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Beacon Housing Update


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 2/3 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 2)

 

Launched in January 2023, the Hennepin Shelter Hotline is the number anyone experiencing homelessness can call. On the other end of the line are Catholic Charities operators who identify people entering homelessness for the first time and try to help them find creative ways to stay out of the shelter system.

 

Alanna Hinz-Sweeney, who oversees the program, says operators will mediate with landlords and help people resolve conflicts with relatives, arrange transportation and offer gift cards for food or air mattress rentals if that will make it easier for a friend to take them in. Victims of domestic violence get connected with the Day One statewide program. If someone is on the verge of being  evicted, the operator can refer them to rent assistance and tenant advocacy organizations. If shelter ends up being the only option, they're transferred to the reservation system.


"As the caller is telling their story, our staffers are really actively listening for solutions the person may share but maybe they haven't realized it because they're in crisis," said Hinz-Sweeney. "Sometimes as we're talking through the situation, they'll come to the resolution because they just needed someone to be that sounding board and to listen non-judgmentally."


The calls can take the better part of an hour, but about 80% of callers call just one time, Hinz-Sweeney said, indicating that diversion is working.

 


Learn what Beacon Interfaith Housing is doing about the housing crisis at beaconinterfaith.org.


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