribune
Rochester grapples with growing number of homeless camps
ROCHESTER – Rochester city officials are struggling with a growing number of homeless encampments — at least 20 that have been cleaned up or abandoned since April — while police get more calls concerning homeless residents than in previous years.
Police are urging the city to expand a 2014 City Council resolution prohibiting camping overnight in parks to all city-owned property. Some council members want a permanent camping spot for homeless residents while the city and county tackle an ongoing lack of housing and shelters.
All agree on one thing: There are no easy answers for how to handle the growing issue — for Rochester or other cities across the state.
“If there was we’d all be doing it,” Rochester Police Chief Jim Franklin told the council on Monday during a study session on the issue.
The number of homeless residents continues to grow in Rochester and Olmsted County. Rochester Public Schools reported about 640 students without permanent shelter this year, up from about 400 in 2022. The city’s aging 45-bed Community Warming Center is at capacity, turning away two to three people on average each night. And about 15 to 20 evictions take place in Olmsted County each week.
Though resources are limited, housing officials say they try to connect people with services as much as possible. That doesn’t mean those services help end homeless camps, though.
There are “a lot of people who are camping who have been made aware of services and who chose not to utilize them,” said Dave Dunn, Olmsted County’s housing director.
City and county officials have spent months working with nonprofits and advocates on expanding shelter space within Rochester. Dunn said the county has acquired property for a proposed family shelter that could start later this year, while local officials hope to secure part of the $100 million in shelter funding the Minnesota Legislature approved last month.
Rochester police say they’ve had about 1,790 incidents reported this year involving homeless people. Police project that could lead to more than 4,000 incident reports in 2023, significantly higher than the 2,714 incidents reported last year and 1,916 incidents reported in 2021.
Most homeless camps that are reported are inhabited by one to six people near public parks.
“It’s quite often next to trails, near bridges, near walkways, near roadways,” Parks and Recreation Director Paul Widman said.
Police and parks officials cleared out a homeless man’s camp near Silver Lake Park on Monday morning across from the fire station, then again Tuesday after the man moved to the station’s yard.
Then “they pushed him into a residential neighborhood,” said Dan Fifield, co-founder of the Landing homeless shelter.
While officials stress they’re trying to be compassionate, they say the camps are a growing safety hazard for all involved. Widman pointed out one of his department’s staff found a 61-year-old man dead at Cook Park last week.
Franklin wants an ordinance to make camping on city property a misdemeanor criminal offense. He said there are few arrests made at encampments as most people comply, but there needs to be legal consequences and consistent follow-through to make some change their habits and comply.
“We’re not trying to criminalize this,” Franklin said. “There are times where we do need some teeth from a law enforcement perspective.”
Fifield and other homeless advocates say a city ordinance will only make things worse. And Fifield said county services don’t help the homeless as much as housing or shelter.
“There are other ways to handle it than trying to run them out,” Fifield said.
Council Member Kelly Rae Kirkpatrick suggested opening a permanent camp. She said she previously spoke with city officials about potentially using part of the Olmsted County Fairgrounds at Graham Park south of downtown, while Fifield and other advocates have pushed for public land near the Rochester Police Department’s North Station in northeast Rochester.
“How compassionate is it to break an encampment yet no one has any place else to go?” Kirkpatrick said.
“Reaching 100,000 passengers in less than six months is a testament to the good things that can happen when we provide a service that is needed,” said MnDOT Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger. “We are very excited to reach this milestone and look forward to strengthening our partnerships with communities, as well as federal, state and local governments, and Amtrak to continue providing a safe, reliable, and sustainable transportation option.”
“Both are discovering who they are,” said stage manager and Armstrong senior Katie Spickelmier. The play reflects the “struggle of growing up in a society you don’t really fit into.”
Cast members are challenged with embodying beloved iconic characters while creating their own personal versions of them — while speaking their lines in British accents.
“Trying to put yourself in a whole different dialect is definitely a fun challenge for all of us — and trying to keep it appropriate and not silly,” Smallacombe said.
And then, of course, as with everything Harry Potter-related, there’s all the magic the production’s tech team has had to figure out how to depict without the benefit of Hollywood’s computer-generated special effects. They include the machinations of the time machine, a character shooting out of a fireplace, characters flying above the stage.
Lovitt and other staffers traveled to New York to see how Broadway pulled it off. It debuted there in 2018 as a five-hour play performed in two parts (and remains that length in the London production). It was later edited to a one-part version at three and a half hours, and in November will be presented on Broadway in under three hours (which is the version playing in Chicago). The high school version is even shorter, closer to two hours.
Actors from “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” rehearse a scene at Armstrong High School in Plymouth. The 40-scene play has a cast of more than 30 students. (Renée Jones Schneider)
Of course, Broadway, like Hogwarts, has access to magical elements not generally available to Midwestern high schools. For example, she said, there was a whole swimming pool directly under the stage, which cast members reached via a tunnel, wearing scuba gear and emerging soaking wet.
A St. Paul woman faces a felony charge for allegedly stealing a sheep from a local farm in Bloomington, according to court documents.
Mandy Kay Bower, 42, was arrested at Old Shakopee Road E. in Bloomington Saturday evening after officers saw her and a male walking with a dog and a sheep on a leash.
According to police, Bower told officers that she purchased the sheep for $200. However, one of the officers noticed burs, a prickly plant found in fields, all over Bower and the sheep.
The male with Bower told officers she stepped over the fence of a farm, put a leash on one of the sheep and pulled it through the fence, according to the charging document. Bower pulled so hard that the sheep was choking, the male told officers, according to the document.
The officers eventually spoke to an employee and owner of the nearby farm and confirmed that the sheep, a breeding hair ram worth approximately $500, had not been sold to Bower, according to court documents.
Bower is charged with rustling and livestock theft. In a booking photo, Bower appears to have a tattoo of a sheep covering her left cheek.
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