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In 2018, we invested a total of $8 million in our Homelessness Prevention Program. These two-year grants supported the work of 28 organizations. Organizations were given the opportunity to apply for a third year of support in 2020, totaling an additional $3.5 million in grants.
Organization: American Indian Family Center
Grant amount: $225,000
Program/project summary: The American Indian Family Center’s housing program, Thinica Owichakiyapi Thipi (Helping the Homeless Build) provides strength-based, family-centered and culturally informed solutions to prevent and end homelessness for the American Indian community, including families, individuals and youth.
Organization: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation
Grant amount: $300,000
Program/project summary: The Saint Paul Promise Neighborhood (SPPN), a program of the Wilder Foundation, supports the People’s Fellowship, an innovative and comprehensive homelessness prevention initiative serving Saint Paul families. Beyond programmatic impact with participating families, this initiative has potential to influence policy and systems change across Ramsey County and the State.
Organization: Avenues for Youth
Grant amount: $225,000
Program/project summary: Avenues for Homeless Youth is requesting support of three existing Host Home programs, which have a proven track record of preventing homelessness for precariously housed youth. In addition, this request will support innovation in the form of a small pilot for precariously housed young families to live in host homes.
Organization: Catholic Charities of St. Paul & Minneapolis
Grant amount: $964,000
Program/project summary: The integrated homelessness prevention of Catholic Charities strategies positively impact individuals and families who are precariously housed. Funding will support Diversion Services for families in Ramsey and Hennepin Counties, expand Youth Prevention Services, and provide client assistance for families at Northside Child Development Center in North Minneapolis.
Organization: Children’s Law Center of Minnesota
Grant amount: $165,000
Program/project summary: Foster children are at an exceptionally high risk of future homelessness; half of the homeless population spent time in foster care. Children’s Law Center of Minnesota works with teens in child protection to empower them to have a say in their future and form comprehensive, independent living plans for adulthood.
Organization: Corporation for Supportive Housing
Grant amount: $350,000
Program/project summary: To expand access to housing opportunities for high-need families in Hennepin County by fostering cross-system partnerships to embed supportive housing – affordable housing tied to services – within the service array being offered to child welfare-involved families at risk of homelessness.
Organization: Dakota County Community Services Administration
Grant amount: $900,000
Program/project summary: Dakota County is proposing a multi-pronged approach to prevent family homelessness by combining short term financial assistance and supportive services with landlord engagement. By utilizing landlord engagement to help identify and connect families to financial and service needs early, we can prevent homelessness for 150 families and preserve landlord relationships.
Organization: Face to Face Health & Counseling Service
Grant amount: $300,000
Program/project summary: We desire to provide precariously-housed youth with both direct assistance (i.e. security deposits, rental assistance, utilities, employment/training opportunities) and intensive case management support. Case managers build intentional relationships with our youth (with complex trauma and barriers) and support them on remaining stably housed long-term and prevent subsequent homelessness.
Organization: HOME Line
Grant amount: $300,000
Program/project summary: HOME Line will reduce homelessness by preventing evictions with free legal advice. By reaching tenants currently facing court, this program will help renters navigate this intimidating process, understand their rights and negotiate effectively with their landlord. HOME Line will also analyze and produce a 7-county snapshot of the eviction landscape.
Organization: HOPE 4 Youth
Grant amount: $198,000
Program/project summary: HOPE 4 Youth Circle of Support strengthens “permanent connections”—ongoing connections with caring adults already known to them—for youth facing homelessness who visit our drop-in center, live at HOPE Place, or stay with adults they know in informal host homes, to house them stably towards a successful adulthood, preventing future homelessness.
Organization: HousingLink
Grant amount: $300,000
Program/project summary: HousingLink will expand its Beyond Backgrounds program to facilitate connections between property owners and renters with a history of rental barriers, leading to access to affordable, stable housing for families.
Organization: Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia
Grant amount: $150,000
Program/project summary: Our project continues our support of families to stay in their homes through our “Rent Escrow Defense Program”, launched in February of 2018. This program assists multiple tenants from the same building to pay their rent to court in order to force the landlord to make changes in their building.
Organization: Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid
Grant amount: $1,125,000
Program/project summary: Legal Aid will defend Hennepin County families from evictions. Over 100 arrive at Housing Court each week. They face a complex court system, experienced attorneys and agents representing their landlords, and life-altering consequences. We level the playing field. With free legal help, families preserve their housing and their futures.
Organization: Minneapolis Public Housing Authority
Grant amount: $746,000
Program/project summary: The Stable Homes, Stable Schools Housing Stability Fund will provide financial assistance to families of children enrolled in selected Minneapolis schools who are at imminent risk of becoming homeless. This initiative is a partnership of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, the City of Minneapolis, Minneapolis Public Schools, and Hennepin County.
Organization: MoveFwd
Grant amount: $850,000
Program/project summary: MoveFwd will implement The Upstream Project, a promising practice developed in Australia and replicated in Canada, in partnership with the Hopkins School District and Chapin Hall. The project will screen all Hopkins secondary students for risk and intervene with an estimated 300 students to prevent homelessness.
Organization: NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center
Grant amount: $567,000
Program/project summary: NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center, Inc.’s (NorthPoint) NorthPlace Program will provide critical housing stabilization services through integrated case management and connections to partner agencies and other resources to those precariously housed in Minneapolis and the surrounding Hennepin County suburbs, targeting North Minneapolis.
Organization: Oasis for Youth
Grant amount: $225,000
Program/project summary: To support and expand school-based outreach and case management to prevent youth homelessness. Our services are provided in the southern suburbs of Hennepin County, with a focus on students, young parents and unaccompanied single youth in Bloomington, Richfield and Edina.
Organization: Ramsey County
Grant amount: $400,000
Program/project summary: Ramsey County proposes to focus on youth, those who are unaccompanied, pregnant, and/or parenting who are exiting out of county institutions or programs (e.g. foster care, corrections, and the Minnesota Family Investment Program [MFIP] for Minor Moms), primarily those who may be at risk of homelessness.
Organization: Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services
Grant amount: $450,000
Program/project summary: SMRLS will provide holistic legal services to tenants at risk of eviction by working with county financial workers and public schools staff to identify precariously housed families. Legal services will solve problems related to housing stability such as increasing income, preventing eviction or keeping a tenant safe from domestic violence.
Organization: St. Paul & Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project
Grant amount: $225,000
Program/project summary: The Saint Paul & Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project (SPIP) prevents victims of domestic abuse from becoming homeless through increased protections, 24-hour services and a coordinated response in ensuring their and their children’s stability and well-being. SPIP’s culturally/linguistically appropriate services work to successfully reach and serve traditionally disenfranchised/marginalized communities.
Organization: St. Stephen’s Human Services
Grant amount: $285,000
Program/project summary: St. Stephen’s new Prevention Assistance Program will benefit families meeting the primary known predictor of future shelter stays: families with recent histories of previous shelter stays. The goal is to prevent these families from returning to shelter by keeping them stably housed with prevention assistance funds.
Organization: The Link
Grant amount: $750,000
Program/project summary: The Homeless Prevention Program will offer targeted intervention services to youth in North Minneapolis, and youth in the suburban metro, who are living in poverty, and at imminent risk of becoming homeless. Assessments and mobile case management will be provided to stabilize housing and additional supports will develop long-term stability.
Organization: The Salvation Army Northern Division
Grant amount: $300,000
Program/project summary: Eviction Prevention and Resolution is a collaborative effort designed to address housing crises by providing mediation between landlords and families (tenants), combined with supportive services to address barriers to family stability. Collaborative partners include The Salvation Army (fiscal agent), Family Promise of Anoka County, and Mediation Services for Anoka County.
Organization: Urban Homeworks
Grant amount: $300,000
Program/project summary: To develop a robust pilot program that will leverage our People Oriented Development (POD) model in North Minneapolis, to galvanize individuals and families living in neglected rental properties to leverage the Tenant Remedies Action process resulting in the redemption of these units into dignified, affordable housing.
Organization: Violence Free Minnesota
Grant amount: $50,000
Program/project summary: To reduce the rates of homelessness for domestic violence (DV) victims and their families by increasing the knowledge of advocates on housing laws/rights and advocacy strategies that can keep victims in their homes and providing low-barrier access to financial resources for housing stability needs.
Organization: Volunteer Lawyers Network
Grant amount: $200,000
Program/project summary: Recognizing adequate housing is essential to individual, family, and community well-being, we request funding for the Housing Litigation Program (HLP). Through the HLP, we will prevent homelessness of precariously housed families and youth by providing free legal services related to eviction defense, eviction record expungement, and tenant habitability claims.
Organization: YouthLink
Grant amount: $200,000
Program/project summary: YouthLink will provide young people at risk of homelessness with education and employment navigation embedded with transformative wrap-around services that provide them with pathways to stability and self-sufficiency.
Organization: YWCA St. Paul
Grant amount: $450,000
Program/project summary: The comprehensive, collaborative YW STRIDE Program will prevent homelessness of youth (ages 18-24) who are transitioning from human service settings—foster care, corrections, health care/residential treatment, etc.—via coordinated transition planning coupled with services, supports, interventions & follow-up services that are tailored to the specific needs of each youth.
