Star Tribune
Plan to combat homelessness in Minnesota rolls out this spring
An ambitious plan to coordinate Minnesota’s response to homelessness across state agencies — shaped by those who have directly experienced housing instability — will swing into action this spring.
The Crossroads to Justice Strategic Plan aims to reduce homelessness statewide by 15% by 2026 and to narrow large racial disparities among people experiencing homelessness. Another goal is to close racial disparities in mortality and improve the health of people facing homelessness.
“This plan, which will be our North Star for our state agencies, is comprehensive in covering approaches like increasing shelter capacity, as well as how to approach related needs such as ensuring that addiction treatment and recovery resources are widely accessible,” said Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in a statement.
Some of the funds in the $2.6 billion housing stability package signed last year by Gov. Tim Walz will fuel the plan’s action steps, which include more funding for homeless shelters, rental assistance, affordable housing and support to help people find and keep housing.
Walz and Flanagan in 2022 delegated the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness (MICH), a cabinet-level state advisory group leading state efforts on housing stability, to craft the plan. Over the next four years, about a dozen state and regional agencies will work to implement the plan in hopes of reducing barriers to benefits, housing and jobs, among other initiatives.
Agency-specific goals include better access to state workforce programs, a pilot program to improve food assistance to those who cycle in and out of homelessness, better housing and benefits for veterans, and more transitional housing for those leaving prison.
The Crossroads to Justice plan will shape priorities during the next legislative session, said MICH Executive Director Cathy ten Broeke, who has worked in government on efforts to end homelessness for more than 30 years.
The $2.6 billion state investment in housing “is a huge down payment on this work,” she said.
Crossroads to Justice is the first plan of its kind to include people who have experienced housing instability or homelessness as justice consultants. The consultants will continue to be involved in the implementation stage.
One of the twelve consultants, Marlena Jasch, is an enrolled member of the North Dakota-based Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who currently lives in St. Cloud. From 2017 to 2019, she was homeless while on a housing waitlist, spending summers in a tent and winters in her car. She said she struggled to find safe, available spaces in shelters in the rural communities where she lived, including Melrose and Sauk Centre.
A rapid rehousing program helped Jasch secure an apartment in 2019. But COVID-19 restrictions disrupted her plans to become a licensed practical nurse, and her landlord filed to evict her after police responded to a domestic violence call at her apartment. She became homeless again while being stalked by her abuser.
Jasch sought temporary housing at a local shelter for domestic violence survivors, but was turned down because “my actual domestic assault had not been within the last couple of days,” she said. She eventually found a place at a shared house.
Jasch said she has brought her experience with domestic violence, and how it led to homelessness, to her work as a justice consultant.
“It was important to me that that got brought to the table, and added to the list, but it was very new to be bringing that to [state agencies] and for them to be working on it as it relates to this plan,” she said.
Jasch has collaborated with state officials in the Public Safety, Corrections, Human Services and Administration departments. One result of working together is the Domestic Violence Housing First program — trauma-informed, survivor-centered housing assistance that focuses on quickly housing domestic violence survivors and giving them ongoing support services. The program will be implemented through the Department of Human Services.
Her experience as a Native woman also has shaped her approach in working as a justice consultant, Jasch said. Native Americans in Minnesota are 28 times more likely to experience homelessness than non-Latino whites, according to the Crossroads to Justice plan. Several of the plan’s steps underscore increasing funding opportunities and expanding relationships with tribal nations and urban tribal communities.
Michael Giovanis, one of the justice consultants who contributed to the report, said the process gave power to the consultants.
“Then in turn we were able to encourage these large agencies, but also the individual employees working at these agencies, to see the importance of power-sharing and community,” he said.
About the partnership
This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for a free newsletter to receive Sahan’s stories in your inbox.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.
ST. CLOUD – On Tuesday, St. Cloud voters will be asked to make decisions on a new fire station and moving city elections to odd years, and — for those who live in Stearns County — how to fund a new county jail.
Here’s a look at the three referendum questions that are on St. Cloud-area ballots this year.
Ballot question: “Shall Stearns County be authorized to impose a sales tax & use tax of three-eighths of one percent to finance up to $325 million, plus associated bonding costs, for the construction of a justice center facility, consisting of law enforcement, judicial center and jail? The sales tax would be used solely to finance construction, upgrades and financing costs for the justice center and remain in effect for 30 years or until the project is paid for, whichever comes first. These services and facilities are mandated by the state of Minnesota to be provided by counties.”
Stearns County officials are planning to build a new $325 million justice center complex that includes a 270-bed jail, a judicial center with courtrooms, and a law enforcement center that houses the Sheriff’s Office. In the summer, Stearns County board members voted to move those facilities out of downtown and to a new location with more space. That site has yet to be determined.
The question before voters is how to fund that center.
County Administrator Mike Williams said a common misconception he’s heard at recent town halls is residents think voting “yes” gives permission to the county to build the facility, and if they vote “no,” the county won’t spend the money to build it.
“People [think they] are voting on the project — and they’re not. They’re voting on how we are going to fund it,” Williams said.
If voters approve the ballot question, the county will impose a sales tax to fund the project. If they vote it down, the county can instead pay for the project with property taxes.