Sahan Journal24%
St. Paul begins clearing city’s largest homeless encampment 8%
By Katrina Pross10%
8/5/2026, 4:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Pessimism Bias, Appeal to Emotion, and Anecdotal, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 18.8% saturation with 191 hits. Analysis detected 854 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,015 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 18.2% and a BS Rank of 8% (25,996 of 28,112 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 92.50% of the article peer group.
A bobcat loads a trailer at the Pig’s Eye encampent on August 4, 2026.
The city of St.
Paul has begun to clear the camp, with an August 5 deadline set for residents to leave the area.
St.
Paul began cleanup and preparation to clear its largest homeless encampment on Tuesday, leaving camp residents with uncertainty and worry over where they will go next.
In July, St.
Paul Mayor Kaohly Her’s administration announced that it will clear encampments across the city , starting with the largest camp located at Pig’s Eye Regional Park, on Aug.
5.
The city plans to close other encampments, but has not released details on when those sweeps will take place.
The city has said the Pig’s Eye encampment has about 140 residents, but community organizers estimate that the population is higher, at potentially more than 200 residents.
Her’s administration has said the encampments must close due to safety concerns, and that in the past year, first responders were dispatched to Pig’s Eye Park more than 100 times for incidents including medical emergencies, fires and assaults.
“The conditions at Pig’s Eye Park have become too dangerous for the people living there and for the surrounding community.
We cannot accept that as the status quo,” Her said in a news release sent Tuesday.
Signs posted in the Pig’s Eye encampment in St.
Paul decry the cities eviction policy on August 4, 2026, one day ahead of a planned clearing by the city.
Credit: Aaron Nesheim | Sahan Journal
The announcement to clear the encampments drew immediate scrutiny from community members and some elected officials , who expressed concern that camp residents have nowhere else to go.
About two dozen community members testified at a St.
Paul City Council public hearing Tuesday, imploring the city to not close the camp this week.
“The looming question is … Where are people supposed to go?
That hasn’t been answered,” Justin Lewandowski, executive director of Open Hands Midway, told Sahan Journal.
Emergency shelters already near capacity
According to Ramsey County, more than 1,400 single adults are on the priority waiting list for coordinated entry, which connects people experiencing homelessness to housing.
Some shelters in the city say they are already near capacity, and that they do not believe there are enough beds to accommodate all encampment residents.
Union Gospel Mission Twin Cities, which provides emergency shelter to men, had about 20 to 25 beds available as of Monday, according to Sarah Peterka, the organization’s community relations director.
She said she does not believe there are enough shelter beds in the city to accommodate all of the camp residents.
Therese Gales, a spokeswoman for Catholic Charities, said the Higher Ground shelter in downtown St.
Paul is “consistently at or above capacity each night.”
The city allocated more than $1 million to Ramsey County late last month for additional shelter beds, which will open up 49 beds at Catholic Charities Higher Ground shelter by Aug.
5.
Pig’s Eye camp residents Isaac Thomas and Samie Lund, seen on Aug. 4, 2026, plan to leave the St.
Paul camp before the city’s Wednesday, Aug. 5, deadline.
They are still awaiting a move-in date for an apartment the couple are planning to move to.
Credit: Aaron Nesheim | Sahan Journal
Peterka said some camp residents may not feel comfortable going to an emergency shelter for various reasons, such as having a partner or pet they don’t want to be separated from.
Some might have had a previous negative experience at a shelter.
“We have to give these people some grace and allow them to choose what they want to do,” Peterka said.
Rep.
Leigh Finke, DFL-St.
Paul, emphasized that emergency shelter beds, even if there were enough of them, are not a solution to encampments.
Without more long-term housing options, people will continue to face homelessness.
“This will hurt people.
It will probably cost lives,” she said of the encampment sweeps.
Kat Turner, who leads Rising Waters Mutual Aid, is concerned about the Pig’s Eye eviction and the future encampment sweeps that are expected to take place soon.
Turner said mutual aid groups have been scrambling to get people the help they need.
“I don’t know that there are enough resources in this city to get people what they are going to need to survive this,” they said.
Joshua Yang was waiting for help moving his belonging from the Pig’s Eye to another location on August 4, 2026.
Credit: Aaron Nesheim | Sahan Journal
Camp residents unsure where to go next
Several residents of the encampment at Pig’s Eye Park said on Tuesday that they don’t know where to go next, but that they will likely move to another encampment in the city.
Joshua Yang, who has lived in the Pig’s Eye camp for several months, worries that the next encampment he moves to will eventually be cleared out by the city as well.
“We’re kind of up in the air right now,” he said.
“I don’t know what to do.”
Camp residents Isaac Thomas and his partner Samie Lund said they have been connected to housing through Radias Health, but are waiting to hear when they can move into their apartment.
In the meantime, they plan on going to another encampment.
Carlton Payton helps build a bike for a friend at the Pig’s Eye encampment on August 4, 2026, one day before the city of St.
Paul plans to dismantle the camp.
Credit: Aaron Nesheim | Sahan Journal
They said it’s frustrating that the city is going to clear the encampment when there isn’t enough housing available.
“I honestly don’t think the city cares,” Thomas said.
Javier Saldana has lived in Pig’s Eye for about a year and a half, and was previously at another encampment.
He said he isn’t sure where he’s going to go next.
“We don’t know what we’re going to do,” he said.
This is a developing story.
Check back for updates.
The post St.
Paul begins clearing city’s largest homeless encampment appeared first on Sahan Journal .
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