Donations through agencies, like Hastings Family Service, make the biggest impact

A count from Ally Supportive Services has shown that there were at least 100 homeless people in Hastings in the 12 months prior to July 2022.

The Hastings community wants to help. The town hall forum “Homelessness: Effectively Addressing Housing Access in our Community” held Nov. 16 at Hastings City Hall took a look at programs currently underway by nonprofit and government agencies and how best Hastings can help the homeless.

The meeting was originally scheduled for earlier this year but had to be rescheduled because of a community COVID outbreak. It was organized by State Rep. Tony Jurgens.

“I’m very happy we’re finally able to pull this together and bring people together for this important discussion,” said Jurgens. “The reason we thought about doing this last year was because of the outpouring of concern that we all notice on social media, talking about individuals and their plight. We want to talk about the issues and what people can do to help – what options are available already, and, quite honestly, ways that people are trying to help but maybe that aren’t as helpful as they would like them to be.”

Several other local officials attended the event, including Mayor Mary Fasbender, who said the discussion is another sign that Hastings is a caring community.

“Topics such as homelessness are tough conversations, but as you see in this community, people care, and they have concern for the unsheltered people in this city,” she said. “Coming together tonight will help make us more aware of what’s happening around us. We’re thankful that we do have concerned people who care and want to help.”

Panelists were Amy Sutton, Executive Director of Hastings Family Service; Amber Hansen, Housing Director and Homeless Services of Ally Supportive Services; Whitney Rinowski, Hastings Police Department Community Engagement Officer; David Wilske, Hastings Police Chief; and Madeline Kastler, Dakota County Director of Housing and Community Resources. Joining them was Scott Kuball (whose story was profiled in part one of this series in last week’s Hastings Journal). Kuball told of the struggles of being homeless in Hastings.

The panelists told of what their agencies are doing to try to help those unhoused Hastings residents.

Sutton said Hastings Family Services tries to meet immediate needs of those in the community.

“It’s not long-term solutions for us. It’s how do we help people right now at the moment,” she said.

If someone walks into Hastings Family Services, she said the agency works to get the process of helping that person started, whether it’s finding an agency that offers long-term, big-picture help or with food and clothing.

“We certainly provide food packs to people experiencing homelessness. We offer hygiene items and laundry vouchers. We can provide tents and sleeping bags and tarps,” she said. “We offer warm coats, warm food, whatever they need.”

“We sat down a few years ago with a few folks who were experiencing homelessness at the time and asked what things they need that they’re not getting. It’s always illuminating to talk to the people who are having that experience,” she said. “We do a lot of identification replacement or renewals for people, those steps that start the process because you’re not going to be able to get into housing and apply for things if you don’t have some identification,” Sutton said. “I want the community to know we want to be there to help.”

In Rinowski’s position, one of her primary focuses is on homelessness.

“Usually, we find out about homeless people due to calls for service. Whether it’s somebody calling in and saying, ‘I want to check welfare on this individual. I think they may need some help. Or, officers are running into people on a day-today basis and learning that somebody’s homeless. They often come to me and say, ‘Hey, can you help this person?’ I try to reach out and if I can get them connected with resources the best that I can,” she said.

As Jurgens introduced Hansen, he talked of joining in the Ally Supportive Services “point in time homeless count” in Hastings.

“People like Amber go out in their communities, in their counties, and try to get a good head count of how many people are actually unsheltered. I had the opportunity to go along with Amber a couple times, and it was really eye-opening for me,” said Jurgens.

In addition to outreach, Ally seeks to get homeless people into housing. She said that there are 30 beds available for homeless in Dakota County.

“The way I come in contact with some folks is through the local police department, so our collaboration is of utmost importance. If I’m looking for somebody, I’m worried about somebody, I most often reach out to the department,” she said.

Wilske said the Hastings Police Department’s perspective has to be a little different than other agencies.

“We have to look at the 100-foot umbrella over the city, because there’s a lot of people that are using resources within our community and expect something out of the city,” he said. “My role is direction for our officers so that when we come in contact with somebody that is homeless, whether they’re new to us or we’ve known them for years, that we can provide them with the resources that they need,” Wilske said.

Dakota County is working to ensure stable housing for all citizens, said Kastler.

“In my area, we provide directly or support the work of others and provide services across the housing continuum,” she said, whether that is working with Ally or other shelter organizations or providing housing stability services, such as rental assistance or landlord outreach.

“We also know the importance of partnerships like landlords, police departments and our community partners,” she said, “and we provide services to help maintain stability to those who are in housing.”

“We are continually expanding services, but as everybody in this room knows, we’re chasing something that is hard to catch up to in terms of the amount of services that are needed throughout our community,” said Kastler.

The audience provided questions that Jurgens posed to the panel, starting with what Hansen would consider a success.

“I think a success is anytime somebody allows me to engage with them, and we can meet one small goal. It’s really day by day. If I can meet a particular need during that day, that small win can turn into a big win, like a permanent place to stay,” said Hansen.

Wilske pointed to the situation two years ago. “Two years ago, was the first time that I know of that we found shelter for everybody in the wintertime,” she said. “That was a huge success, and I’m hoping that we can achieve that again this year.”

Rinowski was asked how homelessness affects the Hastings community. She said it’s been mostly positive but there have been some problems, mostly because the problem of homelessness isn’t easily solved, despite donations and community help.

“I’ve seen some comments on social media, ‘Are there things put in place again this year to help the homeless? What are we doing as a community to help the homeless?’ I think that’s kind of where we came back again as a group and said, we truly need to have this town hall meeting, so that we can get information out there on how you can actually help homeless people,” she said.

The police also get some complaints about homeless. “We do get complaints about people not feeling safe walking through the local parks and trails, because somebody is making them feel uncomfortable due to behaviors or activity they are participating in or due to the amount of garbage that is surrounding those areas,” she said.

There are also other issues, such as addiction and mental illness at play as well.

“I’m not an expert, but I would say almost 100 percent are dealing with alcohol and drug abuse or a combination of alcohol, drug abuse and mental health. Oftentimes, we have seen that the drug abuse is enhancing the underlying mental health issues that are happening,” said Wilske. “Oftentimes, when people are intoxicated, there’s poor decision making. This poor decision making is often when we get involved. Sometimes this happens downtown, which affects our downtown businesses or the visitors to our community.”

Hansen said the inverse is likely true: that homelessness causes mental strain and leads to other problems.

“A great portion of folks that we may come in contact with, their circumstances that have led to homelessness don’t necessarily have something to do with chemical or mental chemical dependency. As you can imagine, anybody in a homeless situation is going to be impacted mentally. So that may be a causation of the circumstances that they are in,” she said.

How does the community help in a positive way?

There are many ways. Hansen termed it “giving effectively.”

“There are items we really need. We need socks all the time. We need gift cards for places to eat, gas cards. You could donate these to your faith communities or donate money to Hastings Family Service, and they can buy the things we physically need to do. Support the folks at the county. They’re doing a ton of work to get us a permanent shelter,” said Hansen.

She said it’s to donate to agencies, rather than people. “If you want to give money, giving money to individuals is not always helpful, most often it’s not helpful,” Hansen said. “In that moment, the money may not be spent on what you would hope for in order to survive that day. It could be spent on drugs or alcohol.”

Leaving items in the parks is not the answer either. “We’ve seen over giving. There’s too much stuff in the park,” said Hansen. “Giving through structured resources is often more helpful to not have our parks look a mess.”

Rinowski added, “Think about it this way: If you’re homeless, and you’re needing to carry four blankets because four different people gave you four different blankets, how are you not going to carry everything else that you have. You’re going to leave those belongings behind because you only really need one blanket.

“I talked to the Parks Department, and they spent over $10,000 in the last year cleaning up the parks because of over giving,” she said. “That’s again why we’re here to talk about what is necessary or what’s recommended, and it’s donating to the resources in town, not necessarily to the people.” It’s going to go a lot further. It’ll be better utilized.”

The housing problem

“The biggest need we have in our community is housing that is affordable, available and accessible,” said Kastler. “Oftentimes we are working with somebody who is engaged and ready for housing and finding that spot for that person to rent is extraordinarily difficult because of the cost of housing or because of the person’s background and trying to match with rental property that will take that person. Having access to housing stock that people can move into is really important and is really a key to getting somebody out of a shelter, out of that encampment and into housing and able to stay there and become stable. That often goes along with jobs that pay in order to support that housing. That’s really big picture.”

Hansen echoed those sentiments. “We need landlords willing to rent to people that have imperfect backgrounds and give them a shot. That’s what we need to solve homelessness,” she said.

Want to help:

Panelists mentioned that Hastings Family Service is the best place to start. Payments can be sent to:

Hastings Family Service 301 2nd St. E Hastings, MN 55033 Sutton was hopeful that the event will make an impact on helping homeless and shining a light on the housing situation and thankful to Jurgens for organizing it.

“I’m grateful to Representative Jurgens for making this conversation happen tonight, and for advocating for the community as our Representative with care, compassion, civility and common sense.”

State Rep. Tony Jurgens organized the town hall forum “Homelessness: Effectively Addressing Housing Access in our Community” held at Hastings City Hall. He acted as event moderator. Photo by Bruce Karnick