St. Cloud's Homeless Population Has Grown Since 2020

The homeless population is growing in the St. Cloud area. To discuss this challenge, I was joined by Benton County Commissioner Steve Heinen, Victoria Blonigen from Benton County Outreach and Pastor Carol from Place of Hope.

Camping Trends

Blonigen says during the warm weather months the amount of encampments increase and that is what they are seeing right now. She says these homeless individuals are setting up encampments on private property, often times receive a trespass and move on to another private property location and repeat the cycle. Blonigen says there is no public property for these individuals to setup encampments and there is no room in the homeless shelters. She says there is a waiting list at the shelters.

Place of Hope

Pastor Carol says they recently had people setup encampments on their property and they invite those people into their facility. She says many of these individuals are having meals with them but they don't have room to invite everyone in to stay due to capacity limits. Pastor Carol says when it gets colder, more and more people will come inside and stay at their shelter.

Tents

Steve Heinen says many homeless people are not making themselves available to get help. Blonigen says outreach tries to build a relationship with homeless individuals to inform them of the services the county can provide. She says some mental health services have been cut so they have less services to offer the homeless. Blonigen says the first thing she tries to do is set homeless people with financial assistance and health insurance. She says next steps are looking at treatment options and setting up where these individuals can go to get treatment.

Homeless Increase Spiked in 2020

Pastor Carol says the pandemic in 2020 is when the first spike of homeless happened in the St. Cloud area. She says the amount of homeless in the area has increased greatly over the last 2 years. Carol believes many individuals "just like to be in those tents". Steve Heinen says many of the tents these individuals have were donated to shelters and outreach services. Pastor Carol says they are seeing more homeless families in the past year which is "hard to see". She believes there isn't enough affordable housing, a lack of workable wages, mental health and chemical dependency issues. Pastor Carol says "these are serious barriers and when it's a family, they are intense".

How to Help

Heinen believes to solve the homeless problem in the St. Cloud area, "we'll need better participation from everybody". This includes city, county and state officials along with the general public. Heinen says a lot of the solutions offered are only temporary. Blonigen says the community can help with financial donations to shelters along with bug spray, tarps, non-perishable food, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, paper towels and gift cards.

Shelters Working Together

When the weather gets colder the need for shelter and housing will be more urgent. Pastor Carol says the Place of Hope received a block grant last year to help provide more staff to allow for an overflow shelter. She says they are coordinating with the Salvation Army and Lincoln Center to help transport homeless individuals to their shelter. Pastor Carol says they have 80 beds, 45-50 overflow mats on the floor and 9 rooms for families at their facility they can use in the winter. The 9 rooms for families are currently under refurbishment but Carol is hopeful that they will be available before school starts.

Avivo Could Help

Blonigen is a optimistic that Avivo Village, a homeless shelter being built in St. Cloud, will be open in October that will help with the homeless problem this winter. Carol says they will have capacity for approximately 150 individuals at Place of Hope, the Salvation Army will have room for 65 with 20 overflow, Avivo will have approximately room for 40-50 and the Lincoln Center can have 25 individuals overnight.

If you'd like to help:

Place of Hope
511 9th Avenue North
St. Cloud, MN 56303
320-203-7881

City Hope Church
413 Franklin Ave NE
St. Cloud, MN 56304

Homeless Helping Homeless
PO Box
St. Cloud, MN 56307
612-868-0465 (financial donations)

Lincoln Warming Shelter
630 Lincoln Avenue SE
St. Cloud 56304

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Steve, Victoria and Pastor Carol, click below.