Where do the homeless hang out in Mpls? (Minneapolis, Center City: credit, home)

[Cruz Azul Guy]

The young "hip" homeless people tend to congregate at the Hard Times Cafe in Cedar-Riverside.

[QuantumIguana]

I wasn't aware that hip and homeless went together. I live the Hard Times Cafe, the tempeh Reuben is pretty good. But the people there aren't homeless.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

maybe it's "cool" if you don't become homeless due to drugs/alcohol????

[Camden Northsider]

I guess I would make sure "homeless" doesn't mean crashing on friends' couches, etc. before searching around outside downtown. If I were in your position I'd go to Mary Jo's during one of their meal times and look around- either in the cafeteria area or the line that waits outside, and/or check out other soup kitchens in the area as you might have a hard time getting past the front door of the shelters (although you could possibly bring a picture of your friend with you and check with the front desk personnel to ask if they look familiar- they may or may not tell you depending on how concerned they are about data privacy). But a number of shelters are within a few block radius of Mary Jo's, as someone else mentioned Salvation Army Harbor Lights is right down the street at 1010 Currie Ave N.

To find out more about local resources for the homeless (e.g. when/where meals are served, locations of shelters, etc.) you could call the Minneapolis-St. Paul "211" or order a Handbook of the Streets: www.ststephensmpls.org/pdfs/10-MSP-order.pdf (http://www.ststephensmpls.org/pdfs/10-MSP-order.pdf - broken link).

[AllCity RayofMinneapolis]

Well, we hang out on the internet of course!

I usually just go to Caribou Coffee shops. But I broke my laptop, so there will be no more of that for a while...

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

I wasn't aware that hip and homeless went together. I live the Hard Times Cafe, the tempeh Reuben is pretty good. But the people there aren't homeless.

Hmm, strange. Cuz it seems like every other time I walk by that place somebody standing outside is asking me for spare change. Maybe they needed the extra $.50 to pay their rent for the month?

[QuantumIguana]

I've eaten at the Hard Times a good number of times. I've walked by there many more times. I've not once been asked for spare change.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

I've eaten at the Hard Times a good number of times. I've walked by there many more times. I've not once been asked for spare change.

It's happened to me at least 3 times in the last 2 years and I walk by there twice a week when I'm going back and forth between classes at the U. I've also seen the young homeless couple with the dog that lived in Minneapolis a couple summers back hanging out there a couple times. Given those experiences I began to associate the place with homelessness.

[QuantumIguana]

Three times in two years? That's 104 weeks, and if you're walking by there twice a week, that's 208 trips, 416 passes by there, if each trip includes a pass by as you walk to your destination and one as you walk back from your destination.

Earlier you said that you someone asking for a handout every other time you walk by. Obviously you wouldn't be walking by there every single week so the percentage rises above the less than one percent from my calculations, but still, three times in two years isn't even vaguely like "every other time".

[FamousBlueRaincoat]

Hard Times is a fun place. Plenty of people down on their luck hang out there, but not to the point that I would tell someone to go there looking for homeless people. The place is pretty happening in the evening. I used to go there in the morning, and occasionally there would be someone who looked like they were trying to warm up. But it pretty much is the best coffee in the city, and probably the cheapest at that too.

The fact is that they also kick people out for hassling others. When I was in school, there was this schizophrenic guy, perhaps Somali, who used to hang around the coffeeships in Dinkytown. Sometimes he'd play chess with people, sometimes he'd talk about literature, sometimed he'd try to convert people to Christianity, and sometimes he'd have loud, manic, incoherent outbursts. I never saw any of his outbursts, but had heard about them - he was pretty well known among the coffeeshop scene. I think Hard Times was the only place that had a sign on their door banning the guy from coming in though. Don't know whatever happened to him. The point of that is that I doubt Hard Times would let people stand in front of the place hassling others for change and whatnot - although they would probably let someone come inside, buy a dollar cup of coffee, and sit there for as long as they wanted.