While touting progress on violent crime and access to affordable housing, the mayors of St. Paul and Minneapolis on Tuesday called for their state and suburban counterparts to do more to prevent homelessness in the first place.

St. Paul’s Melvin Carter and Minneapolis’ Jacob Frey said many of the residents they meet in homeless encampments in or near downtown did not grow up in either city. Communities across the state effectively have “exported” their housing crisis to the state’s two largest cities, the elected leaders during a “Breakfast with the Mayors” event jointly hosted by the St. Paul Area Chamber and Minneapolis Regional Chamber.

“Home is a right. Housing is a right,” added Frey, who has come under criticism for dismantling homeless encampments like “Camp Nenookaasi” in the city’s Ventura Village area. “That right is not presently available for everyone.”

Mayors Jacob Frey of Minneapolis (left) and Melvin Carter of St. Paul speak onstage during BET Presents 19th Annual Super Bowl Gospel Celebration at Bethel University on February 1, 2018 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for BET)

Carter noted that homelessness also is a growing concern in nearby Dakota County, yet in the face of public pressure, the Dakota County Board of Commissioners recently changed course and opted not to apply for a $10 million state grant to house the homeless at the Norwood Inn and Suites, a 118-room hotel in Eagan.

“Less than half of the folks I talk to in homeless encampments say they grew up in St. Paul,” Carter said, and when suburban lawmakers turn a blind eye towards homelessness in their midst, “you’re just exporting it.”

Pointing to drug addiction’s influence on housing instability, Frey called for a state-funded, regional approach that includes a care facility with “full scale wrap-around service” to treat fentanyl addicts through “culturally sensitive” means.

The Minneapolis mayor said affordable housing production has increased six-fold in his city since he took office in January 2018, yet there is no way that Minneapolis and St. Paul can build their way out of the homeless crisis evident in both downtowns. “To do this right it needs to be a statewide, regional solution,” Frey said. “Every one of us should be demanding that.”

Frey said recent data shows crime has fallen in Minneapolis “in almost every single category” but easy access to guns still makes violent crimes too prevalent. “We still have a lot more work to do.”

St. Paul, which averaged 17 homicides per year between 2010 and 2018, saw its homicide numbers climb starting in 2019. The number peaked at 40 homicides in 2022 and fell to 32 last year.

Frey said that in light of legal challenges to the “Minneapolis 2040″ comprehensive plan, the city is asking state lawmakers for explicit authority to remove single-family zoning as an obstacle toward greater housing density in neighborhoods citywide.

“We’re moving to eliminate single-family zoning, as well,” said Carter, emphasizing that loosening zoning restrictions does not stop a developer from building single-family homes.

In the eyes of critics, “that’s ‘new, that’s strange, that’s different,’” Carter added. “The only thing that people hate more than the status quo is any change whatsoever.”

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