Brainerd says no to homeless shelter operating in summer, leaving its guests few options 5y185k

On a warm evening in late April, staff at the Bridge on 7th homeless shelter in Brainerd prepared to open for one final night before closing for the summer. They made coffee, folded sheets and stockpiled toiletries such as toothbrushes and soap. Meanwhile, people gathered outside, waiting for the doors to open at 7 p.m.  "We just kind of make sure it's a safe place for people – like, meet people where they're at. There's no judgment here,” said Randi Wickham, a shelter attendant. “We're just here to offer them a safe place to sleep.” For more than three years, the Bridge on 7th has provided a safe, warm place for adults experiencing homelessness to spend the night, with few restrictions on who can stay. It’s served a total of 534 people since it opened in 2021. Bill Wear, operations manager for the Bridge on 7th in Brainerd, waits while a visitor leaves his personal belongings while checking into the shelter for the night. Wear said he’s often asked where people who stay at the shelter go when it closes for the summer. “Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer,” he said.Kirsti Marohn | MPR NewsBut the overnight shelter is only open from September through April. A recent decision by the Brainerd City Council not to allow it to operate through the summer has sparked a community debate, and left some without a place to stay. On April 30, the last night before it closed, Joseph Jensen, a frequent guest, wondered where he’d sleep the following night. “There are people in need throughout the year, no matter what, whether this is a resort town or not,” Jensen said. “It would be great to have the resources that we need all year round.” Those who stay at the Bridge on 7th don’t have a lot of options for where to go. Even when it gets warm enough to sleep outside, it’s no longer legal. Last year, the Brainerd City Council ed a ban on camping on public property. A statewide problemSimilar housing problems are playing out around the state. The number of people without shelter in greater Minnesota has grown in recent years, but available shelter space hasn’t kept up, said Cathy ten Broeke, executive director of the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness. According to data provided by Crow Wing County, a point-in-time count on one night in January 2024 found 215 people experiencing homelessness, almost three times as many as in 2020. In 2023, the Legislature provided $100 million for homeless shelter capital projects, including organizations in greater Minnesota. There were about three times the requests as money available, ten Broeke said.  Shelter attendants Jennifer Saba, left, and Randi Wickham fold sheets and towels at the Bridge on 7th in Brainerd on April 30, before the shelter opens its doors for the night.Kirsti Marohn | MPR NewsSome communities have resisted adding shelter capacity, even when there’s community and available funding, she said. “That's really challenging, because they are going to continue to see the numbers of people sleeping outside go up,” ten Broeke said. At the same time, cities such as Brainerd, Duluth and Rochester have adopted camping bans, making it illegal to sleep outside. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that fining or jailing people for sleeping and camping in public places when there is no shelter available does not violate the Constitution. Rochester bans camping on city propertyIn attempt to curb homeless encampments Duluth City Council removes criminal penaltyFrom homelessness ordinance A new program in RochesterIt helps students’ families avoid eviction In Brainerd, city officials said the camping ban was a tool to protect public health and safety. Still, ten Broeke questions the benefits of those bans. “We haven't seen any evidence here, and certainly not nationally, either where camping bans or criminalizing people sleeping outside has done anything to reduce homelessness or solve the problems,” she said. What’s proven to work, she said, is getting people into affordable permanent housing that offers ive services. An attempted fix meets resistanceKnowing their guests would lack housing in the summer, the nonprofit Bridges of Hope, which operates the shelter in Brainerd, thought they had an answer. In April, they asked the city for a permit to operate the Bridge on 7th year round.  “We thought this would be such a logical solution,” said Jana Shogren, Bridges of Hope's executive director. "It's illegal to sleep outside now. We thought that they would want us to keep the shelter open." Shogren said the nonprofit had full funding for the project and wasn’t asking the city for any money, just permission. Beds were ready for guests at the Bridge on 7th overnight shelter in Brainerd on April 30, its last night of operation before closing for the summer. The shelter’s operators sought a permit extension to continue operating the shelter year round, but the city council did not approve it.Kirsti Marohn | MPR NewsBut, at an April 7 city council meeting, some city officials voiced concerns about the shelter operating year round, saying that it may be attracting people from other cities that don’t provide the same services. “My primary concern is we're steadily seeing a draw from outside of the city, outside of this community,” Brainerd Police Chief John Davis said. Davis said the shelter has been a good community partner, especially in the winter months when lacking shelter at night can be a life-threatening situation. “I don't want to minimize the struggles of anyone in the summertime that doesn't have shelter,” he said. “However, I don't identify that as the same type of critical emergency.” Davis also questioned whether Brainerd’s services for people in need would be strained if the shelter stayed open year round. “The question is, these really good resources that we have here for our own community, would we be exhausting those if we continue to have the draw that we've seen?” he said. “Would that increase significantly if we went to a year-round model?” Joseph Jensen eats pizza at the Bridge on 7th shelter in Brainerd on April 30, the last night before the shelter closed for the summer. Jensen said he’s stayed at the shelter many times. “There are people in need throughout the year,” he said. “It would be great to have the resources that we need all year round.” Kirsti Marohn | MPR NewsCouncil president Mike O'Day echoed the police chief's concerns. He urged other cities to step up and provide their own overnight shelters. "Overall, it's been successful,” O’Day said. “But as other communities aren't pulling forward and bringing warming shelters to their community, it then rains down on this community to take on that burden.” The council voted to extend the Bridge on 7th’s permit to operate for one year, but only from September through April. The decision frustrated Shogren, who spoke at a council meeting two weeks later.  "Most of the people we serve are from here,” she said. “Most of them stay just a short time, and many of them leave in a better place than they found us. And that's a good thing." City staff also raised concerns that the shelter has been the cause of increased criminal activity in the neighborhood and calls to police. But Shogren said many of the 119 police calls since the shelter opened were for medical assistance, and would have been needed whether the person was staying at the shelter or not. Since the Brainerd City Council’s decision, ers of the Bridge on 7th have been attending meetings, asking council to reconsider. Seeking other options, none clearMayor Dave Badeaux, who didn’t vote on the shelter’s permit, said the city is looking into other options to help improve housing options, including talking to faith leaders and other communities about potential solutions. “The city must be risk averse in making decisions that work for the entire community, while also asking cities and communities around us to step up as well,” Badeaux said. On the last night of Bridge on 7th’s operation in April, guests dropped off backpacks and other personal items to be locked up. Some sat at tables and talked, or ate slices of pizza the staff ordered to mark the shelter's last night. Others retired to the rows of waiting beds covered with quilts.  Staff worry about where those guests have gone since. They could be camping outside, risking fines and jail, or other threats such as crime and severe weather. On several nights since the Bridge on 7th closed, temperatures have fallen into the 30s and 40s. “It's going to either push them into unsafe situations or further out in the outskirts of the community, where they're not going to be able to get the help they need,” Wickham said. A sign near the entrance of the Bridge on 7th overnight shelter in Brainerd warns guests that they must by out by May 1. The shelter closed on April 30, and will not reopen until fall.Kirsti Marohn | MPR News 3fac