Advocates push for more support for affordable housing, shelters in Mankato

MANKATO, Minn. — Those who have turned their lives around with the aid of stable housing and those who help people find shelters and permanent housing spoke at a forum of the need to do more locally and to amend the Minnesota constitution to help the housing crisis.

A coalition of local nonprofits and community members spoke out Thursday night at the Blue Earth County Library.

April Meyers comes from a family that for generations suffered from drug and alcohol misuse and mental health issues.

She was a meth addict living in the Twin Cities when she got in trouble in Nicollet County and was put into a recovery program. As she was about to be released, she had nowhere to go.

That's when someone from Lloyd Management called and said she was on a list and there was an apartment available for her.

"I'm not sure who put me on the list."

She said having stable housing was a big part of helping her continue her recovery and to start regaining more parental rights to her three children.

"I rebuilt myself in a way that wouldn't have been possible without stable housing." She is now in the process of buying a home.

Leah Hanson, of Connections Shelter in Mankato, which is operated by a group of local churches, said shelters and permanent housing are a basic necessity.

"How do you heal without shelter?"

She said there isn't enough affordable housing or year-round shelter space in Mankato, but the community has stepped up.

"The community has done a lot to help people get out of despair and to a place of hope."

Hanson said the shelter creates a community. She said some tent sites used by the homeless had to be taken down because of this weekend's Mankato Marathon. "People (from the shelter) helped others remove their tents."

While the shelter has helped, Hanson said the community needs a year-round shelter space. They did not receive funding in the last legislative session for the hoped-for shelter.

Madeleine Hammerlund, of Our Future Starts at Home, organized the forum and said there are many people who support their efforts.

"One thing we Minnesotans do is give back," she said.

Her group and others have been pushing to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would allow Minnesotans to vote on whether to enact a three-eighths of one percent statewide sales tax — around 38 cents per $100 — to fund housing and homelessness response initiatives.

That proposal did not receive a hearing in committees in the House or Senate in the last legislative session. Lawmakers supporting putting the amendment on the ballot say it will take a few years of coalition building to be successful.