MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis officials are stepping up efforts to get residents to leave a large homeless camp as cold weather sets in.

Crews from the Minneapolis Fire Department set up a heated army tent Wednesday across the street from the encampment.

The tent will serve as a dining hall and meeting space for some 200 people still living at the camp in south Minneapolis.

The Star Tribune reports the warming tent is part of an effort to persuade people to leave the camp and move to a new, nearby emergency shelter by mid-December.

Outreach workers say people living at the camp have been spending more time in their tents or in warmer areas, such as public libraries and light-rail cars.

The camp has housed as many as 300 people, mostly American Indians.