|
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Exciting news! Hennepin County was one of 33 communities selected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to receive funding through the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project. The YHDP funding will provide up to $3,464,687 towards ending youth homelessness in the county. More details on how to participate are below.
See the full HUD announcement here.
Updates in this week's newsletter:
🏠 Hennepin among 33 Communities Nationwide Receiving Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project Funding: Indicate your interest in participating via this google form.
✍️ Survey: Help Shape Hennepin County’s Recovery: Access the American Rescue Plan survey here.
🍎 ICA Market and Resource Center Unveiling at Gatewood Elementary: The exciting collaboration between ICA Food Shelf and Gatewood Elementary aims to find new ways to reach families where they live.
🏢 North Metro Regional Public Safety Training Facility Groundbreaking: Earlier this year, the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved $700,000 to expand the North Metro Regional Public Safety Training Facility.
🚧 Vernon Avenue Improvements Update: Residents will hear from the county in 2022 when we share a refined design and information about how we will construct this project.
In service,
Chris
Hennepin County was one of 33 communities selected by HUD to receive funding through the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project (YHDP). The YHDP funding will provide up to $3,464,687 towards ending youth homelessness in the county. See HUD announcement.
What is the YHDP?
The YHDP is an opportunity to:
- create an in-depth plan that analyzes the needs of youth at-risk of or experiencing homelessness in their community;
- identifies critical stakeholders; and
- determines specific action steps and interventions to substantially decrease and end youth homelessness in the community.
The Hennepin YHDP had a virtual kickoff session earlier this week. If you missed it, we would encourage you to indicate your interest in participation via this google form.
Please see the YHDP resource page for further information.
Hennepin County expects to receive a one-time federal investment of $240 million through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to help our residents recover from the COVID-19 public health and economic emergency and “build back better” on the other side. Your voice is needed to shape this once-in-a-generation investment.
We’re asking residents to take a short survey to offer insights on their priorities for these funds.
Access the American Rescue Plan survey here >>
The exciting collaboration between ICA Food Shelf and Gatewood Elementary in Hopkins has led to a new market and resource center embedded within the school. This week I joined them for a community day and the unveiling of this new center. These efforts aim to help find new ways to reach families where they live.
By Hennepin County Commissioners Irene Fernando and Jeff Lunde, Minnesota Spokesman Recorder
Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Council are excited to announce a critical next step in the METRO Blue Line Extension Light Rail (BLRT) project—a first of its kind anti-displacement initiative that will center community voices in developing actionable strategies and policies to maximize benefits of this transformative investment to current corridor residents and communities.
Access the full story here.
Earlier this year, the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved $700,000 to expand the North Metro Regional Public Safety Training Facility. This week, the official groundbreaking of the expansion took place.
In 1992, the City of Maple Grove constructed a 20,000 square foot Public Safety Training Facility (Facility), which became operational in 1993. The Facility provided an indoor firing range, training classroom, and a firearms simulator to meet the training needs at the time. Following a fire in 2011, the Facility was upgraded to over 22,000 square feet. Today, the Facility serves nearly 20 organizations, including local, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and post-secondary law enforcement education institutions. The Facility is also available for limited public rental use to meet statutory requirements. Between the City's needs and those of the current customer organizations, the Facility is near capacity.
An expansion of the Facility is needed to increase training capacity as the current level of use causes difficulty for agencies to schedule training time, increase training time to stay ahead of state mandates, or serve the demand of additional agencies across the region. Additionally, there is a need to modernize the Facility's training capabilities to serve new training curriculum with relevant, modern technologies. Additional agencies and organizations have expressed interest in utilizing the Facility. However, that cannot be accommodated without an increase in its current size.
Thank you for your feedback
We appreciate the great response this past summer to our engagement efforts for the Vernon Avenue Bridge replacement and intersections improvements project.
We had nearly 1,000 visits to our online open house and gathered more than 70 online comments through our community survey and one-on-one conversations.
What we heard
We heard residents say they:
- Liked the proposed access improvements and connections for people walking and rolling that includes new, wider sidewalks
- Liked the updated look of the proposed bridge design
- Liked the dedicated left-turn lane from Vernon Avenue to Gus Young Lane
- Had mixed feelings about the Highway 100 off-ramp realignment
- Want to see enhanced bicycle connections
Residents also shared concerns about construction impacts and voiced the importance of coordinating with current and future development in the Grandview District.
Your ideas and comments on how people walk, bike, roll, drive and use transit in this area will inform our work as we move from theinitial design to a more detailed design.
 Proposed improvements on the Vernon Avenue Bridge and intersections.
Next steps for project design
At this stage, we are taking time to coordinate with our project partners. We will continue to update our design based on the goals of the project and the feedback we have received from the community. We will also start developing construction timelines.
Residents will hear from the county again in 2022, when we will share a refined design and information about how we will construct this project. Until then, you can visit the project website linked below to view the engagement summary and learn more about how we are improving Vernon Avenue.
hennepin.us/vernon-avenue
The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners consists of one commissioner from each of seven districts. I am proud to represent Deephaven, north Eden Prairie, Edina, Excelsior, Greenwood, Hopkins, Long Lake, Minnetonka, Minnetonka Beach, northern Mound, Orono, Shorewood, Spring Park, Tonka Bay, Wayzata and Woodland.
|
Chris LaTondresse
Commissioner
6th District
612-348-7886
Jessica Oaxaca
District Director
612-348-6885
Kyle Olson
Policy Director
612-348-3168
|
