City of Duluth Shuts Down Safe Bay

 The City of Duluth has a terrible track record of dealing with our housing crisis, especially when it comes to people who are unhoused.  Police patrol city parks at night to drive away anyone sleeping in their cars.  Homeless encampments are regularly torn up and shut down.  And this past year the City passed a whole slew of new laws further criminalizing being unhoused, and increasing the punishment for violating these laws.  At the same time it has basically outsourced dealing with the problem of local housing activists and non-profits.  Many of these folks do thankless work that is making a real impact.  Among them is Stepping On Up.  One of their programs is Safe Bay, which is a staffed parking area where folks living in their car can access basic services and sleep safely.  This year it is located at the Vineyard Church's parking lot.  However, this week the City of Duluth shut it down.

The reason for the shut down is that one of the neighbors has complained about it.  Mind you, there haven't been any incidents or problems at the site.  And Stepping On Up jumped through all of the hoops and regulations that the City put in front of it.  And there were even multiple public hearings held specifically for folks to bring their concerns, before Safe Bay was set up at this location.  Despite all of that, the City has opted to prioritize the concerns of this one NIMBY over the dozens of unhoused folks that rely on this program.  It prioritizes the property owner so much that it has decided to shut down the while program while it looks into their concerns.  

Some are defending the City, saying that the governing ordinance requires temporary use permits to be suspended if someone files a frivolous appeal like this.  But these are city rules, designed by the city itself.  They wrote the ordinance in question with a built in advantage to neighboring property owners, despite the public good that the permit is for.  This is quite different than the guidelines that govern eminent domain for developers.  We do not believe that is a coincidence.

We urge our readers to reach out to the City and demand that Safe Bay be reopened.  You contact your City Councilor at council@duluthmn.gov.  And if you are living in your car and no longer have a place to go, Stepping On Up has an Outreach Hotline that you can call at (218) 461-8505.

Stop the City of Duluth's War on the Homeless!