Includes an ongoing effort to build cohesiveness in the broader system of housing and services for the homeless, including approaches for coordinated assessment, information sharing, housing preservation and development, and service coordination and evaluation. Fourteen county-contracted agencies provide prevention services such as cash grants, legal advocacy, and short term case management for families. Since 1998, eligibility for assistance has been expanded to homeless single adults. Emergency shelters provide a safe, temporary place for homeless people to stay.
Shelters link homeless persons to longer-term housing and supportive services.
There is the capacity for approximately 1,800 adults and children in the county s emergency shelters. There are approximately 1,600 transitional housing units in the county. There are approximately 1,800 permanent supportive housing units in the county, most of which is for homeless single adults. Achieved through the provision of housing that is affordable to very low-income households. Despite considerable public and private investment in developing new and preserving existing affordable rental housing, low-income persons in Hennepin County continue to face a severe and growing shortage of decent affordable permanent housing.