Homeless Services
Content provided by the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, Lutheran Social Service, Hearth Connection, Corporation for Supportive Housing, and the Minnesota Housing Partnership
POLICY & BUDGET NEEDS - Based on the wide spectrum of needs amongst people experiencing homelessness, a range of responses is needed to move individuals back into housing and to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. This “continuum” of housing includes:
Outreach – To get people experiencing homelessness into housing, they need to be linked with the appropriate level of services and supports. Outreach workers do a yeoman’s job of intervening and directing the homeless to responses that will best suit them. Outreach may come in the form of street workers – or in partnership with local law enforcement – as successfully demonstrated in a program conducted in Hennepin, Ramsey and St. Louis Counties. Connecting with unaccompanied youth is also a critical part of stemming youth homelessness.
Emergency Shelter – Shelters are a safety net so that people in crisis can have a roof over their head if they have lost their housing. Shelters can then help individuals / households access the most appropriate assistance.
- Minnesota funds shelters at $350,000/year through DHS’ Office of Economic Opportunity
Supportive Housing – Just providing shelter may not be enough to make housing “stick” for the previously homeless. The obstacles that prevented them from being housed may require additional oversight and care. Supportive housing combines services with housing to ensure that housing stability endures.
Transitional Housing – This is time-limited supportive housing (45 days to 24 months). The goal is to re-integrate families and individuals into mainstream housing that they can afford and maintain. Services usually require working with a case manager to set and make progress on goals for family and housing stability. Participating households contribute 25%-30% of their income for housing.
- Minnesota funds transitional housing at $5.5 million/biennium through DHS’ Office of Economic Opportunity
Permanent Supportive Housing – This is for households experiencing long-term homelessness who have significant barriers to mainstream housing.
- Through a combination of base and one-time dollars, Minnesota funds $13 million of supportive services a biennium through DHS. Today, five Regional Long-Term Homeless Projects covering 37 counties and 6 reservations support 823 single adults, 937 families with 1,648 children, and 33 unaccompanied youth.
- In order to provide the level of service necessary to make sure that the 2400 units of housing created through the state’s plan are truly “supportive housing,” an additional $42 million is needed in the next biennium to preserve these existing units.
- Currently, “doing nothing” to support the state’s long-term homeless costs $72 million per biennium in corrections, health, and human services for long-term homeless populations. This is based on the Wilder estimate of the 500 children and 2,800 adults who have been homeless long-term and annual cost of homelessness of $3,691 per child, $4,582 per parent and $13, 954 per single adult from the Supportive Housing and Managed Care Pilot evaluation.
Beyond providing adequate funding to support the continuum, the state must continue to invest in preventing homelessness.
Prevention – The 1993 Minnesota Legislature established the Family Homelessness Prevention and Assistance Program (FHPAP) to assist families with children, youth/unaccompanied youth, and single adults who are homeless or are at imminent risk of homelessness. Funds are used for a broad range of activities aimed at homelessness prevention, minimizing episodes of homelessness, and eliminating repeat episodes of homelessness. Each project designs its own service delivery system to achieve these goals, using approaches that make sense at the local community level. The program supports continuing innovation and development of a comprehensive system to address homelessness, with an emphasis on prevention.
- $14,930,000 are provided through the MN Housing Finance Agency for FHPAP
Homeless Youth – Current statewide capacity for the continuum includes:
- Street Outreach in the Twin Cities Metro, Bemidji, Brainerd, Duluth and Mankato
- Drop-in Centers in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth
- 119 Emergency shelter beds statewide
- 436 Youth housing opportunities statewide
The minimal capacity that exists is threatened due to lack of stable funding. $1 million in one time funding was appropriated by the legislature in 2007 to support the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and $218,000 in 2009.
