Shakopee bans camping on city property. What does it mean for the area’s homeless population?

The city of Shakopee this week banned camping on city property, giving police more authority to clear homeless encampments that have occasionally cropped up along the Minnesota River.

The rule, which the City Council unanimously adopted Feb. 4, prohibits people from residing in temporary shelters on city land, including tents, lean-tos, shacks, camp trailers and wagons. Violators can be charged with a misdemeanor and penalized with a maximum fine of $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail, Police Chief Jeff Tate said, though he added judges rarely hand down the most stringent punishment for this offense.

The new policy, effective immediately, comes about seven months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that fining or jailing people for breaking anti-camping ordinances when there isn’t shelter available doesn’t violate the Constitution.

More than 100 hundred cities and towns, from municipalities in ruby red West Virginia to blue California, have banned sleeping outside in the wake of the high court decision. Brainerd, Minn., joined those cities in August when officials outlawed camping on most public property despite some residents speaking out against that approach.

Duluth in July opted to classify sleeping on city property as an ordinance violation with a maximum $200 fine, rather than a misdemeanor that could result in jail time. Officials walked back the harsher punishment after critics blasted it for failing to address the root causes of homelessness, including a dearth or shelter space and affordable housing.

And in Rochester, where city officials instituted a ban several months before the Supreme Court ruling, staff at shelters have worried the approach will make it harder for people to get help.

Scott County — Shakopee is the county seat — lacks a fixed emergency housing facility, Housing Coordinator Peter Goldstein said, though various programs that the county offers with partners help place people in temporary shelters.

Shakopee Capt. Jamie Pearson said police and other responders have and will continue to connect people camping in the woods with services, whether that’s temporary housing, food shelves or addiction treatment.

“We respond compassionately,” she said.

The ban, she explained, will align the city’s stance on riverside camping with that of the state Department of Natural Resources. The DNR, which owns some of the land in Shakopee along the Minnesota River, prohibits makeshift shelters there, she said.

It will also allow police and city staff to quickly remove structures that Pearson said can present safety and environmental concerns: piles of garbage, open fires and debris that can flow into the river, one of the most polluted in the state. And the policy, Pearson added, will accelerate a removal process that could previously stretch for weeks.

“It can be a lengthy process to essentially evict someone from a campsite,” she said.

Shakopee’s encampments are vastly smaller, and less frequent, than the clusters of tents that have amassed in some parts of the Twin Cities.

Records show the city’s police department received five complaints about camping on city property over the last two years. Four of the reports associated with those episodes mentioned the same person, a 48-year-old man living in the woods.

Officers encountered him living in a makeshift shelter near the river in November 2023. They gave him and two other men trespass notices — requiring them to leave in about two-and-a-half weeks — and a social worker and Goldstein connected them with resources.

With the help of police and public works employees, the group packed up everything except a stove, broken bike, a foot rest, boots and lawn chairs. A police report states two of the men were staying in a Super 8 hotel in Shakopee in December 2023.

But nearly a year later, the 48-year-old man was back.

He told officers, whom the report states gave him resources, that he didn’t need help. They issued him a citation about two-and-a-half weeks later.

Pearson, the police captain, said the amended ordinance will expedite the removal process, though officers and social workers will continue to help homeless people find places to stay.

“We don’t have to wait 30, 40, 50, 60 days working with people, giving them multiple opportunities and warnings and trespass notices and tickets,” she said. “It’s very black and white. You can’t camp on city property. And it is what it is. We can now clean it up.”

Shakopee Mayor Matt Lehman framed the policy as a boon to the environment, preventing garbage and wood from flowing into the Minnesota River when it floods, and safeguarding the people living on its banks from dangerous weather.

Council Member Jesse Lara said in an email that the approach will allow city staff to remove encampments before garbage, drug paraphernalia and human waste accumulate, jeopardizing the health of people residing in the camps.

He said another goal is to connect people to resources in safe environments, “not in areas where they face health risks, fire hazards, or displacement due to weather events.”

Goldstein, the housing coordinator, declined to comment on Shakopee’s camping ban.

As for other approaches to homelessness, he pointed to Scott County’s agreement with the CAP Agency to place families that need immediate shelter in an apartment and hotels.

The county also partners with an organization that provides temporary housing for people fleeing domestic violence. And plans are in the works to build a roughly 14-unit temporary housing building for families, Scott County Health and Human Services Director Barb Dahl said. Dahl added that space is scheduled to open in Prior Lake in November.

But Goldstein said the need for additional housing for homeless people remains. The CAP Agency program, he noted, has a wait list: “It’s certainly not a position to be able to meet the volume of requests that are coming in for those services from families.”