Planning to End Homelessness in Greater Minnesota

Position Statement Summary

Date: Wednesday, March 26th, 2008






Full Statement

Ending homelessness is achievable in Greater Minnesota. However, rural areas often have fewer programs, travel barriers, and – at times – reduced local government involvement. This places additional responsibilities on the local homeless services. Well-coordinated systems and local planning are key their success and essential to accessing federal resources to support local programs.

To best address differing needs and support regional planning to end homelessness, local collaboratives – called Continuum of Care Planning Groups – regularly convene to ensure that every individual in crisis has the opportunity to access a logical, interconnected system of housing and social service supports regardless of the type of need or the geographical area in where it occurs. Each individual system is responsible for having a plan to direct each of person or family in need, both in prevention of falling into homelessness and assisting them back into stable housing after the fact.

It is essential to build a solid infrastructure within each Continuum of Care so they can collect information about homelessness in their region, assess their current services, identify gaps, and develop collaborative approaches to fill those gaps.

In order to achieve these goals, Greater Minnesota Continuum of Care planning groups are requesting a yearly appropriation of $300,000.

Supporting Success:

  • In 2007, local planning in Greater Minnesota attracted over $5 million in federal resources for homelessness response.
  • The State relies on local planning to provide a basis for the development of the homeless sections of the State’s Consolidated Plan.
  • Greater Minnesota Continuum of Care groups review housing proposals and coordinate the application processes of local providers for federal and state funding so they are consistent with local needs.

    • Just over one-quarter (28%) of Minnesotans experiencing homelessness live outside the Twin Cities. Homeless adults are similar across the state on many measures, including education, age, and their main sources of income. On other measures, however, the picture differs:

  • 42% of children were in short-term, emergency arrangements (metro, 26%)
  • 28% of men were veterans (metro, 22%)
  • 61% have a chronic health condition (metro, 54%)
  • 35% of women were escaping abuse (metro, 30%)

    • Policy CoC funding in Greater MN: Download the Coalition’s 2008 Policy Brief on how to fund planning efforts to end homelessness in greater Minnesota.