The Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless is comprised of 150 member organizations. We represent a wide array of constituencies and interests, including people who have experienced homelessness, direct service providers, faith groups, community activists and local units of government.
The Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless was founded in 1984 by a group of direct service providers who recognized the need for a group to go upstream to identify the root causes of homelessness.
Our mission is to generate policies, community support and local resources to end homelessness in Minnesota.
Accomplishments
1984 Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless founded; Minnesota’s Transitional Housing Bill passed into law
1987 McKinney Act passed in Congress
1988 Minnesota Housing Trust Fund passed
1989 Publicly-owned transitional housing bill passed ($1.5 million)
1992 State legislation passes to exempt transitional housing programs from property taxes (approximate annual savings of $200,000)
1993 Family Homeless Prevention & Assistance Program (FHPAP) passed
1994 Metropolitan Homeless Outreach Project founded in Twin Cities
1997 Minnesota Emergency Shelter Grant Program started
1998 School Stability Demonstration Project passed ($1 million)
2003 X-Committee formed in St Paul, with people experiencing homelessness organizing themselves around policy advocacy
2006 Twin Ports Action Coalition formed in Duluth
2007 National Housing Trust Fund passed
2010 General Assistance Medical Care is saved, paving the way for early Medicaid expansion
2011 Minnesota becomes one of the first states to provide health care to single adults in poverty through Medicaid expansion (100,000 adults served)
- Homeless programs deemed essential services and a core function of state government
- Homeless services protected despite a $6.2 billion budget shortfall
2012 Minnesota Legislature invests $37.5 million in affordable housing and homelessness
See MCH 2011-2014 Strategic Plan Summary for more information about the direction we are going!