MICAH St. Paul - December News
The St. Paul chapter has had a whirlwind month!
We began with an awesome turnout at City Hall for the public hearing on Mayor Carter’s budget address! 5 chapter members testified, and there were another 5 in the audience sporting our AFFORDABLE HOUSING – YES! MICAH stickers. This was the first City Council meeting that the chapter showed up to and we did a great job!
After our successful bus tour we staged a ‘car tour’ for two folks to wrap up. We were able to get into the Project Home Day Shelter and the Payne Avenue Salvation Army, as well as looking at the Western U Plaza and discussing the situation of homeless children.
We also had a great meeting to plan the Legislative Breakfast, which will be coming up January 30th at St. Timothy’s Lutheran Church (1465 Victoria St. North). We will be holding a panel of state and local legislators and advocates, and then breaking into discussion tables by district to get a closer conversation with legislators.
Our Chapter meeting was blessed by the addition of a Fair Housing feedback session with Sarah Carthen Wilson, a racial justice lawyer who was working on the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing, which is a document that anyone who gets federal housing dollars has to complete. MICAH has worked hard to make this more than a rubberstamp – an ‘outreach goal’ that has to be checked off and ignored.
Many of the 15 people who were there gave testimonies from the intrusive nature of homeless screening questions, to the lack of women’s shelters, to the need for fair housing testing (secret shopper/paired tests) and more.
Council Member Jane Prince was with us for the next two sections of our meeting, where we learned from the MICAH board members, who are also on the Envision project, about that project – a Tiny Home Community First model which pairs small bedroom units with a central bathroom/washing rooms/community room structure. 30 people can be housed with privacy, security, and community in the space of two housing lots. The Envision Tiny Home project has homeless people front and center designing the project, as well as architects and public health professionals.
We also discussed our Fair Housing agenda, which has focused on four issues –
renter protection through inclusive renter screening,
requiring all city construction have affordable housing,
requiring that landlords have a just cause before they evict anyone,
and that renters get common language information about their rights.
We scheduled two research visits – one with Council Member Prince and one with Council Member Mitra Jalali Nelson.
As we wrap up the calendar year, the growth and quality of the MICAH St. Paul chapter has been phenomenal. We as organizers are glad to be on a journey of justice with all of you and look forward to a powerful 2020!