Nearly 50 people signed up for public comment at a Minneapolis City Council Public Health & Safety Committee on Wednesday to weigh in on a proposed ordinance that would require city staff to keep and publish a log of homeless encampment removals and report quarterly to council members and the mayor’s office.

If passed, the ordinance would not change the city’s current homelessness response methods in any way, said Council member Aurin Chowdhury.

The aim, she said, is to gather the data necessary to understand the effectiveness of the current system to inform efforts to change it.

“The background for this moment is that we lack transparency around how the city conducts encampment evictions,” Chowdhury said.

“Why does this all matter? Because good governance requires good data.”

The proposed ordinance would require city staff to track, in part, how often they’re clearing encampments, where, how many people are displaced, which services were available and offered to them and how much it cost to do all of the above.

Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai said data presented in spring 2023 showed that each time an encampment is cleared, it costs the city roughly $120,000.

Service calls, including 311 and 911, would be tracked too.

This week, Minneapolis police responded to two shootings within a few blocks of an encampment near Bloomington Avenue and 25th Street. Two men were hurt between the two incidents on Monday and Tuesday morning. One of them was in critical condition, according to police.

MPD has not specified whether anyone involved was associated with the encampment.

South Minneapolis neighbors and others weighing in during the subsequent public hearing had strong, mixed opinions about the makeshift shelters.

“I’m appalled to live in a city where my tax dollars pay for bulldozers evicting and re-traumatizing the same group of residents,” one speaker said.

“Neighborhoods have lost millions of dollars,” another speaker commented. “Burnt down houses, break-ins, thefts, and who pays us back? Who takes care of that? And, it’s not like I’m not compassionate.”

Council members are expected to take up the ordinance at the next meeting of the full City Council a week from Thursday.