Hennepin County Profile

To learn more about how Hennepin County works for you, the District 3 team has started a profile series with employees of the county who live in the district. Each month will spotlight a different person from varying departments and occupations.  Find out about the day-to-day aspects of occupational fields and work environments at the county, and how each person’s work affects your life.

Mikkel Beckmen
Director of Minneapolis/ Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness
Lynnhurst Neighborhood
1.5 years at Hennepin County

Describe your work.

My office is in charge of the effort by Minneapolis and Hennepin County to end homelessness. It is a public/ private partnership, and our office coordinates the efforts of Heading Home Hennepin. We act as coordinator, communicator, and champion to look at the systems we have and how they can work together to work better for individuals who are experiencing homelessness. Our office is a way for the community to connect with the county to get their questions addressed, and to understand what’s happening in Hennepin County.

Heading Home Hennepin is a long-term plan to end homelessness, and a call to the community to address the issue. Plans developed elsewhere often struggle because they don’t have adequate staffing or don’t have measurable benchmarks to track their progress. We have investment from our partners, and work with all members of the community- neighborhoods, government, business and faith communities to build effecting programs and goals. For example, the Minneapolis Downtown Council has stated a goal to be the first North American city to end street homelessness, and I recently worked with Commissioner Greene to enact an initiative at Hennepin County to provide gap funding for homeless families in need of childcare support.

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What part of your job do you find most challenging?

Some of the things that contribute to homelessness are beyond our ability to address. I think we’ve done better than most in our policies to minimize the impact of things like the foreclosure crisis, economic downturns, and layoffs on homelessness, but we can't prevent them.

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What do find most enjoyable?

I enjoy talking to the community and speaking about issues of homelessness. Being a champion for the issue and marshalling others to the cause is important. I also enjoy getting to know the really good work of people at the city and county.

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What is one thing everyone should know about the work you do?

Nothing happens in a person’s life without housing. No one can accomplish his or her hopes and dreams without it, and homelessness at the societal level is expensive. It costs more for care and shelter than to find them permanent housing. At the end of the day, homelessness is a symptom of a part of our community and their inability to access the housing that exists. We all want to be a part of a thriving community and live a life of meaning, and homelessness puts that out of reach.

Homelessness affects many systems at the county and in the city, including educational achievement, children’s health, public safety, and the libraries. Systems like behavioral mental health, corrections, and probation are all struggling with the fact that there aren’t enough places for people to live.

Lastly, homelessness is everyone's problem. Aside from the fact that there are people in the community (many of them children) without a home, there are immense financial and social impacts on the well-being of our neighborhoods and communities. It is incredibly important for all that we address housing solutions for these people.

 

Mikkel Beckmen is a resident of the Lynnhurst neighborhood, and the Director of the Office to End Homelessness, which leads Heading Home Hennepin, the joint City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County community's effort to end homelessness. Beckmen brings to the job 22 years of experience working with programs and agencies that work to end homelessness. Heading Home Hennepin brings together more than 120 local nonprofit organizations, as well as government agencies, faith-based alliances, businesses, and concerned citizens. The plan's success in building grassroots support and bolstering community networks has made it a model for similar initiatives nationwide. To volunteer or for more information, click here.