The Minneapolis City Council authorized the city attorney’s office to bring litigation against a property owner who has refused to clear a homeless encampment on his property, moving in favor by a vote of 6-4 during a special meeting on Monday morning.
The city attorney’s office can now move forward with legal action against Hamoudi Sabri, the owner of a property on the corner of East Lake Street and 28th Avenue SE, who let a homeless encampment on his property turn into what city officials and residents are calling a public health crisis.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, called a special city council session to vote on the matter.
“True compassion means safe shelter, basic sanitation, and healthy living conditions, none of which are present at this encampment. 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,” Frey said in a statement.
Council President Elliot Payne, who voted against the motion, said during the meeting that approximately 60 people are sleeping overnight at the encampment. A Fox 9 report said the public health crisis at the encampment involves trash at the site, drug paraphernalia, unclean water, and no proper sanitation facilities.
“I’ve been there several times, and the public health crisis is visible. You can see it, you can smell it,” Councilwoman LaTrisha Vetaw, who motioned to authorize the city attorney to move forward with litigation, said. “It’s not safe, not only for the people that are there, but the people that are around it.”
City officials say the litigation would consider Minnesota statutes on public health nuisance, traditional nuisance, and common law nuisance.
Payne told the council that, according to Hennepin County data, over the last 30 days, the highest number of beds available in the morning across homeless shelters in the county was 34. However, this number decreased to an average of 3 beds available by 10 p.m.
Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai said the council learned that 33 people in the encampment are looking to find shelter housing. She called the move “rubber-stamping the establishment of a new encampment because there just isn’t enough space for people to go” before she voted no on the motion.
Sabri, the landlord of the property, said in a statement to several local news outlets that the vote was “political theater at the expense of real solutions.”
TRUMP ORDERED WHITE HOUSE PEACE VIGIL TO COME DOWN. IT’S STILL THERE.
“This lawsuit is not about public health or safety, it is about Frey’s desperate attempt to stay in front of cameras in the midst of his failing Mayoral campaign, this guy stops at nothing in his pathetic, last grasps for power,” Sabri said in a statement to Fox 9. “For years, the Mayor has shuffled human beings from one block to another with bulldozers, fencing, and police sweeps, leaving behind traumatized residents, destabilized neighborhoods, and wasted taxpayer dollars.”
In a study conducted on Jan. 22, Hennepin County officials found that over 3,000 people were homeless. That number had decreased by 20% since the study in 2024.
