EHVT Statement On Mass Shooting At Encampment In Minneapolis

We are deeply saddened by the mass shooting at two homeless encampments in Minneapolis
on Monday September 15th. Eight people were wounded, at least three with life threatening
injuries. In the last year stigma about our most vulnerable Vermonters and Americans has
increased to dangerous levels across our state and country. This puts people experiencing
homelessness at extreme risk. In response to the shooting, victims were not offered grief
counseling, shelter or support for the trauma, rather their encampments were cleared and their
belongings taken by the city and thrown away. This type of dehumanizing response, when we
are seeing gun deaths in large numbers across the country is deeply disturbing.

In the wake of Trump’s Executive Order criminalizing people experiencing homelessness and
suggesting forced institutionalization of those most vulnerable, this mass shooting cannot go
unnoticed. So many people here in Vermont and across our country are victims of the housing
crisis. We are so worried about our unsheltered neighbors. We must turn the tide of this stigma
taking place in our country toward those experiencing homelessness. We must lean away.

“It is alarming to me that there has been almost no public statements or outrage in the wake of
this mass shooting”, Said Executive Director, Brenda Siegel, “We can not allow ourselves as a
country or as a state to dehumanize people for any reason and certainly not on the basis of
living with a disability or economic status. I fear that the stigmatization of people experiencing
homelessness that has been fed right here at home and across the country, could lead to more
violence and harm directed at these valuable residents of our state and citizens of our country”.

At End Homelessness Vermont, we invite our elected leaders, municipalities and communities
to join us in strongly condemning the mass shooting in two homeless encampments in
Minneapolis. Together we can rise against dangerous rhetoric directed at people experiencing
homelessness and instead join together in a solution that keeps people continuously sheltered,
until they are permanently housed. Now more than ever we must lean into compassion and
solutions, rather than hate, violence and fear.