Governor Pawlenty Releases Bonding Proposal

Governor Pawlenty has released his bonding proposal for the 2006 Legislature’s consideration.

Among the proposals in this $811 million package is $25 million for permanent supportive housing to help solve the problem of long-term homelessness.

Okay, that’s good. But let’s do more.

First, addressing long-term homelessness is extremely important. According to the Wilder Research Center, 4,000 households are experiencing long-term homelessness–homeless for more than a year or for multiple episodes–and are not being adequately helped with existing services.

The “Business Plan” to end long-term homelessness sets out a multi-year plan to tackle the issue. Bonding for construction of new units and rehabilitation are critical components of the plan.

Here’s the catch: The Business Plan sets out anticipated bonding requests from now until 2010. Taking into account that last year’s bonding proposal was shortchanged by $8 million, the promised request of $25 million should have another $8 million added to it simply to keep up with its timeline.

Future bonding years have more ambitious requests; we have to catch up with last year’s shortfall now.

Second, the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless will lead an effort to secure $10 million for transitional housing — above and beyond the $33 million we hope is secured for permanent supportive housing.

Transitional housing is an important part of the affordable housing and homelessness prevention continuum that, up until 1998, received designated bonding resources from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.

Transitional housing was created as a way to limit emergency shelter development, prevent homelessness, and keep households from having to experience long episodes of homelessness before accessing stable housing. (Households in transitional housing pay 30 percent of their income for their housing and receive support services to help them back into mainstream housing; the program lasts for up to two years.)

For more information on advocacy relating to permanent or transitional supportive housing, contact Michael Dahl, executive director, at dahl@mnhomelesscoalition.org or (612) 879-9411.