Tracy Berglund: 23 Years of Leadership, Innovation, and Compassion

After 23 years with Catholic Charities, Tracy Berglund, Senior Director for our Housing Stability Division, is retiring.

Tracy started with Catholic Charities in a part-time role in 1999, and her decades of hard work and vision have had an impact. When you consider that Tracy worked in our housing stability division for nearly 23 years—that equals hundreds of thousands of nights of safe shelter and housing for Minnesotans in need who otherwise may have spent the night on the street. During her tenure here, Tracy has overseen efforts to create client-driven, trauma-informed responses to housing and homelessness, including the development of the Higher Ground Minneapolis, Dorothy Day Place, Midway—and now the Elliot Park—campuses. That translates into Catholic Charities opening more than 800 units of housing, nearly 600 shelter beds, and two Opportunity Centers that serve hundreds of people each day. Our teams also support an additional 550 adults in community-based rental units throughout the Twin Cities.

Tracy’s strategic thinking also had an impact beyond her work at Catholic Charities. Tracy helped move critical legislation, pushed government entities to embrace innovative approaches, and provided a model for the whole sector on how to think systemically about the social problems driving homelessness.

Monica Nilsson—who has served alongside Tracy for decades as a fellow advocate for people experiencing homelessness and who is currently the Executive Director of Haven Housing—penned a tribute to Tracy, which she shared at our recent Dorothy Day Community Breakfast event. In it, Monica stated: “For those of us that have the privilege to work, we hope that we have some impact. Tracy, you did. There was work that was unseen yet life-saving, work in failed systems that brought improvement, and work that we could see was fueled by your passion.”

We are so grateful for Tracy’s leadership and compassion. She truly has left a lasting legacy in our community.

Tracy, thank you!

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