Minnesota nonprofits probe the history of homelessness

By Cynthia Boyd, MinnPost.com

As local emergency shelters scramble to find enough beds this winter, seven nonprofit organizations working with the homeless are offering the public an unusual class: the history of homelessness.

Stereotypes, racial disparities, redlining and the cost to the community are among the topics to be covered in the free training, offered in hope that educating people on the parameters and history of homelessness will compel them to advocate for change.

And the class is timely. Officials at local emergency shelters for the homeless say they have been overwhelmed by the number of families needing help in recent months.

About 1,000 volunteers visited shelters, soup kitchens, drop-in centers and street corners from one end of the state to the other Oct. 25 to talk with homeless people and tally an official count, an exercise completed every three years. Results are compiled and analyzed by Wilder Research to better understand the causes, circumstances and effects of homelessness.

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