Duluth Decleares War on the Homeless

As we reported earlier, the Mayor Roger Reinert’s office announced in a July 9 press release that it was proposing a series of “public safety” ordinances.  These reactionary ordinances provided increased penalties for a range of things ranging from camping on public land to “disturbing of the usual peace, quiet, comfort or decency of the neighborhood”.  They appear to largely be copy and pasted from similar ordinances passed by the City of Rochester, as well as other cities around the country who are making such moves in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision that city’s can criminalize homelessness.

The City Council dutifully took up the proposals immediately.  They did the required first reading of the ordinances at their July 15 meeting.  At that meeting they heard from several dozen concerned citizens, non-profit staffers, clergy and folks experiencing homelessness.  That didn’t deter the Council one bit though, and they went ahead with their plans to schedule a vote at the soonest possible date, which was their July 29 meeting.  At that meeting opponents of the proposals not only filled the Council Chambers to capacity, but filled the overflow room set up on the 4^th floor, and spilled out into the hallways. 81 people spoke during the public comment section of the meeting.  Still the volunteer soldiers in the Mayor’s war against the homeless, i.e. the City Council, marched on.  It took them until well after midnight, but they passed every one of the “public safety” ordinances except for one (a particular malicious one about “false soliciting”).

The Council briefly did try putting on a fig leaf of compassion, by voting to both give Stepping On Up half a million dollars (but in doing so, making very clear that the Council expect them, rather than the City, to deal with the issue of homelessness) and agreeing to reduce the proposed penalty for camping from possible jail time to a fine.

The fig leaf fell to the ground though just about every time the majority of the Council tried to explain their actions.  And once the leaf was laying on the ground, it was promptly stomped on by the Duluth Police.  Just hours after the Council meeting ended, the Police made their move against the Gaza solidarity and homeless encampment in front of City Hall.  Their officers informed the campers that they would have to vacate the encampment and issued this public statement:

DATE: 7/30/2024

SUBJECT: Update on Encampments at Priley Circle

BY: Mattie Hjelseth, Duluth Police Department Public Information Officer

Update on Encampments at Priley Circle

This morning, Tuesday, July 30, in light of escalating public health and safety concerns, the City of Duluth’s Life Safety Team addressed the encampments at Priley Circle (100 N 5th Ave W).  Consistent with Duluth City Code provisions and past practice, those at the encampment were given notice to vacate the area and remove their belongings. The Life Safety Team will continue to coordinate with Community Outreach Programs to assist those during the transition period.

We salute the hundreds of people who turned out these past few weeks in opposition to these reactionary ordinances.  And we denounce the callous actions of the Mayor, the Council and the Duluth Police.  They have choses to follow the directives of the Chamber of Commerce and giant companies like Essentia Health, rather than take a serious approach to the issue of housing.  Their actions amount to a declaration of war on the unhoused.  We call on our readers to continue to fight for demands of the Gaza encampment – like housing first policies and divestment from Israel’s bloody war on Gaza.  The City may have declared war, but it’s far from over! 

>> The article above is written by Adam Ritscher of the Northwoods Socialist Collective.