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.
Many residents in the apartments next to the proposed nightclub are visiting workers such as travel nurses or farm laborers, he said. “It makes no sense to have a nightclub that has concerts next to a place where people need to rest to work in the community,” Zuleger said.
He has said that the company also partners with addiction centers and women’s shelters to house Willmar’s most vulnerable residents, and some of these tenants would be too close for comfort to the new nightclub.
Instead of a nightclub, the site should be used for a Somali community center where children from the nearby apartments can play, Zuleger said. Willmar, a city of about 21,000 people, is about 24% Hispanic and 11% Black, with 16% of the city born overseas, double the average rate in the rest of Minnesota. About 43% of the company’s tenants are Somali, and Zuleger called them his “best-paying renters.”
But Doug Fenstra, the real estate agent helping sell the property at 951 High Av., said he had never heard about the possibility of a Somali community center before Zuleger brought up the idea at an October planning commission meeting.
On Wednesday, the planning commission deliberated whether a nightclub would fit the character of the neighborhood. They noted that there was already a brewery in the area.
They passed a motion granting the conditional-use permit.
“DHS and our state and federal partners have seen evidence that kickbacks are happening in Minnesota,” Inspector General Kulani Moti said in a statement. “That’s why we brought an anti-kickback proposal to the Minnesota Legislature last session. We will continue to work with the Legislature next session on ways to strengthen the integrity of our public programs.”
Nuway Alliance, one of the state’s largest nonprofit substance use disorder treatment providers, pays up to $700 a month for someone’s housing while they are in intensive outpatient treatment, the organization’s website states. The site lists dozens of sober housing programs clients can choose from.
Nuway leaders said they got an inquiry from the government about two and a half years ago indicating they are conducting a civil investigation into the housing model.
But officials with the nonprofit said in an email they believe what they are doing is legal and clients need it. More than 600 people are using their assistance to stay in recovery residences, Nuway officials stated. They said having a safe, supportive place to stay is particularly important for the vulnerable people they serve, more than half of whom reported being homeless in the six months before they started treatment.
Health plans knew about, approved and even lauded their program, Nuway leaders said, noting that health insurer UCare even gave it an award.
“The state of Minnesota has been fully aware of our program for a decade,” the organization said. “Since payors are fully aware of, and support the program, we struggle to see how anyone could argue it is improper, let alone fraudulent.”
Mounds View, the first Minnesota city to require homeowners to discharge racist language buried in deeds before they sell their homes, is celebrating a milestone: at least 100 homeowners have completed the process.
Officials say discharging the language is a symbolic step, but an important one.
“How could we call ourselves an inclusive community with the words ‘This home shall not be sold to a non-white person’ buried in the deeds?” Mayor Zach Lindstrom said at the state of the city address Monday.
Racially restrictive covenants, found in deeds around the Twin Cities and Minnesota, were legally enforceable tools of racial segregation for the first half of the 20th century. They barred homes’ sale to, and sometimes even occupancy by, anyone who wasn’t white until 1948, when they became unenforceable. Mapping Prejudice, a University of Minnesota research project uncovering these covenants, has found more than 33,000 of them in Minnesota, including more than 500 in Mounds View.
Many local cities have partnered with Just Deeds, a coalition that helps cities and their residents learn about and discharge covenants. In 2019, the Legislature passed a law allowing homeowners to add language to their deeds that discharges racist covenants but doesn’t erase them from the record. Earlier this year, Mounds View was the first to pass an ordinance requiring it. The city is also helping residents navigate the process.
Just because these covenants are no longer enforceable doesn’t mean they haven’t had long-lasting consequences, Kirsten Delegard, Mapping Prejudice project director, said at a Mounds View City Council meeting this summer: Minneapolis homes with racial covenants are worth 15% more than those without, she said. And neighborhoods with covenants remain the whitest parts of the Twin Cities.
Mounds View residents Rene and Steven Johnson were troubled to learn from Mapping Prejudice that their house, and many homes in their neighborhood, had racially restrictive covenants on them. It took some effort, including a trip to the Ramsey County Recorder’s Office, to find the document, which not only contained race restrictions but barred unmarried couples from owning the home.
The couple got their covenant discharged, and educated the city about the process, Rene Johnson said. That helped lead to the ordinance requiring covenants to be discharged before sale.
