Petition opposes daycare near Northside methadone clinic

Project Refocus has started a petition opposing the placement of a daycare next to an existing methadone clinic on Broadway Avenue in North Minneapolis.

“Children deserve safe, stable and developmentally appropriate environments,” said KB Brown, executive director of the organization. “At the same time, individuals receiving treatment deserve dignity, privacy and properly planned service locations. The community should not be forced to accept a setup that creates unnecessary tension and concern.”

Brown told the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder he discovered the placement around Thanksgiving last year after speaking to someone on site. The biggest issue, he said, is that because Community Medical Services treats residents seeking help for opioid addiction, some people who frequent Hawthorn Crossings may still be actively using drugs.

“There’s needles all over that area,” he said.

Opioid response is one of Project Refocus’s core functions. The organization tracks overdoses and drug use hotspots in the area and brings drug-sniffing dogs through parks during the summer to ensure children don’t accidentally come into contact with fentanyl-laced items.

“We know that there’s a large opioid-using population around that area, so the chances of a child getting a hold of something really is great,” Brown said. “We clean up needles over there two or three times a week, and there’s a high homeless, drug-using population right there in that area. To me, that’s not an area where you bring children.”

The petition calls for an immediate review of zoning and approval decisions, consideration of alternative locations for either facility, community engagement before final decisions are made and a planning approach that protects children while respecting treatment services. It urges city officials and decision-makers to stop and reconsider the placement.

Brown said he launched the petition after several agencies told him they lacked the authority to intervene. Child care licensing falls under the Department of Children, Youth and Families, while the Minneapolis Department of Community Planning and Economic Development determines whether a child care center is legally permitted at a specific address.

“A building permit has been issued for a childcare center at 1000 W. Broadway,” the city confirmed. “A childcare center is allowed as of right on this property.”

The Department of Human Services, which oversees regulations for the clinic, said the location of methadone clinics relative to neighboring businesses falls outside its authority.

Ward 5 City Council Member Pearll Warren said the placement falls outside her jurisdiction and stressed the importance of directing frustration at the right decision-makers.

“I want them to know that they’re heard, that’s first and foremost,” Warren said. “But I think what’s also very important is that our community knows and understands how government works and who to hold accountable.”

Warren noted that Hawthorn Crossings is within her ward but she is not the owner of the strip mall, has no role in child care licensing and came into office after the planning took place.

“The only jurisdictional power that I have is over zoning,” she said. “But if I go before the Zoning and Planning Committee and say, ‘Hey, there should not be a daycare on Broadway,’ then I’m shooting my community in the foot, because there could be daycares in other places on Broadway.”

For Brown, the placement reflects a broader pattern of North Minneapolis development that happens without community input, including how the methadone clinic was sited in the first place.

“There was never any acknowledgment of the community or even a conversation that they were bringing that there,” he said. “A lot of us are just kind of fed up with being told what we need instead of being asked what we want.”

Warren, herself a North Minneapolis native, said she shared those concerns before taking office, including worries about drug activity near people seeking treatment. That frustration over planning without community input is part of what motivated her to run.

“I seek to change that… that there is active community engagement, that the community has input, that we empower neighborhood organizations and that information channels down from the city so that community voices are valued.”

Brown said he does not want to wait until a child picks up something dangerous and dies from an opioid overdose before action is taken.

“I just think we should be a little bit more responsible and proactive, especially on the North Side,” he said. “The kids deserve more.”

Community Medical Services said it will continue to serve its community and collaborate with local business partners to ensure the safety of its patients and the broader neighborhood.

“Community Medical Services currently serves about 500 patients a week at our North Minneapolis clinic,” said Seneca Krueger, community impact manager. “The people who come through our doors are not children, but they are someone’s child, someone’s aunt, uncle, mother, father and neighbor. We are so lucky to be one of those safe places that family, friends and neighbors who are struggling can find compassion and support.”

For more information on Project Refocus, visit www.facebook.com/refocusmn/.

Damenica Ellis welcomes reader responses at dellis@spokesman-recorder.com.