In a continuing effort to keep the congregation informed on affordable housing issues, your Beacon Housing Committee would like to share an article about emergency shelters in Minnesota. The following excerpt is part 3/3 from an article in the Star Tribune by Susan Du.
Single adults turned away from Hennepin emergency homeless shelters 4,000 times in 2023 (Part 3)
As the shelter system continues to redesign itself incrementally to better serve people experiencing homelessness, people are still falling through the cracks. Numerous encampments dot Minneapolis neighborhoods, and it isn't hard to find people living in tents who have had negative, even traumatic, experiences with shelters in years past.
Jorge Grijalva, who was living with his girlfriend of eight years in a yurt at 2839 14th Av. S. as of Wednesday, said he's called the shelter reservation line many times to find that the only beds available were at Salvation Army Harbor Light in downtown Minneapolis, where men and women are separated on different floors. His girlfriend struggles in shelters and has been kicked out of them before, so they prefer to stick together. First Covenant Church, operated by Agate Housing, takes couples, but space has always been limited, Grijalva said.
"It's hard to get into," he said.
Chris Rabideau, another encampment resident, said his younger brother had just been accepted into the Homeward Bound shelter, operated by the American Indian Community Development Corporation, after trying to get a placement there for weeks, a process complicated by his brother's lack of a phone.
People who are turned away from Hennepin County's shelter system during the day after all beds are reserved can try again in the evening in case there are no-shows. But Rabideau said he prefers to camp outdoors, despite the constant threat of sweeps, because waiting around all day on the chance that he might reserve a shelter bed one night at a time feels less certain to him than pitching a tent.
"If you have a chance of getting rejected, I won't go waste my time," he said. "Why go waste hours when you're not guaranteed a spot?"
Anyone experiencing homelessness can call the Hennepin Shelter Hotline at 612-204-8200.
Learn what Beacon Interfaith Housing is doing about the housing crisis at beaconinterfaith.org.
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