 Officials in Minneapolis are scrambling to find shelter for several hundred people who have congregated near a highway just south of downtown. Most of the people staying at the wall of forgotten natives homeless encampment are American Indian. Sitting along a highway sound wall it started as a small encampment this summer and suddenly grew to as many as 300 people. Services were brought in to keep people safe including a hygiene tent where they can get medical care or take showers but there's an urgent need to get people into housing. City officials say the camp can't be winterized and that's why they need to find housing. Minneapolis has a very large native population. Through our surveys of the encampment we found about 51 different tribe amendments in that of 51 different tribes. We got alcoholics we got people to have no kind of issues that are just homeless we got people that are on here and we got people that do math we got people that you know it's a big issue so we always exchange needle exchange too so we get we'll get tell them you come in here give me your dirties I'll give you cleans. The city council on Wednesday approved a site where temporary shelters will be set up with the goal of getting the camps residents into more stable long-term housing. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.