Northeast Chapter Report - December 2021

The NorthEast Chapter’s bus tour this year featured the diversity of housing in the area. Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity has been working with Northeast congregations on a series of townhomes in the northern part of St. Paul. Volunteers have been harder to come by during the pandemic, but with social distancing and staff help, homes are still being built. Dave Engh along with Rhonda and Julia from Habitat made that presentation. Trisha Cummins-Kaufmann, the executive director of Solid Ground updated us on the projects new and old that they have been working on. In recent years Solid Ground has been able to access funding for families with students and is always looking for homes they could place voucher holders into. The Community Resource Center at St. Andrews is also growing and expanding and transforming to deal with the pandemic; Taylor Mahmood and Rachael Moreno were able to give us the virtual tour of their offices. Pete Peterson was able to update us on Rosemary Apartments, a tax credit project in Hugo which is the first affordable rental property in that city. Thanks to the Washington County CDA for helping that happen! View the video here.

The most innovative of the ‘stops’ on our virtual tour was Settled, the community-first Tiny Home project that has been working in the Twin Cities area for several years. CEO and co-founder Gabrielle Clowdus spoke to the chapter about the work they have been doing, building high-quality homes on wheels (some at Woodland Hills in Maplewood), often sponsored by member congregations (such as Trinity Lutheran in Stillwater) and creating Sacred Settlements (such as at Mosaic Christian Community in St. Paul) to provide a new option to solve the housing crisis.

In addition to the bus tour, MICAH Northeast has been supportive of the work of Washington County, who are moving on their long-held goal of opening a permanent emergency shelter for adults in the County. The Washington County Board on a unanimous vote approved using $6 million dollars of their American Rescue Plan money to buy and rehab a property (such as a small or midsize hotel) for this purpose. Sites are still under consideration. Several of our Stillwater area congregations are involved in a Homeless Strategy and Advocacy Team (HSAT) that is working to build community support for such a proposal. Washington County hopes to find a possible location for the shelter in early to mid 2022.