Emergency Family Shelter in Hennepin County, MN February, 2013

Background Hennepin County has 1.2 million people Board policy of sheltering all families 115 rooms in county contracted shelters Can serve up to 125 additional families in overflow facility Large private shelter with 98 rooms Small private program for 10 families Domestic violence shelters as well

Criteria for entry into shelter Must be literally homeless Must be county resident Must have no resources and need to apply for all available benefits Must pay for your shelter stay with available resources – roughly $30/day/person No time limits

Volume of our shelter system

Once in shelter, focus is on moving out of shelter We use rapid rehousing as primary tool No “coordinated assessment” – just a housing barrier screen Assessed by screener within 3 days Ranked 1-4, low to high housing barriers Level 1 – 1%, level 2 – 38%, level 3 – 37% Level 4 – 24%

Rapid Rehousing tool focuses on housing barriers Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4 good rental historyno rental historypoor rental historylong-term homeless no apparent barriers to housingnew to area recent drug or criminal4+ evictions large family size mild behavior barriersactive drug use one easily explained eviction history of substance abuse, not current severe behavior problems no criminal record open child protection case recent serious criminal dv but abuse not around dv and abuser is in area current abuse in the family

Ranking is good predictor of need Those with barrier level 4 are twice as likely to return to shelter than those with lower barrier levels We track “return to shelter” rate within 6 months of leaving shelter. We found, however, that most come back to shelter at about 12 months

Rapid Rehousing provides: Help finding housing Supports for 6 months after housed (9 months for level 4s) Shallow rent subsidy; families often still pay 50-80% of their income for rent Most of our sheltered families relying solely on TANF

Current challenges: Tight housing market – vacancy rate is 1.6% MFIP for family of 4 = $621/month 2 bedroom apt = $1,269/month This has led to an increase in length of stay in shelter from 39 days to 46 days ( ) and a backlog of cases waiting for a Rapid Rehousing worker.

Current response: Can move to the front of the line to get a Rapid Rehousing worker if you get a job Increased focus on level 4 families – trying to make Rapid Rehousing work Planning group looking at other responses for chronically homeless families – when rapid rehousing isn’t enough

For more information: Minneapolis/Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness