Outside the Minneapolis Central Library, a public seating area is decorated with festive evergreen boughs and red dogwood sticks for the winter holidays.
And it is surrounded by a high metal fence.
This also applies to some sidewalks in Minneapolis and public stairs leading down the Kellogg Boulevard hill into downtown St. Paul. Fences have been erected around a closed former CVS Pharmacy in St. Paul and the former Lake Street Kmart in Minneapolis.
As the visibility of homelessness in the Twin Cities has increased, so have the fences. Those who build fences say it is a way to balance safety and quality of life and to prevent nuisance behavior and the establishment of encampments. However, others fear that the use of fences will block public sidewalks and facilities and create an inhospitable appearance that could reinforce negative perceptions of cities.
“This, in some ways, raises the flag — the white flag,” said Edward Goetz, the director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs. “This is perhaps an acknowledgment that there will be homeless people. We will not solve this problem. And since we’re not solving the problem, we need to make these changes to the built environment to minimize the perceived negative impacts.”
The stairs from the History Center parking lot to downtown are closed and locked Wednesday in St. Paul. (Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
The Twin Cities aren't the only places putting up fences in response. The Minnesota Department of Transportation has also installed fencing in Duluth. Officials in New York state, Washington state and Los Angeles have installed homeless fences.
Enrique Velázquez, director of regulatory services in Minneapolis, said fences are relative cost-effective way to balance the need to preserve property and the community's quality of life while working with people to find stable housing.