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The owner of the vacant Sheraton Minneapolis Midtown Hotel opened its doors last week as a sanctuary for people trying to avoid the Black Lives Matter riots, to include left-wing activists and the homeless.

The hotel, which was heavily damaged during the riots, quickly became a homeless commune and community organizers launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise well over $100,000, with carloads of other donations pouring in, the Star Tribune reported.

But those who took refuge, reportedly over 200 people, are now being kicked to the curb as they’ve turned the hotel into a shantytown marked by squalor and rampant drug use.

Minnesota Reformer reporter Max Nesterak shared footage of the damage online:

Pretty much every room looks like this. Important to note that it’s not only residents who caused this damage (many residents took care of their rooms and cleaned the common areas). When volunteers pulled out, looters and others were able to move in pic.twitter.com/leASZ7t44C

— Max Nesterak (@maxnesterak) June 11, 2020

The situation had become “unwieldy,” according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.

Volunteers operating the shelter were reportedly allowing residents to bring in drugs and alcohol, leading to reports of widespread drug use and overdoses.

Minneapolis Sanctuary Hotel update pic.twitter.com/rwGnuGTQnz

— Max Nesterak (@maxnesterak) June 11, 2020

Citing Minnesota Public Radio, Biz-Journal reported that the eviction decision came after Ryan Companies US Inc., the property’s management company, informed the owner, Jay Patel, about drug violations, piles of garbage and no effort to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

In a statement, Minneapolis-based Ryan distanced itself from the evictions:

“The letter we sent to Mr. Patel was to remind him of his commitments to his neighbors and to highlight specific issues of safety and public health that are putting people – including residents – at risk. In no way did we request, demand or support today’s action; in fact, we closed our letter with an offer to work with him to address those concerns as well as other outstanding issues between us. We strongly believe that the people currently residing in the hotel who are experiencing homelessness deserve – and require – action that engages resources at all levels of government, community organizations, philanthropic organizations and the private sector.”

One of the organizers of the “Sanctuary Hotel,” public health nurse Rosemary Fister, told MPR News that some of the squatters intend to defy the eviction order.

“I don’t know if the owner has the power to evict us. I don’t know if the police in Minneapolis have the power to remove us from housing at this point,” she said. “This is a means of addressing historic, deep disparities and inequality. This is pragmatic and this has inspired a lot of people.”

For the Marxist-inspired left, housing is a human right.

Housed and unhoused activists are holding a press conference outside the Minneapolis Sanctuary Hotel. There is no where else for them to go. #housingisahumanright pic.twitter.com/z5s7qOePgZ

— Rosemary Fister (@RosemaryFister) June 9, 2020

Proving that the year 2020 is a remarkable time to be alive, the squatters even have their own Facebook account.

Posting a notice online, organizers are calling on government and the community to provide “dignified housing” to those who have “chosen” to vacate — the irony lost on them, given the condition they left their current housing in.

“The owner of the former Sheraton did threaten to evict but a swell of community support has been able to delay that forced eviction,” the statement said. “Right now, volunteers and organizers are requesting an emergency response from community, social services, and the government to provide immediate, dignified housing to all residents who have chosen to leave the Minneapolis Sanctuary Hotel.”

Here’s some more footage from Nesterak:

I spoke to Angel Beaumaster, who volunteered here and whose daughter was living here. She was trying to clean up but was distraught over what happened. “The owner doesn’t deserve this. When the riots were at their worst he did allow people to seek refuge here.”

— Max Nesterak (@maxnesterak) June 11, 2020

Not all the damage was caused over the last day (see story early in thread), but it got much worse. All the TVs are gone, the irons are gone. Someone tried to break into the vending machine pic.twitter.com/K315KN2WJz

— Max Nesterak (@maxnesterak) June 11, 2020

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Tom Tillison

Senior Staff Writer
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.

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