Minneapolis City Council authorizes lawsuit to close landlord’s private homeless encampment

When prominent Minneapolis landlord Hamoudi Sabri set up a homeless encampment in his Lake Street parking lot this summer, he told city officials they would need to get a court order to close it. On Monday, the mayor and City Council agreed to do just that.

Mayor Jacob Frey called a closed session on Monday to discuss suing Sabri. After meeting for nearly three hours behind closed doors, council members continued to discuss the question in public.

Ultimately, a majority — Council Members Michael Rainville, LaTrisha Vetaw, Andrea Jenkins, Linea Palmisano, Emily Koski and Jamal Osman — voted to approve a lawsuit. Council President Elliott Payne, Vice President Aisha Chughtai and Council Members Jason Chavez and Aurin Chowdhury voted no. Council Members Robin Wonsley, Jeremiah Ellison and Katie Cashman were absent.

“True compassion means safe shelter, basic sanitation, and healthy living conditions — none of which are present at this encampment," Frey said in a statement following the vote. “Today’s action gives us another tool to both address these unsafe conditions and safeguard nearby residents, students, and businesses. I appreciate the City Council’s partnership on the matter.”

It’s unclear when the lawsuit will be filed, but Sabri told the Minnesota Star Tribune that when it comes his way, it would be the “most honorable” one he’s ever had.

“Listen, I’m not scared,” he said. “My crime is I’m helping homeless people who need help.”

According to Adult Shelter Connect, Hennepin County’s reservation hotline, all beds for men and women were full at the time of the council’s vote.

The city has been at an impasse with Sabri since July, when he invited homeless people living in scattered tents throughout south Minneapolis to set up camp in the parking lot behind a vacant building he owns on E. Lake Street. Dozens of people have moved in, including many struggling with active drug addiction. The parking lot has no running water or toilets, so people are relieving themselves in the entryways of nearby buildings.

City officials want Sabri to stop what he’s doing. They’ve issued health citations totaling $15,000, which he hasn’t paid. Sabri says he wants the mayor to confront the scale of unsheltered homelessness that still exists in Minneapolis despite police orders to move people along whenever illegal camping is found. He has allowed city workers to enter the camp to scoop away trash and debris but has been adamant they do not have permission to remove anyone’s belongings from his private property.

The last time city workers came to clean, at the end of August, Sabri and homelessness consultant Sheila Delaney held a news conference criticizing the city for fighting a private property owner when homeless people continue to camp on public property throughout Minneapolis.

“If the public health was the litmus test, frankly, the city should sue itself,” Delaney said. “Moving them around from place to place to place, it’s not a pathway out of homelessness. It’s a revolving door of trauma. When the mayor does this, he is responsible for the ripple effects.”

Minneapolis Regulatory Services Director Enrique Velazquez, who watched from the sidelines as Sabri gave his news conference, said afterward that the city has not done anything to prevent the landlord from renting portable toilets for the camp. Responding to Velazquez, Sabri said he wanted the city to stop sending him citations and help him obtain toilet rentals from companies that have been reluctant to supply them.

In mid-August, Council Member Jason Chavez held a Ward 9 safety meeting at the Coliseum. Dozens of residents, business owners, homeless camp volunteers and police officers attended the meeting, which focused entirely on the Sabri camp. The landlord wasn’t present, but Aeron Bush, a camp resident Sabri had designated as leader, represented the encampment’s point of view.

“I look at everything that is going on,” said Lilian Anderson, a hairstylist who owns the Lilian A. Braiding Institute. “I’m giving people water, giving people coffee. I feel their pain, but the fact that all that trash is in here. ... We have people that come in to get hair services, and people are having relations in front of our door.”

Bush said he works hard to expel bad actors from the encampment, and not everyone who is homeless and making trouble for neighbors should be associated with it.

Business owners in the immediate vicinity argued that the camp’s presence has coincided with more drug dealing and theft in the area in general. Others said letting unsheltered people stay in one place has been better than scattering them throughout the neighborhood.

Jamie Schwesnedl of Moon Palace Books, a few blocks away, said there was more trash and needles in front of his store before the Sabri encampment came along.

Last month, Bush told the Minnesota Star Tribune he had found an apartment in St. Paul, and would be “coming and going” from the camp.

Not long after that, the Repair Lair, an outdoors store in the Hiawatha neighborhood, was burglarized. Several thousand dollars’ worth of merchandise was stolen, said owner Nancy Ford, including a $1,000 tent that wound up in Sabri’s Lake Street parking lot.

Police went down to the camp last week and ordered the occupants to take everything out so she could wipe it down and take it back, Ford said.