When you search the Internet for “homeless’’ and “Catholic social teaching.” one of the first entries that pops up is a catalog of quotes compiled by Catholic Charities of St. Paul and Minneapolis. One Pope after another – Francis, Benedict XVI, John Paul II, Leo XIII with his
Rerum Novarum encyclical, and frequently the U.S. Catholic Bishops – have consistently reminded us that providing shelter is an enduring role at the heart of the Church’s mission.
It’s also a message that is resonating more in the Twin Cities this year. A new sense of urgency about homelessness is gathering momentum here as the number of homeless people seeking emergency shelter overnight continues to rise.
A broad coalition of groups has come together, as in past years, to rally support for the homeless and for more affordable housing. Once again, on March 11 at the State Capitol in St. Paul, the coalition is sponsoring
“Homeless Day on the Hill.” Backers include Catholic Charities, the Minnesota Catholic Conference and the Pohlad Family Foundation, which has long supported Catholic causes. They are asking Minnesotans to advocate for more public funding to help the homeless and others increasingly on the edge of becoming homeless.
“We are headed in the wrong direction at an accelerating rate and that should have everybody concerned,” says Tim Marx, president and CEO at Catholic Charities.
We must take action if we want to avoid the public health, humanitarian, and economic crises occurring in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin.”
The St. Paul-based Wilder Foundation surveys homelessness in Minnesota every three years. Last March,
Wilder released the results of its latest survey, taken in October of 2018. Statewide, homelessness rose 10 percent since 2015 to a record high of 10,233.
The number of people seeking emergency overnight shelter rose 62 percent.
The most visible manifestation of a more troubling situation surfaced in 2018. Then, homeless American Indians set up a “tent city” in Minneapolis, near the Franklin Avenue light rail station. Several hundred people settled in there. Marx describes this as an unprecedented development that caught everyone by surprise. After the encampment closed, demand for emergency shelters in Minneapolis shot up.
By last winter, the light rail system’s trains had become the second largest provider of emergency overnight shelter in the Twin Cities. In August, the Green Line, which had been providing 24-hour service seven days a week between the two cities’ downtowns, shut down from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. on weeknights.
In December, Gov. Tim Walz persuaded corporations, charitable organizations and tribal groups to launch a flexible emergency shelter capacity fund. The fund, which quickly raised $5 million, opened a patchwork of smaller shelters in churches and public buildings across the state.
Much has been done to address the problem, often through unusually high levels of collaboration. Catholic Charities, the largest provider of emergency shelters in the Twin Cities, completed its Dorothy Day Place campus in downtown St. Paul last fall. That marked the culmination of a $100 million public-private partnership that added significant shelter and affordable housing capacity. It has done or begun projects in Minneapolis.
But meanwhile, Catholic Charities notes that public funding has remained largely stagnant year after year and private funds – contributions, philanthropic grants and client payments – still provide more than three-fourths of the money for its partnerships.
“Added public resources are critical.” Marx says.
Compounding the problem are over-simplifications about its nature. Marx says he is sometimes asked to identify the “root cause” of homelessness. “There is no root cause,” he replies.
Homelessness, like many trees, has a complicated root structure. There are many causes: soaring rents; sluggish incomes that haven’t kept up with the rent increases; inflexible housing regulations; individual factors such as drug or alcohol addiction; structural shortcomings like lack of educational or job opportunities, inadequate mental health treatment, racial discrimination; and earlier, deinstitutionalization of people with mental illnesses; urban renewal that wiped out affordable housing at hotels and rooming houses; rapid disinvestment from housing at the federal level.
A perfect storm. The end result: more people sleeping below bridges or in their cars. A man seeking warmth in February, huddling above a heating vent in the sidewalk on Washington Avenue in the center of the University of Minnesota’s main campus.
We will be providing more information on this growing concern and also exploring opportunities for volunteerism to help deal with homelessness on this blog. Your suggestions are welcome.