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State Representative John Benson
100 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
651-296-9934
For more information contact: Charlene Briner 651-296-5809
NEWS COLUMN
A CONVERSATION ABOUT HOMELESSNESS
Over the course of my teaching career, I took students on dozens of field trips. Nothing compares to the lessons students learn as a result of hearing and seeing and touching the subjects they study.
So when the Housing Policy and Finance Division I serve on planned a field trip to local shelters and transitional housing facilities, I was ready. I’d read a great deal about the issue and thought about it in serious, if vaguely formed reflections. I’d made well-meaning contributions to charitable organizations, and I often take bags of groceries to local food shelves.
What I saw on that field trip, and what I heard and touched and felt, has altered my view of homelessness in Minnesota. I'd like to share some of that with you.
In Minnesota, nearly 8500 people, some mere miles from my comfortable home, are homeless. An estimated 10,600 children are either homeless or living in temporary arrangements, and on any given night almost 600 unaccompanied adolescents are without permanent shelter. At one shelter, I watched a lottery where a lucky few homeless men scored a night on a lumpy cot. At another shelter, weary teenagers faced a limited number of beds. If they didn't win their lottery, they were sent out to fend for themselves, or given a token that allowed them to ride city busses for the night - uncomfortable to be sure, but at least out of the frigid cold. Each year in Minnesota, it’s estimated that nearly 100 people freeze to death in the metro area – and that number doesn’t account for exposure deaths in greater Minnesota.
The profiles of homeless persons are not what you’d expect. While we comfort ourselves by thinking that people living on the streets have some inherent weakness or defect of character, the reality is that scores of Minnesota’s homeless are families. Some lose their homes due to foreclosure resulting from predatory lenders; others face eviction due to medical crisis or job loss. 81 percent of homeless children are enrolled in school and attend regularly. Fully thirty percent of homeless persons hold full or part-time jobs, but low wages and lack of affordable options prevent them from establishing long-term housing. Almost half of homeless persons suffer from severe or persistent mental illness, and one-third of the homeless are veterans. And far from being an issue impacting only the urban core, over one-quarter of the people currently experiencing homelessness lives in rural Minnesota.
Hubert Humphrey once said “The moral test of a government is how it treats those who are at the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadow of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped."
This is what I learned on my field trip. I learned we can bring the issue of homelessness out of the shadows, and the people afflicted by it into the light. We can create a market that provides housing options at various income levels. We can offer supportive housing for those in need and strengthen the social safety net that allows too many people to fall through the gaps. We can mitigate the public costs associated with chronic homelessness and stabilize the lives of individuals, families, and communities, and by doing so, strengthen the economic vitality of our state. It is within our grasp and it is our moral obligation to do so.
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