Star Tribune
Dakota County leaders want to buy Eagan hotel and transform it into a permanent homeless shelter
Dakota County could soon have its first permanent, standalone homeless shelter run by the county.
The Dakota County Board will officially vote Tuesday on whether to apply for a newly created state grant that would help fund the purchase of the Norwood Inn & Suites in Eagan and convert it into a shelter, but a majority of county commissioners this week signaled they are in favor of trying to get the funding. It would cover up to $10 million of the project’s estimated $24 million price tag.
County officials say current, temporary efforts to house homeless people are not a long-term solution for the state’s third-largest county.
“There’s clearly a need for a permanent location,” said Dakota County Commissioner Joe Atkins, who expressed support for a grant application along with commissioners Mike Slavik, Mary Hamann-Roland, Bill Droste, and Laurie Halverson. “You lose so much time and money and effort when you’re putting up and taking down a temporary location.”
Dakota County has seen a growing number of homeless residents over the last decade, county officials said, and buying a hotel would not only provide shelter for people experiencing homelessness but a place to receive county-run social services, too.
“This would give us our own space that we manage and control,” said Madeline Kastler, a Dakota County deputy social services director.
The project would also create one of the first permanent homeless shelters for single adults in the Twin Cities suburbs, county staff said.
County officials have had some conversations with the owner of the Norwood Inn, which is located on Rahncliff Court, south of Cliff Road and just west of I-35E. The grant application would include a non-binding letter of intent with the owner, Kastler said.
Before the pandemic, the county worked with a nonprofit to run a homeless shelter during the winter that rotated among various south metro churches. More recently, the county has housed homeless adults in an Extended Stay America hotel in Eagan and contracted with Ally Services and the Link, which use hotels as shelter space.
There’s also Dakota Woodlands in Eagan, a nonprofit-run shelter supported partly by county funds, for women and families.
Slavik said he wouldn’t support buying the hotel unless the county gets the $10 million grant.
“The state was really the driver in being able to go and provide these services and this opportunity,” he said.
Kastler said two other Dakota County nonprofits — 360 Communities and Dakota Woodlands — have also said they may apply for the grant.
Location matters
County officials estimated the cost to operate and staff the hotel as a shelter would be about $2.8 million a year. The county is currently spending $3.2 million on its various shelter options, including a lease at an Extended Stay America in Eagan for $1.7 million.
It’s still early in the process, said Evan Henspeter, Dakota County social services director, adding that the county still needs to receive approval from Eagan officials. The county would have to match 10% of the grant amount. If all goes as planned, the shelter would be built during the second half of 2024.
A Dakota County presentation showed a sample floor plan of what looked like a typical hotel room. Residents would get individual rooms, each with an attached bathroom, county officials said. There would also be space for a congregate, or group, shelter at the hotel.
The county would need up to 55 of the hotel’s 121 rooms. Henspeter said officials aren’t sure what the extra rooms would be used for.
Slavik said location was a key reason the county chose the Norwood Inn.
“One of the aspects of why location really matters is to have something close to transit, so individuals who are experiencing homelessness can go to jobs and go to doctor’s appointments,” he said.
The county’s previous shelter for single men, called Cochran House, closed in late 2017. It was located in Hastings, in an isolated area that was a mile from major roads and businesses, he said.
Not everyone is on board with the project. Commissioner Liz Workman said the plan sounded like a “money pit.”
“I just would not support this,” she said.
Halverson said cities are concerned about homelessness and this shelter could help solve the problem. Social services would be provided on-site, she said, adding that people would be referred to the shelter rather than lining up outside.
“It feels to me like the bones are really there,” she said of the project, adding that she believes the county is “way more ready” than officials previously thought.
The Minnesota State Patrol has identified the motorist whose SUV hit a school bus taking kids to their Iron Range school.
The patrol said 19-year-old Svea Lynn Snickers, of Alborn, Minn., ran a stop sign at the intersection and hit the bus as it headed north on Hwy. 5. She was last reported to be in critical condition.
The collision occurred just east of Hibbing about 7:50 a.m. Thursday at the intersection of Hwy. 5 and Town Line Road, according to the State Patrol.
All 21 children heading to Cherry School suffered minor injuries when the bus flipped over about 7 miles southwest of its destination, the patrol said. The school serves about 600 students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, and students of all ages were on the bus, said St. Louis County Schools Superintendent Reggie Engebritson.
A witness told Hibbing police that students were able to crawl out of the bus on their own.
Snickers suffered critical injuries, was extricated from the wreckage by emergency responders and taken by air ambulance to Essentia Hospital in nearby Virginia, according to police.
The bus driver, 52-year-old Shawn Allen Lindula, of Iron, Minn., was expected to survive his injuries.
Star Tribune staff writer Jana Hollingsworth contributed to this report.
St. Louis Park will soon require landlords to give renters more notice before they file for evictions over late payments.
The city currently requires landlords to give tenants notice seven days before they file for eviction. Starting in November, landlords will have to give 30 days notice and use a form prepared by the city.
“This is a tough ordinance,” Council Member Lynette Dumalag, the only person to vote against the change, said during a meeting this week. “At least for me, personally, I felt that it pit those that care about affordable housing against one another.”
In public hearings and other forums, city leaders heard from renters who said the current requirements didn’t give them enough time to scrape together payments if they face a sudden hardship, such as losing a job. They also heard from at least one landlord who said he might have to increase deposits because he already struggles to make ends meet when renters fall behind on payments.
The change passed 4 to 1. Council Member Tim Brausen and Mayor Nadia Mohamed were absent.
PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — Ryan Leckner has resigned as Mayor of Park Rapids and the city council has officially declared a vacancy.
City Administrator Angel Weasner said councilmembers will hold a workshop on Sept. 24 to determine how to proceed. They can fill the vacancy by appointment or hold a special election, which Leckner said seems unlikely given that the November general election is just around the corner.
Until then, Leckner said “we’re thinking that we’ll just be able to get by with just one less council member.”
He added that Councilmember Liz Stone would likely serve as acting mayor until voters hit the polls.
Former Park Rapids Mayor Pat Mikesh is running uncontested for Leckner’s now-vacant seat.
In 2018, Mikesh stepped down a month before the election and Leckner successfully ran as a write-in candidate.
Leckner first joined the council in 2015 and is ending his third, two-year term as mayor early because his family built a home outside city limits. Construction of the home in Henrietta Township, and the sale of his existing home in Park Rapids, all happened faster than expected, he said.
“My term was up in November anyways,” he said, “so I was kind of planning on just not running.”
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