Housing Infrastructure Bonds Testimony
The following testimony was presented by CEO and President Lee Blons on February 9.
I am Lee Blons, the CEO & President of Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative. I’m pleased to speak today in favor of the $100 million Housing Infrastructure Bonding (HIB) bill. This bill is supported by the Homes For All coalition which represents over 270 organizations across the state with a united cause: increasing access and resources to housing in Minnesota.
Let me begin by thanking all of you for your past support. In a time of political divide, it has been heart-warming to see the bi-partisan support for investing in homes through the bonding bill.
Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative is a collaborative of 100 faith communities in the Twin Cities area who work together to create homes for those that are the most disadvantaged, both directly as a developer and also as an advocate for increased public investment in housing. Beacon is one of many non-profit and for-profit housing developers that have been able to utilize HIB to create homes to meet a variety of needs in communities across the state.
With HIB, Beacon has created more homes for homeless youth, for homeless adults, and in the near future for homeless families.
Many of you are aware of the encampments that have developed in our community where men and women are huddled in tents and around fires. Three years ago, Beacon invited a number of our clergy to meet with Native leaders who walked with us to the Wall of Forgotten Natives. It was early in the morning and people were just waking up, and I saw a line forming with pots at a fire hydrant that the city had added a spout to labelled “potable water.” It looked like a refugee camp. A camp resident – looking around at the desolate surroundings – asked one of the ministers, “Where is God?” In my faith tradition, the answer is in the community of sharing that the camp residents built to look out for each other, the answer is in the food and caring that came from the broader community, and the answer is in your vote to support Housing Infrastructure bonds with our shared vision to end homelessness in our state.
Out of that day, we made a decision to create homes in relationship with Red Lake Nation to specifically address the underserved Native community. Thanks to HIB funding, this spring we will begin rehab on a historic downtown Minneapolis building to create Bimosedaa, which is Objibwe for Let’s Walk Together, named by the elders of Red Lake Nation. As supportive housing, Bimosedaa will be not only a safe home but also have on-site mental health and chemical dependency services within intentional and culturally specific community building.
Beacon has recently taken on the challenge of creating supportive housing for families that often experience generational housing instability. Funded in this very last round of HIB funding, at Vista 44 in Hopkins, in suburban Hennepin County, families will have not only a home but intensive services on-site to help a mom that is coming out of drug treatment reunite with her children, to help a dad find a better paying job, and to help children succeed in school that has been disrupted by homelessness and other trauma.
Unfortunately the need remains: we also had two family supportive housing developments that didn’t get selected this year. I’d like to highlight Prairie Pointe, which would be the first significant supportive housing development in Scott county – because homelessness impacts all of our counites.
And lastly, our youth housing. I will be sharing a video of Naomi, who became an advocate to help create 66 West to serve young people who experience homelessness in the suburbs. Thanks to her and thanks to you, 66 West was created across the street from Southdale Mall in Edina to meet that need.
