This week, the CDC announced that the US reached a tragic milestone: more than 1 million people have died from COVID-19 in the U. S. since March 2020. An estimated one quarter of those deaths could have been prevented with vaccines and other mitigation strategies. In a statement of remembrance, President Biden shared, "One million empty chairs around the dinner table. Each an irreplaceable loss. Each leaving behind a family, a community, and a nation forever changed because of this pandemic.”  

In this moment, we pause to reflect and remember those we all know that have lost their lives and the great sorrow this leaves in the lives of loved ones. We are grateful to each of you for the work you do every day to remain vigilant to protect yourselves and those you work with.  

Over the last six weekly webinars, we asked you to share your guidance and ideas about the proposed investments in housing stability from the Walz-Flanagan Budget to Move Minnesota Forward being considered by the Minnesota Legislature. Thank you to all of you who participated in these discussions and for the thoughtful feedback and ideas you shared!  

Join the weekly webinar tomorrow from 1:00 -2:00 p.m. for a summary discussion of what we all heard over the last six weeks. Our team has done an initial analysis of the themes across the discussion topics that we will use to start our discussion tomorrow. Review the draft theme summary here. We look forward to hearing from all of you on what you heard across the conversations.  

State staff are using this feedback to shape the processes for these funds to be requested, for allocations to be determined and for expectations to be set related to the use of these resources. We hope the feedback is also interesting to other partners in decisions about funding, program design, and continuous improvement of Minnesota's response to homelessness. 

If you missed any of the discussions, you can review the Menti responses and recordings at https://mich.mn.gov/weekly-webinar. As a reminder the discussion topic schedule was as follows: 

Rainbow Research and their team of hired consultants with lived experience of homelessness, are leading a series of Justice Work Groups which are working to create a unified, operational definition of housing, racial, and health justice for people experiencing homelessness. This definition will drive the development of strategies and specific actions that will shape the statewide plan. Join the next Work Group conversation this Friday, May 20 from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. The group will begin review and refinement of draft definition language.  

To get a broad range of perspectives and input, Rainbow is holding a series of Community Conversations for anyone to join to hear updates on the Justice Work Groups and provide their ideas and opinions on the development of the operation definition of housing, racial, and health justice for people experiencing homelessness.  The Community Conversations are targeted to people who are not able to join the work groups. Join the next Community Conversation next Tuesday, May 24 from 6:30-8:30 p.m.  

All are welcome to join! Please help us spread the word about this opportunity to shape the justice definitions for people experiencing homelessness! Find all of the meeting details including the zoom link to join and past meeting materials here: https://mich.mn.gov/justice-strategic-plan#phase-one.  

If you have any questions, please contact Iván Lopez at ilopez@rainbowresearch.org 

The number of COVID-19 cases among people experiencing is beginning to increase, which is consistent with the trends in the general population. The MDH team continues monitor the increasing cases. Our team continues to plan alongside local public health and emergency management on ways to be best prepared to support people experiencing homelessness through any future surges.