Obstacles to Resilience: Frigid Temps, No “Inn” to Call Home

 

1/1/17

It wasn’t that there was no place at the inn. It was that there was no inn. When December wrought frightful temperatures and meteorologists warned Minnesotans to limit outdoor tie, Dakota County had virtually nothing to offer single people who needed a warm place to sleep.

While the homeless rate in Minnesota dropped in recent years, it has increased in Dakota County. Chris Koop, executive director of Hastings Family Services, describes a dramatic increase in homelessness. Whereas a few years ago they were serving one to two homeless people per months, HFS served 60 people last summer.

Resources are scarce. Dakota Woodlands offers temporary housing to mothers and children – not men. It accommodates 22 families at a time. Some families have to split up. Mothers have to take their children to Dakota Woodlands while the fathers sleep in their cars. And the Eagan shelter has a long waiting list. While Lewis House provides shelter to battered women there is nothing for youth or single men.

Consequently, high school graduates live in their cars, sleep under bridges, spend nights in fast food restaurants or Laundromats because they can’t afford the rent or find affordable housing in an area with extremely low vacancies. They try to sleep in warm libraries during the day so they can go to their nights jobs at Super America or Taco Bell, for many homeless people hold jobs. Or they end up in shelters in St. Paul or Minneapolis, creating a burden on those resources.

With cold weather imminent in December, Dakota County reached out to churches, asking if they could provide shelter. Three churches answered the call, each opening its doors for four nights. So for 12 days surrounding Christmas, otherwise homeless people had a warm bed and meals.

Grace Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, Prince of Peach Church in Burnsville and Spirit of Life Presbyterian Church in Apple Valley each took four-day shifts. Pastors and volunteers worked to create “the inn” just in time for the holidays. Dakota County personnel assisted for four days, until they’d exhausted their budget.

The first shelter opened on Dec. 15. Within 90 minutes 16 people were at the door. The next day there were 24. A  third of them had been sleeping in their cars. After 12 days the churches had hosted several dozen men, women, and children.

Each story is different but shares the same theme. Many of the adults graduated from local high schools, as long ago as the 1960s and as recently as last year. Some struggle with addictions, mental illness, or just back luck. A pregnant woman, family with 4-year-old twins with autism, retiree with a masters degree in information systems – different journeys had led them to the same destination.

Visitors arrived at the churches with myriad health issues: untreated wounds, Crohn’s disease, cancer, and mental health issues. Teething babies and exhausted, incontinent adults slept on makeshift beds, wrapped in donated bedding.

Grateful guests hoped their story would be told, to dispel myths that the homeless only dwell in urban areas and that all homeless are unemployed. They yearn for a permanent solution. The story got some legs, on social media and community television. But their Christmas wishes for a permanent shelter went unanswered.

Last Monday the temporary shelters were shuttered. Many of the homeless returned to their “mobile homes,” cars temporarily resting in church parking lots. Others made their way to their customary sources of warmth.

Monica Nilsson ran the operation for 12 days. Nilsson used social media to chronicle the story in real time, to issue calls to action. Volunteers responded quickly to requests for bedding and clothing. The request for donated goods gave way to requests for cash.

Donated bus tokens and gas cards are helpful, for many homeless people who sleep in their cars need gas to keep them running. Others use Mall of America, Union Depot and Target Field transit stations as de facto shelters. But there is an abundance of food and toiletries donated by people like myself who want to do something, Nilsson says, and food or toiletries don’t get to the root of the problem or offer a lasting solution.

The best way to help is to become educated about the problem and to make financial contributions. Dakota County established a Dakota County Shelter Go Fund Me with a $50,000 goal. Earlier this week the fund had exceeded $14,000. If there is enough money in the fund it could pay for another temporary shelter if bitter temperatures return.

The overarching need is for a plan. But zoning obstacles and lack of appetite by communities have stymied a solution, Nilsson says. A homeless advocate and consultant, she is part of a group of county representatives and church personnel who are addressing the need for a permanent shelter.

The Dakota County Board of Commissioners serves as the public housing authority. Commissioner Mike Slavik says board members are well educated on the issue. In an interview with Hastings Community TV he acknowledged that while the board has been working on how to address the issues they haven’t kept up with the need. “If we can’t find a solution, who else is going to?”

Nilsson says she believes a permanent site can be identified by 2018. While that is encouraging, that’s a long time off when you have no “inn” to call home.

The post Obstacles to Resilience: Frigid Temps, No “Inn” to Call Home appeared first on Caryn M Sullivan - Living a Life of Resilience.

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Published on January 02, 2017 10:47
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