Star Tribune
Homelessness in Minnesota declined slightly in 2023, according to new study
Homelessness in Minnesota declined slightly in the past five years, according to a new statewide study released Wednesday. But it remains at the second-highest level in more than 30 years.
The study by Wilder Research is the first the nonprofit has released in five years due to pandemic-related delays. It found that nearly 11,000 Minnesotans were staying in shelters, transitional housing programs or living outdoors last October, including nearly 3,000 children.
That’s a 7% decline from the record high in 2018. But researchers say the gap in data from 2018 to 2023 means there could have been fluctuations in homelessness, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“No one wants to see numbers that high,” said Rebecca Sales, co-director of the study. “But there is a signal of positive things are happening … although it is a minor decrease, it is a decrease nonetheless. To me that says that some of those investments and changes that have been made in the last five years had an impact.”
Outdoor homeless encampments increased significantly during the pandemic, especially in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as people looked for safe places to stay as the coronavirus surged. But the pandemic also led to increased financial support in the form of stimulus checks and boosted food stamp benefits while temporary eviction moratoriums were established.
Last year, the Legislature nearly tripled funding over the next two years for youth homelessness programs in Minnesota, part of a broader increase in state aid for homeless services for adults and families. The $2.6 billion housing stability package signed by Gov. Tim Walz includes more funding for homeless shelters, rental assistance and affordable housing.
Earlier this year, the state launched a new strategic plan to reduce homelessness statewide by 15% by 2026.
“If there are those significant investments … we can have an impact,” Sales said. “We hope this is the beginning of some momentum.”
The study results from Wilder Research, the research arm of the Wilder Foundation in St. Paul, conflict with a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report last December that found that homelessness increased 6% in Minnesota from 2022 to 2023. But Sales said the HUD data is usually lower than Wilder’s count of homelessness because Wilder has a broader definition, counting those who are couch hopping or doubled up with family or friends.
The HUD count is also done in January, when there may be fewer unsheltered people in Minnesota during the winter. Both reports don’t offer a complete picture because of the transitory nature of homelessness, but Wilder Research says their study is considered to be the most comprehensive source of the state of homelessness in Minnesota.
“We can’t be dismissive of any positive signal that we’re having an impact,” Sales said. “But we also know that this is a complex issue that we need to approach from a lot of different angles.”
Study results
The study is usually completed every three years, but Wilder Research cancelled it in 2021 because of the pandemic.
In the new study, researchers found that a third of Minnesotans experiencing homelessness weren’t staying in a formal shelter, a number that’s stayed flat since 2018. But a higher proportion of people in greater Minnesota weren’t in shelters, staying instead outside or doubling up with family or friends, suggesting a need for more shelters and services in those areas, Sales said. On the six tribal reservations that participated in the study, 95% of homeless people weren’t staying in a shelter.
“There are just not the shelter beds there compared to the metro,” Sales said. “Homelessness just looks so different in rural areas. There are generally fewer support services and things are further apart.”
The study found that nearly half of the people experiencing homelessness in the state are families with children under the age of 18. While fewer children and youth under age 24 are experiencing homelessness, the number of adults 55 and older experiencing homelessness rose 7%.
For the first time in the more than 30 years of Wilder’s study, six tribes — Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, Red Lake, and White Earth — partnered with Wilder to survey homelessness on reservations. In 2018, Wilder counted 10,233 homeless Minnesotans, but later added tribal data to the count, increasing the total to 11,371 homeless Minnesotans that year.
Starting in May, Wilder will begin releasing more specific reports about subsets of homeless Minnesotans including veterans and youth, using information from interviews last October. Historically, people of color and people with mental illness have been disproportionately affected by homelessness.
“The reason that’s so valuable is we really understand the full story of someone’s experience,” Sales said.
The study was released Wednesday to coincide with the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless’ annual “Homeless Day on the Hill,” when hundreds of advocates and nonprofit leaders gather in St. Paul at the Capitol to push legislators to support additional funding.
“The reason that this study started was to produce data that will directly inform policies and programs, and be a tool people can use to end homelessness across the state,” Sales said.
ZUMBRO RIVER VALLEY, MINN. – From his combine on an October afternoon, harvesting dried-out soybeans the color of dust, Martin Larsen points to a hillside where his ancestors from Scandinavia homesteaded.
History might be happening again on the Larsen farm.
Last year, on this plot of land along the Zumbro River, the 43-year-old farmer from Byron grew oats. Not oats for hogs or cows. But oats for humans. He hauled the oats to a miller across the state line into Iowa. A previous year, Larsen even had a contract with Oatly, the trendy Swedish maker of milk alternatives.
Something of an oat renaissance has been occurring down in the fields west of the Mississippi River. During winters, Larsen — through his job with the Olmsted County Soil and Water Conservation District — evangelized to fellow farmers on the humble small grain.
His friends and neighbors were listening. As of this fall, over 60 farmers, covering 6,000 acres across southern Minnesota, have joined Larsen’s informal coalition to grow food-grade oats. They call themselves the “oat mafia.”
Star of breakfast food, children’s books and, increasingly, those nondairy lattes, oats are easier on the environment, requiring less nitrogen than corn, which means a lot in the karst-rich hill country of southeastern Minnesota, where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has tasked state officials with cleaning up drinking water.
“Nitrates come from this,” said Larsen, driving his gray Gleaner combine on a patch of soybeans beneath a hillock just beyond the suburban sprawl of northwest Rochester on a recent warm Friday afternoon. “I’m not going to beat around the bush anymore. That’s what the data says.”
But as the oat mafia looks to the future, they’re struggling with a basic marketing question: Who will actually buy these oats they’re growing?
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and her daughter were among the throngs Friday as President Joe Biden delivered the apology that many Indigenous Americans thought would never come.
“I think he really said the things that people have been waiting to hear for generations, acknowledged just the horror and trauma of literally having our children stolen from our communities,” said Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “It’s a powerful first step towards healing.”
Hundreds of boarding schools operated in the 19th and 20th centuries, separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to assimilate to European ways. Many children were abused, and at least 973 died, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Other Minnesotans reacted similarly to Flanagan, saying they welcomed the apology but that additional action is needed to help Indigenous people move forward.
Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, wrote in a newsletter that the apology was “a welcome first step on the journey to healing.”
“There is no way to truly right historical injustices for the children buried at Carlisle, Haskell, and other schools, but these words set a new tone for the country and will help heal the anguish so many Natives have carried for so long,” Treuer wrote. “It gives me hope that we can come together to reconcile and heal our troubled nation.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, called Biden’s apology encouraging.
“This recognition of past wrongdoings is an important step towards healing relationships between the United States and the sovereign nations affected by these past systems,” Kunesh said in a statement. “This dark period of American history must be remembered and taught.”
“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” Moturi wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response. I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, MPD officers had John detained, and despite an HRO and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”
On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at MPD’s failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
Council Members Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley went on to allege that police had failed to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office despite threats being made with weapons, and at times while Sawchak screamed racial slurs. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
The council members also contend in their letter that the MPD told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at MPD’s Fifth Precinct, O’Hara said police had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April, but “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.” The chief pointed out that Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refuses to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
O’Hara put aside the option to carry out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.” The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside his home, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
