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As you know, tomorrow marks the second anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by the Minneapolis Police Department.
As we reflect on these past two years, we continue to share the urgent sense that so much more must be done. We stand in solidarity with the family and friends of George Floyd, and with every Black, Indigenous, and Person of Color whose lives, opportunities, and communities have been devastated by our nation’s failure to face its legacy of racism and live up to its creed of justice for all, including so many relatives and neighbors experiencing homelessness in our state. Thank you to all of you who are working with us and with each other to build a future focused on housing, racial, and health justice for people experiencing homelessness.
Rainbow Research and their team of hired consultants with lived experience of homelessness invite you to join a Community Conversation tonight, May 24, from 6:30-8:30 p.m.! During the conversation tonight you will get an update on the progress so far and will asked to share your ideas and input on the first draft 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.
All are welcome to join! Please help us spread the word about this opportunity to shape the justice definitions for people experiencing homelessness!
In addition to the community conversations, Rainbow has been leading the Justice Work Groups that have been working to build the draft definitions. All are welcome to these meetings as well! You can find all of the meeting details and past meeting materials for both the Justice Work Groups and Community Conversations at https://mich.mn.gov/justice-strategic-plan#phase-one.
If you have any questions, please contact Iván Lopez at ilopez@rainbowresearch.org
In Minnesota, COVID-19 cases are rising. As such, facilities should take this time to ensure that they have detailed plans for testing, isolation, and COVID-19 therapeutics in the event of a COVID-19 surge. Some of the resources that have been available from the state in the past may have changed, so please check your supplies, and reach out to Health.R-Congregate@state.mn.us with any questions. Here are a few resources:
Testing:
Therapeutics:
- COVID-19 Therapeutics are a key component of preventing severe disease when people get COVID-19. Click here to learn more about therapeutics and find test-to-treat locations here. If you are working with a healthcare provider, check with them to make sure they are ready to screen and prescribe COVID-19 treatments. If not, reach out to R-Congregate@state.mn.us and we can help you connect to resources.
- More information on therapeutics will be discussed in more detail during the webinar next week, June 1, 2022.
Guidance documents:
Join the weekly webinar tomorrow from 1:00 -2:00 p.m. to hear updates from the MDH team and get your questions answered.
If you have any questions about your registration, please email Elizabeth Dressel
On Monday, May 23 the regular legislative session ended without passage of many key bills to spend the $9 billion budget surplus. The Governor and Lt. Governor had proposed a historic $1 billion of investments for housing stability over the next three years. Unfortunately, the House and Senate could not reach agreement on homelessness and housing spending items before the session ended. The Governor and legislative leaders continue to be in conversation to determine if agreements can be reached and if they will convene a special session. We will continue to provide updates as they are available.
The legislature passed a Health and Human Services policy bill, HF4065, and a mental health spending bill, HF2725, that await the Governor’s action. These bills included a few provisions related to homelessness including:
- Transitional Housing Program timeline extension from 24 to 36 months and revisions in the language stating that 10% of funding can be used for extension beyond 36 months.
- Extension of the Task Force on Shelter to submit the final report in December 2022.
- Last year the legislature passed $1 million in annual funding for shelter capital that did not have direction to the Department of Human Services on how to use the funding. Language was included to dedicate that funding to providers that serve homeless youth under Minnesota statute 256K.45, for grants up to $200,000 to make minor or mechanical repairs or improvements to a facility providing services to homeless youth.
- The mental health spending bill included an additional $2 million annually for the Shelter-Linked Mental Health Grant Program (current base funding for this grant program is $250k/annually).
The Community Equity Program (CEP) is an immersive political leadership program housed at Wilder that brings together Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color (BIPOC) who want to get involved in Minnesota’s legislative policy and fight for change in their communities. Led by a BIPOC team, CEP provides participants with a 9-month cohort experience along with knowledge and tools to: advocate and advance state-level legislation, engage with policymakers, question existing systems of power, create space for dreaming, and ultimately, build community power and solidarity to advance justice at the Capitol. For the first time in CEP’s history, cohort members will receive a $1,000 stipend (taxable) at the end of the program. Wilder is accepting applications for the 2022-2023 CEP Cohort through June 1, 2022. Learn more about the program and apply online: https://www.wilder.org/what-we-offer/community-equity-program#apply-to-cep.
The next webinar Speakers Bureau will be on Wednesday, June 1 at 1:00 p.m. There is still space to sign up to speak. Help us spread the word about this opportunity with the people you work with. Anyone who has lived experience of homelessness is welcome to sign-up to share through the Speakers Bureau. This will be open time each month for lived experience experts to share ideas and feedback with the webinar audience. All the details can be found on this flyer.
There is a monthly prep session held the Tuesday before the webinar. The June prep session will be Tuesday, May 31 from 3:00-3:30 p.m. Follow this link to join the prep session.
Please email elizabeth.dressel@state.mn.us or call Elizabeth at 651-248-5548 with any questions or to sign up to join the Speakers Bureau. This will be an ongoing opportunity each month. Anyone is welcome to sign up for future months as well.
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Minnesota Housing and Department of Human Services are hosting a sharing and learning session on Housing Support: How it Works in Operation on Wednesday, June 8 from 10:00 – 11:30 a.m. This session will focus on how Housing Support works in developments with supportive housing units. Department of Human Services staff will provide an overview of Housing Support, followed by two service providers describing their role in providing Housing Support. This will be an interactive session so please bring your questions. Click here to register. If you have any questions, contact Vicki Farden at vicki.farden@state.mn.us.
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The Frontline Worker Pay program has shared that they anticipate the application will open on June 8 and run through July 22, 2022. When the system is ready to accept applications, eligible workers will have 45 days to apply for Frontline Worker Pay. Visit https://frontlinepay.mn.gov/ to view available information on the program including newly added Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and an outreach toolkit. If you want to stay up to date on program announcements, we encourage you to visit the site and sign up to receive the Frontline Worker Pay update emails.
- Over six weekly webinars in April and May, 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. If you missed any of the discussions, you can review the Menti responses and recordings at https://mich.mn.gov/weekly-webinar. To gather additional input from those who were not able to join the discussion, we have developed an anonymous survey. Please share this survey opportunity with others who might be interested in providing feedback on any of these topics. The survey will be open for feedback until Tuesday, May 31, 2022. Please share your feedback. Regardless of the ultimate outcome of this session, this information is vital to agencies as they work to make existing and future investments as effective and responsive as possible.
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