For more than 30 years, volunteers have conducted the Minnesota Homeless Study led by Wilder Research, which has given the most in-depth look available at homelessness across our state. Due to the pandemic, the last time the study was conducted was five years ago.
Ramsey County housing officials are making plans to close a homeless shelter, with 101 mostly-senior residents, at the end of November as federal COVID-19 relief dollars are beginning to run out.
COVID may increase youth homelessness across Twin Cities metro Katy Read, Star Tribune
Bob and Sue Downs remember many of them vividly.
The boy found huddled in a culvert under a street in downtown Chaska on a 10-below night, body temperature dangerously low. The boy who sneaked into the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres and hid under a stage. The boy who slept under a Chanhassen bridge among scary dudes for six weeks after his mother, who struggled with mental illness, kicked him out for eating the last slice of pizza. When I speak to teachers, I tell them, These kids are in your classroom, and when they leave your classroom they don t go home, said Bob Downs, himself a retired middle-school teacher. The teachers eyes get wide.
In a Tumultuous Year, COVID Puts Homeless Crisis Front and Center
From summer to fall 2020, a homeless encampment was based near the Lake Harriet bandshell. We went inside the homeless encampment, where a cityâs growing housing crisis took on faces and names.
The Lake Harriet homeless encampment
The Lake Harriet homeless encampment, photographed in late September, is across the street from the Lake Harriet Bandshell and overlooks the lake.
Editorâs Note: Some of the homeless persons in this article agreed to speak with only limited attribution. Others are highly vulnerable individuals. As a result, the editors decided to identify all only by their first names.