St. Cloud Homeless Encampment Update

The City of St. Cloud continues to work with the Lincoln Center in regards to the homeless encampment located on the Lincoln Center property.  St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis addressed a listener call on WJON's Radio Town Hall Meeting Friday morning.  He says nothing has changed in the past 2 weeks in regards to this.

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Mayor Kleis explains the homeless living in this encampment can go inside the Lincoln Center building with an escort to use the bathroom and shower.  The Lincoln Center is still not open but they are staffing the building while the encampment exists on their property.  Kleis says the homeless can not go into other portions of the building because they are not up to the code highlighted by the city.  He says both the bathroom and shower are up to code.  The operators of the Lincoln Center continue to work to get the building up to code and would like to have it reopen no later than November 1.

Mayor Kleis says moving the homeless from the encampment near the Veterans Bridge to the Lincoln Center isn't a long term solution but is an improvement.  The encampment on the Lincoln Center property is fenced in and monitored by the St. Cloud Police Department with a camera unit 24 hours a day/7 days a week.  Kleis says if illegal activity is happening in the encampment those people committing those crimes will be arrested.  A ruling by a Federal judge specifies that those who have no other place to go can live in encampments but Kleis explains that does not allow them to commit crimes.

If you'd like to listen to the portion of today's Radio Town Hall meeting with Mayor Kleis where he addresses the encampment it is available below.