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https://thedailydesmadre.wordpress.com/homelessness-in-hennepin-county/
Homelessness in Hennepin County
Related materials and commentary will be posted to the blog section of the site
and linked back to this page moving forward.
In 2004 Minnesota launched an effort to end homelessness, joining similar state
efforts across the nation. The genesis for this effort was the National
Alliance to End Homelessnessās A Plan, Not a Dream: How to End Homelessness in
Ten Years. Drawing on a wide variety of efforts, experiences and programs from
a wide range of sources, the plan purportedly set forth a blue print to end
homelessness in a decade. In 2001, the Bush Administration, in collaboration
with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), launched an
initiative to end chronic homelessness. A revivified US Inter-agency Council on
Homelessness (USICH) challenged cities and municipalities to develop 10 year
plans to end homelessness in their respective locales.
Minnesota responded with its aforementioned initial 10 Year Plan, a business
plan, in 2006 though considerable work was done in preparation prior to its
issuance. In March, 2004 The Minnesota Department of Human Services (MNDHS),
Minnesota Department of Corrections (MNDOC) and Minnesota Housing Finance
Agency (MNHFA) issued, ENDING LONG-TERM HOMELESSNESS IN MINNESOTA Report and
Business Plan of the Working Group on Long-Term Homelessness which was
submitted to the State Legislature. Over the course of the next two years, the
State tasked Counties and Municipalities to produce 10 Year Plans of their own.
The Wilder Foundation, which conducts surveys and has produced a copious body
of research on homelessness in Minnesota, indicated that in 2006 they estimated
that the number of people that were homeless in the State that year stood
between 9,200 and 9,300. In 2015, the Wilder Foundationās survey estimated that
9,312 homeless people in the Stateāthis number derived from a count conducted
on October 22, 2015. More recent indicators point to yet still further
increases during the course of 2016 and many shelter advocates and watch
organizations are now citing an inability to provide emergency shelter services
for the large numbers of people seeking help.
Funding Streams: Federal and Other Sources
While homeless providers and many of those working for in a professional
advocacy are wont to give rather vague and generalized reasons for the failure
of the Stateās 10 Year Plan one cannot help but question. An example of such
answers would be to assert that the Federal challenge was not mandated (meaning
it didnāt provide funding for efforts). Yet this is not an assertion one can
reasonably deem veracious. Quite the contrary. In fact, enormous federal
funding was allocated for efforts to end homelessness, including the following;
Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRRP): This was
authorized on February 17, 2009 as part of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act and it authorized $1.5 billion for homeless prevention.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009): Solely considering the amount of
funding allocated for programs administered by the State of Minnesota (not
counting funds allocated to privately run companies or non-profits) the total,
as of March, 2011, stood at $5.9 billion. This amount includes such programs as
unemployment Insurance, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and
Medical Assistance. An additional 4.9 billion in individual tax benefits were
projected for the State during the course of the three following years.
Veterans Funding for Housing such as HUD-VASH and HVRP: Running parallel to the
aforementioned federal funding streams and stemming from out of former VA
Secretary Shinsekiās Plan to end Homelessness among veterans and their families
by the end of 2016, the Veterans Administration poured funding into a variety
of programs. In addition to the programs mentioned the Veterans Administration
also launched the VA-VJO initiative (Veterans Justice Outreach) in 2008. In
2015 alone, the Veterans Administration allocated the Minnesota Public Housing
Agency of the City of St Paul $162,378 for 25 vouchers; and for the City of
Minneapolis for $298,128 for 50 vouchers.
There were many other Federal, State and Local or Municipal funding allocations
aside from those cited above between 2006-2016. While some were not implicitly
related to the issue of homelessness they bore a direct relationship, as
multiple sources attest, to the problem. For example, the Second Chance Act.
The Second Chance Act provided funding to States and Municipalities to assist
people exiting correctional settings for successful reentry into society. As
our justice system has been, for decades, one of the principal feeder systems
for the problem of homelessness the links are beyond dispute. In addition to
the Veterans Administration, Stimulus Funding Sources and HUD other Federal
Agencies dedicated very large amounts of funding with similar correlations or
links to the problem of homelessness, among them, the Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association (SAMHSA) and
the Department of Labor (DOL).
In summation, to argue that the State of Minnesota and its municipalities
failed not only to āend homelessnessā or even chronic homelessness in 10 years
due to a lack of Federal funding is to argue against a damning body of evidence
to the contrary. In addition to the Federal funding allocated both directly to
programs ostensibly dealing with the issue, additional funds from all levels of
government in the State were also thrown at the problemāand these amounts
exceeded the tens of millions over the course of the decade in question. How
much? Oddly, if you want that information youāll have to dig for it yourself
for thereās no one report or accounting that will tell you. By even the most
modest of estimates it is no exaggeration to aver that the total amount of
funding spent on homelessness directly or on programs dealing with the primary
causes of the problem mustāve run into the hundreds of millions of dollars
over the ten year period. Thereās just no arguing that.
So, Given the Colossal Resources Expended, What Happened?
How is it possible to expend such colossal sums of money and end up with more
homeless people at the end of the 10 Year Plan than you had at inception? The
professional advocacy caste whose charge it was to fix this problem will often
provide explanations that are pat and formulaic. An example would be the
endlessly repeated, āwell, itās a very complex problemā. Yeah, well no shit. Of
course itās a complex problem or set of problems. Nonetheless, for the same
crowd to argue that they should be trusted for another ten years seems dubious,
at best. How do you assert that youāre effective when you are literally handed
hundreds of millions of dollars and you manage to make the problem worse, not
better.
There are many advocates across the country who have used the term
āhomeless-industrial complexā to describe the entrenched, well-paid and
obviously not very effective group who continues, year after year and in spite
of continuing failure, to pull the strings and call the shots. Minnesota is no
exception. The same people offer the same excuses and the same courses of
action endlessly and the remarkable thing is that they are allowed to continue
to control the issue and programs.
Hennepin County: A Micro-Examination of Failure for Purposes of Illustration
In August, 2017 Margaret Hastings, a long-time advocate for the homeless and a
mental health professional contacted the site-owner and discussions began
following the appearance of a number of articles in the media which covered the
dismal showing at the end of Hennepin Countyās 10 Year Plan. There were many
questions: How did this happen? How much did it cost? Why did it fail? Why
canāt members of the public find answers to some very basic questions about the
Plan and those responsible for its orchestration. The Countyās Office to End
Homelessnessās web-site offers paltry explanation or answers to such questions.
Basic information is simply not presented.
For anyone with even a basic level of ability in the administration of
web-based technologies and the construction of web-sites an immediate reaction
is one of wonderment. Apparently, four full-time staff, well-paid staff at
that, in 10 Years with the resources and funding at their disposal came up with
this? Anyone with basic training in setting up and running a Word-Press site
could literally set up and populate a more appealing and useful site over the
course of one day. This Blog posting is longer and more closely referenced than
the landing page of the Officeās site. It is both insulting and mind-boggling.
Really, in ten years this is what you managed to come up with? Unlike many
another web-site, one cannot even reference who works in the office.
The closer one looks, the more questions proliferate. The Office makes a series
of unfounded claims and assertions such as the attribution of the problem to a
tornado which swept North Minneapolis, ādestroying most of the affordable
housing of the regionā. An absurd and wholly unsupported claim.
Out of Questions and Discussions, a Plan of Action
Given the lack of transparency and information, a plan of action was decided
upon. Margaret and the owner of this site (a former Commission Member, former
Board Member of the MN Coalition for the Homeless, Minnesota Assistance Council
for Veterans and Senior Justice Fellow with Soros-OSI) decided that something
would need to be done.
With the assistance of the indefatigable Director of Communities United Against
Police Brutality (CUAPB), Michelle Gross, an Open Records and Data Request was
authored and submitted to the Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness on
September 5, 2017. In addition to this request, FOIA requests have been
submitted to a variety of Federal Agencies, including the Veterans
Administration (VA), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD),
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Association (SAMHSA).
This web-site will provide a running chronicle of efforts to find the
information which is not publicly available. All records requests and
subsequent responses will be posted here along with a variety of resources for
public use. This effort is going to take some time and considerable effort, but
we will obtain answers. Unlike the Office to End Homelessness, we will make
critical information available to the publicā¦.and leave it up to them to decide
whether or not the colossal expenditures were justifiedā¦or not. We will also
ask the questions that need to be asked.