A homeless shelter that provides critical services in downtown Minneapolis is in dire need of repairs, and its future may be determined by city politics.
Regardless of what happens at City Hall, Agate Housing’s 137-bed shelter at 510 S. 8th St. will close at least temporarily on Oct. 9. That’s a significant blow for Minneapolis, which has declared unsheltered homelessness a public health emergency and continues to see higher numbers of unhoused individuals. Meanwhile, shelters across the region have faced limited resources available to compensate for rising demand for services.
With the transitional housing facility’s fate hanging in the balance, on Sept. 19 the City Council passed a resolution that would reappropriate money from multiple city department surpluses to fund a $1.5 million grant. Contingent to the grant, Agate must secure at least an additional $1.5 million match, which the organization’s leaders say is more than attainable.
Passage of the resolution was not unanimous: council members Linea Palmisano, Michael Rainville and LaTrisha Vetaw voted no because of concerns over process and where the money would come from. The naysaying council members said they had concerns about where the funding for the Agate grant was coming from. Council members spearheading the resolution said the money would only come from departments that have had a budget surplus for at least five years.
It also remains unclear if Mayor Jacob Frey will sign, veto or let the resolution pass without doing either. He has until 4 p.m. Thursday to decide.
Frey’s administration sent the following statement in the interim as the mayor debates his decision: “Mayor Frey is supportive of the important work of shelters. The City Council did no vetting of the source of funding before passage and it’s resulting in significant problems. The mayor will spend the next day reviewing the appropriation with City staff and subject matter experts before making a decision.”
‘An important asset’
Even if it receives the city’s grant, Agate needs a thorough assessment to know the extent of renovation needed, said Virginia Brown, vice president of external relations for the nonprofit organization.
The 100-year-old building includes a 42-bed shelter and 95-bed “low barrier” housing area. An initial assessment by a construction company conducted about a year ago found the building needed between $3 million and $5 million in renovations.
“What we’ll need to do now is get a more specific number… So that’s our next step, to make sure we understand exactly what the full need is and what else we’ll need to raise, in addition to the city’s match, to actually have the building in working condition and providing a safe and dignified home,” Brown said. “There’s a little bit to be determined about whether or not we can actually reopen, but we’re really optimistic, and the city funds are excellent momentum to show that they are identifying this as an important asset. They will hopefully be a leader and others will follow to support.”
Whether or not the price tag ends up closer to $5 million will determine how much more Agate has to raise outside of the match stipulated in the city grant. If the nonprofit can move forward with renovations, Brown said it would likely take 6 to 12 months for the facility to reopen.
The pandemic and its aftermath have posed a heightened challenge for shelters across the Twin Cities, Brown noted. Not only has there been a struggle to maintain funding streams, more people are becoming unhoused and straining the region’s existing resources.
“The cost of providing services have increased while the funding we might have through various government agencies has not increased, so more and more philanthropy has had to close the gap in order to actually provide all the services,” Brown said. “That’s a whole effort in and of itself and possibly not a winning effort for everyone. There’s only so much philanthropy to go around, and it certainly benefits the bigger organizations with bigger names.”
Brown also wanted to clarify an inaccuracy that was brought up during the Thursday, Sept. 19 meeting when the resolution passed. Council member Palmisano said during the meeting that the 510 building is not part of Hennepin County’s coordinated entry system, which helps refer unhoused people to various shelters. She said reopening the Agate’s 510 in the future would not help reduce the number of unhoused people sleeping outside.
Brown said that, though the 510 program does not use coordinated entry, this does not mean that it does not serve unhoused populations sleeping outside. The 510 building and board and lodge program takes referrals from various sources and those referrals include people who are living in encampments.
Disagreement over process, again
At the Sept. 19 meeting, council Vice President Aisha Chughtai, who chairs the budget and finance committee, said there has been about a 17% increase in homelessness in Minneapolis in the Twin Cities metro since this time last year. This was also reflected in December when Minneapolis declared unsheltered homelessness a public health emergency.
While all of the council agrees that the city’s increasing unhoused population is at an emergency level and needs to be addressed immediately, members don’t agree on process.
In his newsletter following the passage of the Agate resolution, council member Rainville said the budget amendment allowed Agate to bypass the normal funding process and “jump the line on other housing providers such as Common Bond, Avivo, and Aeon.
“To help prevent this practice in the future, I co-authored a legislative directive with CMs Vetaw and Palmisano to have staff give a presentation outlining the standard process for my colleagues,” he wrote.
Council members in support of the funding argued that the possible loss of the Agate facility was urgent and needed to be addressed immediately.
During the Sept. 19 meeting, Chughtai said the Agate grant is actually cost effective. To completely rebuild a facility like Agate’s, she said it would require an entity willing and able to do it and cost around $40 million, noting she believed it’s worth providing the $1.5 million grant is worth avoiding the closure of an already established facility.
This is not the first time the council has been divided over process while budgeting. In July, the council passed a police contract budget that deviated from what the Frey administration proposed. In that case, the change was neither signed nor vetoed by the mayor.
Update: This story has been updated to reflect that the 510 Agate location does not use the county’s coordinated entry program.
Winter Keefer
Winter Keefer is MinnPost’s Metro reporter. Follow her on Twitter or email her at wkeefer@minnpost.com.
