News Stories Share Catholic Charities’ Advocacy Priorities

This past legislative session, Catholic Charities staff and clients shared their voices at the Capitol, pushing for bold investments to address homelessness and housing. Two news stories highlighted our 2023 advocacy priorities:

 

1. STAR TRIBUNE: EMERGENCY SERVICES PROGRAM SUPPORTS PEOPLE EXPERIENCING OR AT RISK OF HOMELESSNESS

In May 2023, the Star Tribune published an article highlighting funding challenges for organizations that provide emergency services. Without additional state funding, many programs are at risk of cutbacks or closure. The Catholic Charities Mary F. Frey Minneapolis Opportunity Center was featured in this Star Tribune story. The Center was described in the article as “a lifeline… for about 800 people a month.” Opportunity Center guest Robert Miller shared: “This place has been a blessing for me. This is the heart of the community. People need this place.”

Catholic Charities was at the Capitol this session, advocating for ongoing investments in the Emergency Services Program to meet the scale of the homelessness crisis and provide balanced public support to stabilize shelter operations and our workforce. During a time of historic budget surplus, our state continues to face a homelessness crisis that threatens not only the health and safety of Minnesotans but the financial stability of emergency services providers that serve our state’s most vulnerable neighbors.

Shelter providers like Catholic Charities have relied on private donations and reserves to fund shelter operations at an unsustainable rate, and the impact of the pandemic, inflation and workforce challenges have escalated today’s funding challenges. Dedicated yet flexible funding is needed to stabilize shelter operations and our workforce and ensure Catholic Charities can help those in need not just survive but thrive as they work to achieve stable housing.

 

2. FINANCE & COMMERCE: SHARE COALITION OF NONPROFIT HOUSING PROVIDERS SUPPORTING THOSE MOST IN NEED OF HOUSING

In May 2023, Finance & Commerce published an article about a group of nonprofit housing developers—including Catholic Charities—that is seeking investment to help cover increased expenses incurred in connection with the negative economic and social impacts of the pandemic. The providers oversee many of the deeply affordable and permanent supportive housing units across Minnesota. Catholic Charities’ CEO Michael Goar testified on this issue at the Capitol.

“Catholic Charities manages nearly 1,000 apartments with supportive services across the Twin Cities . . . The average income of our renters is less than $7,000 a year. This is to say – we are it. We are the first and last option available for the poorest people in our community to be able to have a place of their own.

I am here today because we fought hard to keep people alive during the pandemic, both our residents, and our staff. We continued all our services while providing every health and safety measure possible . . . We increased cleaning routines, food access, and staff coverage considerably. For our staff, we provided hazard pay, paid sick leave for quarantining, significant PPE – anything we could to keep them safe and healthy.

Our residents and staff worked together to get rental assistance; we were as successful as we could be. We had no other opportunities for funding to cover our significant expenses and have significant deficits as a result. The Stable Housing Organization Relief Program (SHARE) provides one-time funding to providers across Minnesota to relieve our deficits.

Funding this as much as possible will allow us to continue with our resident-focused care and quality outcomes. Not funding this will lead to program closures and put residents at risk of homelessness, which is way more expensive financially and as a community.

Our safety net is fragile. When one of us is at risk, we are all at risk. We want to be stable, to provide quality care for our residents, and to support future deeply affordable housing projects. We cannot do this without your help.” – Michael Goar, CEO