Homeless outreach grants awarded!

A key victory for the Coalition this past legislative session was securing $400,000 in new resources for a homeless outreach pilot project. Funded through the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Office for Justice, the grantees were announced Monday, September 12, 2005.

Three unique projects will be funded with the common goal of demonstrating that homeless outreach, with connections to housing and services, is a more humane and effective alternative to arresting and re-arresting people experiencing homelessness.

Each project will track their progress and accomplishments over the next 21 months and the interim and final evaluations will be provided to the Legislature in November 2006 and November 2007.

The grantees include South Metro Human Services serving Ramsey County, People Incorporated serving Hennepin County, and Churches United in Ministry (CHUM) and Human Development Center serving the Duluth area. Each project has a unique structure to fit their unique needs and the existing infrastructure of each community. A key feature of the legislation was to allow this flexibility so that each community could meet the goals of the pilot project on their own terms:

• The South Metro Human Services ACCESS project will build on the very close working relationship already forged between local outreach workers and the St. Paul Police Department. In Ramsey County it is anticipated that one fulltime ACCESS outreach worker will be hired for the 21-month project and will connect with 300 people while maintaining contact and more intensive assistance for 100. These new resources will allow ACCESS to broaden their scope beyond the clients with serious mental illness that they currently serve. The close partnership with the police will allow for earlier intervention by outreach workers instead of police officers when appropriate.
• The People Incorporated model will similarly work with law enforcement by assigning outreach workers to act as police liaisons in each of the precincts of Minneapolis. Through this relationship-building with the police in the different precincts, the outreach workers will be better able to respond to police concerns and eventually develop a city wide communication system between outreach workers and police. People Inc. plans to provide outreach to 300 individuals and community support services and mental and chemical health services to at least 150 long-term homeless adults. At least 75 will receive psychiatric services through People Inc. and at least 55 will reside in stable housing by the close of the project in 2007.
• The Churches United in Ministry/Human Development Center project is the one project located outside the seven-county Twin Cities metro area. A greater Minnesota project was included to help demonstrate a model that fits the different dynamics of homelessness outside the Twin Cities area. This is the only project that will combine the resources of two nonprofit service providers under the newly formed “Duluth Homeless Outreach Collaborative.” The Duluth Police Department and St. Louis County Courts and Probation Department are also a planned part of the collaborative. A peer support group will be created for the project’s target population. The goal is for approximately 100 individuals to participate in the project, with 75 percent being actively involved for the 21-month project. Another goal is to have 80 percent of project participants living in permanent housing within 6 months of entering the project.

Evaluation will be a key component to each of the projects. The evaluation results will give us the opportunity to make the case for more outreach resources. More public and private resources should be devoted statewide to this critical need in communities’ homelessness response system.