Youth homelessness on the rise in Anoka County

• Tweet
• 
• 
• 

• Tweet
• 
• 
• 

By Elyse Kaner
Staff Writer

When Joey Smith turned 18, his father kicked him out of the house. They didn’t see eye to eye.

Joey (not his real name) found refuge in a secluded wooded area in a park just behind Johnsville Elementary School in Blaine, where he set up camp. Each night in the cold, he bedded down with his books and a blanket. A single-size, battered mattress kept him above ground so he wouldn’t have to sleep in the wet leaves. Snowy and rainy nights were a different matter.

“When he found the mattress, he really thought he hit the gold mine,” said Karrie Schaaf, homeless youth and families liaison at Anoka-Hennepin School District 11.

 

Couch hopping

Some sleep in cars. Some couch hop, while others sleep in parks or abandoned buildings and public places, a heated bus shelter, for instance.

They are our children. The homeless children and youth of Anoka County. And the number of homeless youth in the county is growing at an alarming rate.

Cities in Anoka County recently proclaimed November as Homelessness Awareness Month.On Jan. 26, 2011, in a count conducted by the Anoka County Community Continuum of Care, 1,461 people in Anoka County were found to be homeless.

The continuum is a consortium of state and community agencies and community volunteers working together to end homelessness in the county.

Of the 1,461 homeless, 576 were children in families, an increase from 490 in 2010. A total of 132 were unaccompanied youth under the age of 21. Many of the youth are couch-hopping, bouncing from friend to friend’s house in search of a place to spend the night.

“These are all good kids, but it’s just that bad things have happened out of their control where they’ve ended up coming to us,” said Coreen Pals, one of seven youth support specialists at the Emma B. Howe Northtown YMCA in Coon Rapids.

 

Not by choice

Homelessness is not the choice of children and youth. It could be for safety reasons. The child might be in danger and needs to get away from an abusive adult. Or a parent is a drug addict. Another common scenario. Mom has chosen her boyfriend over her child, Pals said.

The reasons for homeless youth in Anoka County are many. Economic hardship. Job loss. A downturn in the economy and an upsurge in foreclosures. Family dysfunction.

Other causes are sudden illness or death in a family. Personal conflict. Some parents, when their kids get to a certain age, high school for example, they simply say they can no longer afford them. They ask them to leave.

 

A 100 percent upsurge

The number of homeless people from 2009 to 2011 has increased by 45 percent in Anoka County. Perhaps, more disturbing, the number of homeless children and youth has seen an upsurge of almost 100 percent, according to the 2011 homeless count.

The number of homeless children in families continues to rise as well. Homeless children in Anoka County families have increased from 385 in 2009 to 576 in 2011, a 49.6 percent rise.

But the homeless count is a “point-in-time” count taken only on one day a year, said Alan Ostergaard, youth support specialist at Emma B. Howe Northtown YMCA.

Ostergaard said the numbers could be increasing because awareness of homelessness is increasing.

“I can’t tell you the exact number,” he said. “Nobody knows. Nobody is an expert on homelessness, except the people who are homeless.”

Statewide, October 2009, a Wilder Research Minnesota Homeless Study counted 1,675 homeless families with 3,251 children age 17 and younger, an increase of 19 percent from the previous study in 2006.

Nationally, the number of homeless children and youth, as identified through public schools, increased for a second year in a row by 41 percent, according to the United States Department of Education.

The numbers of pre K-12 students who were homeless increased from 679,724 in 2006-07 school year to 956,914 in the 2008-09 school year, the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth website states.

 

Definition

A homeless child or youth is defined as a youth 21 or less who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.

That would include families with kids sharing a house – doubling up with friends or relatives – because their families have lost their homes through an economic hardship.

They could be living in motels, hotels, trailer parks or camp grounds. Some live in transitional shelters with their families, while others are abandoned in hospitals.

Still others have lost their homes through disaster. And there are those waiting to be placed into foster care, according to the Minnesota Department of Education’s definition of homeless youth and children.

“The schools realize they have kids who are homeless or couch hopping or their families are doing the same,” said Dawn Rutt, violence prevention coordinator at Alexandra House in Anoka County. “The problem is trying to identify them. They’re (the family or student) afraid they’ll make them leave the school.”

Regardless of the cause, children who move from school to school lose four to six months of academic progress, Schaaf said.

“So think about highly mobile kids who are changing schools two to three times a school year, the whole school year’s gone,” she said. “What was the point of even going to school? Our kids are falling behind. If we can keep them engaged at school and at their school of origin, that’s huge.”

But help for homeless children is available.

 

Homeless Act

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance (MVHA) Act addresses the educating of homeless children and youth in America’s public schools.

The act was reauthorized as part of the No Child Left Behind Act in January 2002.

The federal MVHA Act requires state and local education agencies to provide services to remove barriers to school enrollment, attendance and success in education for children and youth.

The legislation calls for schools to have school staff and a district homeless liaison ready to assist homeless students and to have student support service teams in place. Building awareness of the situation is key. Outreach is essential.

The assistance act calls for each child to be individually assessed according to his or her unique situation.

 

Red flags

So what are some red flags that a student is homeless?

Poor hygiene, dirty and worn clothes. The students are distant, appear tired. They lack focus. They’re tardy to school. Attendance is inconsistent. Their address changes. A younger child might blurt out that he is now living with his uncle.

 

Food collection boxes

Anoka-Hennepin School District 11 has initiatives in place to help homeless youth. The high schools stage sleep outs in the fall or winter. Collection boxes for non-perishable foods are now common in many of the school offices. Blaine High School has what it calls Tiger Take Out (named with the Blaine Bengal mascot in mind).

Schaaf joined the district in a new position this summer (July 5) at the district’s Family Welcome Center at 11224 Crooked Lake Blvd. N.W. in Coon Rapids. She is the student assistance liaison and homeless youth and families liaison.

Last year the district set up a homeless model that called for a homeless liaison and lead in every building, 50 homeless leads in total in every school and district program. The charge was to educate staff about the homeless and to do a better job of identifying them.

Everyone Schaaf works with has a student in the district.

Schaaf steers away from using the word homeless in her discussions. “It’s this negative stereotype,” she says. “It’s an experience they’re having right now, not who they are,” she says.

 

Numbers change daily

As of last week 196 students in District 11 were homeless, including new births through age 21, according to Schaaf. The numbers change daily in the district with an enrollment of 38,500 students.

Sometimes, she gets 10 to 14 homeless student referral forms daily, other days one or two. The referrals might be from teachers, counselors, bus drivers, secretaries or other staff members.

So far, only five days this school year have gone by where she hasn’t received a referral form.

In her office, Schaaf has a stash of emergency goods for homeless kids. Backpacks. Snowsuits. Boots. Sox and underwear neatly tucked into two-drawer filing cabinets. Hygiene products stored on shelves. Toilet paper. The toilet paper is running low, Schaaf says. It’s one of the most needed products.

“I always tell people, what did you need to get ready this morning?” she said, when others ask how can they help out. She launches into a list of items. Toothpaste. Deodorant. Shampoo. Lip balm, another basic need that people forget about, Schaaf says.

In a separate area near her office in the Family Welcome Center is the district’s new Pathways, a clothes shelf stocked with new and gently used clothing for all ages. A food shelf is in its startup phase.

Pathways, which opened Sept. 26, receives requests from the district schools for clothing and ships the items to the respective schools. Families in need, new to the district and visiting the Welcome Center may also come in to select items.

 

Refuge in a park 

Remember Joey Smith referenced earlier? Schaaf tells the story of the then 18-year-old boy who because of family conflict was kicked out of the house on his birthday in 2009. He sought refuge in a park by Johnsville Elementary School. Among his survival tools, he found an old, battered mattress. He eked out a makeshift campground, a place for shelter.

A woman working at a nearby grocery store spotted Joey one day. She contacted Schaaf, who, at the time was working with homeless kids at Emma B. Howe YMCA.

Schaaf was able to help him out with essentials.

Now 20, the youth is living in a homeless shelter. Schaaf is still in touch with him every two weeks via e-mail. She has taken him to lunch. She has brought him socks and sweatshirts at times. He assures her that he is OK.

The irony is, Schaaf says, he has turned into an outreach worker, of sorts, informing her of a friend who is homeless and is in need of help.

When Joey was up for transitional housing recently, he gave up his spot because he found out the next person in line was a single teen mom.

“He’s just a great kid,” Schaaf said. “He was dealt a tough hand.”

 

Vulnerable situations

Tragically, some parents can’t afford their kids anymore, Schaaf says.

“Not having a youth shelter in the community is a tragedy,” she said. “We’re pushing our kids out into vulnerable situations.”

The Anoka-Hennepin School District has received a $100,000 grant over a two-year period for homeless education and awareness. Fifty percent will be funded by a McKinney-Vento homeless assistance grant and 50 percent from Title I funds. Anoka-Hennepin is the first school district in Anoka County to receive the MVHA grant.

Other districts in the state receiving MVHA funding are Duluth, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnesota Internship Center Charter School, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale and Osseo school districts.

The Anoka-Hennepin district also this year received a $50,000 basic needs grant from Anoka County Children and Family Council.

Families are living for weeks without heat, Schaaf said. A large part of the funds go toward paying for utility bills or for temporary housing, two to three nights, in a hotel when a family is evicted.

“Yesterday, I just did a $600 utility bill,” Schaaf said. “These are families who have been living for weeks without heat, lights, electricity. I have a family whose grandma is on dialysis, the child has a nebulizer, they haven’t had electricity for two months. Obviously, that is a basic need. They have to get their utilities turned on.”

In addition to providing basic needs and support, Schaaf has a vision for district homeless students this year.

She wants to ensure that they have the same opportunities as the others. A yearbook. Attending field trips and special events, such as prom.

High on her to-do list is to hold a graduation party for the kids.

“Yes, our priority is to educate,” she says. “But if we can’t meet their basic needs, they’re not going to be able to focus on academics.”

 

Tiger Take Out

Blaine High School started a food shelf last year after seeing Andover High School’s food shelf take off. It’s called Tiger Take Out.

A food collection box sits in the school’s main office where people can drop off non-perishable foods and personal hygiene items.

“Once word got out, the amount of donations started rolling in,” said Cassidy Pohl, student learning advocate and homeless lead at Blaine High.

The English department donated space. Teams and organizations donated money and goods. Staff built five huge shelves with locks.

The school conducted a backpack drive. Some donated cash. About $1,000 was raised. The funds were used to purchase gift cards for the kids or to purchase food for the shelf.

After stories were run in the media, the community jumped on board. A church donated hygiene products. Shampoos, conditioners, soaps, body washes.

“It was unbelievable,” Pohl said about their generosity. “It’s overwhelming, the response we got initially.”

The district is discreet about distributing the food and items, Pohl said. Still, there are kids who are hesitant to step forward. They might feel embarrassed or don’t know how to ask for help.

Students need only stop in the guidance office and talk to their counselors to pick up a backpack loaded with foods that are simple to make. Such foods as soups, spaghetti, sauce, pancake mix, syrup, canned veggies and fruit, juice, apple sauce and granola bars.

Pohl estimates about three to five students use the food shelf services every week, but the number varies. Some weeks the numbers can range from five to 15 students, she said.

These might not be homeless students, but they are students who haven’t enough to eat at home.

“The numbers aren’t huge, but for the families that are using it, it’s immensely helpful,” she said.

 

Economics 

Once a student is identified as homeless, she can authorize transportation, free lunch and other such services, said Colleen Pederson, community education director and homeless liaison at Spring Lake Park District 16.

At the beginning of November, less than three months into the school year, and 24 students in her school district of about 5,100 students have been identified as homeless.

That’s compared with 28 students at the end of the entire last school year.

“It comes down to economics,” Pederson said. “Their (families) are under water with their homes, they’re struggling to make house payments and before you know it, they’re living in a car or they’re living in a shelter.”

Lately, Pederson has heard of students who have turned 18 years of age and their moms or dads can’t afford to have them live at home any longer.

“When I start hearing the story of kids, it’s upsetting that kids 16, 17 and 18 years old are struggling, trying to figure out how to live,” Pederson said.

 

Home school district

A mom, for instance, might lose her home and have to move in with family or friends in Coon Rapids or to Mary’s Place Transitional Shelter in Minneapolis.

Mom might spend 45 minutes accompanying her child on public transportation, to keep her now homeless child in his/or her same school.

After identifying that child, Pederson is able to authorize payment of transportation to keep the child in their home school district.

“They’re ecstatic most of the time, because most of the time the kids want to be in the school they’re already in,” Pederson said. “They want to stay with their friends and stay in familiar surroundings. The moms are just so thrilled that the service is available.”

Spring Lake Park, like other schools in Anoka County, receives funding for students with emergency needs based on the number of students in the district enrolled in the free and/or reduced lunch program.

This year, District 16 received $8,000 of funds from the Anoka County Children and Family Council (ACCFC).

The money buys Cub and Target gift cards that go towards purchases of food, snow pants or mittens and hats – basic needs for the kids. It also buys hygiene projects, such as toothpaste and shampoo.

Pederson and her staff help the students and their homeless families locate local food shelves or she connects them with Community Emergency Assistance Program (CEAP) and the United Way, resources to help them with their basic needs.

 

Food in a backpack

Pederson says she has plans in the future to introduce a food drop-off site in District 16 schools similar to that of District 11 high schools.

Ideally, she said she would like to see kids in need go home with a backpack full of food on Fridays to ensure they’ll have something to eat during the weekends.

She knows children are being fed at least twice a day for breakfast and lunch during the school week. But what do they do for food at night and during the weekends? she asks.

 

Sleep outs

Each year to call attention to the homeless, similar to other high schools and churches in Anoka County, SLP High School’s National Honor Society sponsors a homeless sleep out.

The students spend one night in makeshift cardboard box shelters set up in front of the school in the frozen jaws of winter, usually in January. They take pledges and donate the money to a homeless shelter.

As homeless liaison, Pederson’s role is to increase awareness about homelessness among staff. The staff, in turn, is able to build relationships with local families and provide resources to the kids and their families.

Pederson has noted an upswing recently in the number of calls from grateful parents this year. Parents whose kids are being helped through school programs.

“You feel like it’s so small, and it’s really big to the family,” she said.

For further assistance, regarding children homelessness in the schools, call the National Center for Homeless Education at 1-800-308-2145.

 

Homeless count

HeadingHome Anoka (HHA) is a regional initiative to end homelessness in the county.

The effort is part of Heading Home Minnesota, a statewide partnership of local and state plans to end homelessness.

In 2008, HHA prepared a community plan for the Anoka County Continuum of Care (ACCC). The consortium brings together government and non-government agencies, including schools and churches, non-profit organizations, community volunteers and more.

The objective is to establish a plan to end homelessness in the county.

ACCC conducts the homeless count once a year at the end of January as part of a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirement, but it’s not easy to get an accurate count.

Schaaf has one explanation.

“It takes so long to identify them because people are ashamed,” Schaaf said. “They don’t know how to ask for help. Who to ask for help. This is a new thing for them.”

Still, others are afraid they or their children will have to leave the school they have come to know and enjoy.

One of the goals in the HeadingHome 2008 report is to improve data collection of the homeless in the county, with a focus on identifying homeless youth.

A proposed outcome was to establish a baseline by 2009 of homeless people, including youth in the county.

 

Making strides 

HeadingHome is making strides in helping identify the homeless.

The first-step focused on educating the community that homelessness does exist in the suburbs, but it looks different, said Anoka County Board Chairwoman Rhonda Sivarajah.

“Foreclosures and homelessness do not have boundaries,” she said. “It can impact anyone because of job loss, loss of health insurance, domestic violence, all of these things.”

According to Sivarajah, families are scattered throughout the country nowadays and people don’t have families close by to support them.

Typically, homeless initiatives are generated and run by non-profits and the community pulling together. The government can’t do it all, Sivarajah said.

“This is a community plan, not a government plan,” she said about HeadingHome.

Another goal of HeadingHome Anoka was to expand current emergency housing options. Among its outcomes, the plan proposed to set up five short-term emergency beds for youth. However, no time line was set in the report.

As of now in Anoka County, Stepping Stone Emergency Housing is the only shelter that takes in homeless single adults.

Alexandra House shelters battered women and their children.

Family Promise, a consortium of 20 interfaith congregations, also runs a shelter for homeless families.

As for the youth and children, no homeless facility exists.

 

A funding issue

There are 80 emergency shelter beds for youth and young people in the state, but not one in Anoka County, according to Ostergaard.

“There’s no concrete plans (for shelter beds for youth),” said Kristina Hayes, Anoka County’s Continuum of Care coordinator. “Funding is really a tough issue right now. There’s not much available.”

However, the HeadingHome Anoka report is in the process of being updated, she said.

Moreover, Anoka County has received state funding through the Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program (FHPAP). The county will receive a total of $550,000 over a two-year period, which started July 1, 2011 and ends June 30, 2013.

The funds are distributed to agencies in the county to meet the needs of struggling families and children.

So far, four youths have received help through the YMCA and five people, women and children, have received help from the Alexandra House shelter for battered women and children, as part of the program, Hayes said.

FHPAP started operating in October. It got off to a late start because of the government shutdown earlier this summer, Hayes said.

 

Family Promise

Congregations have stepped up to the plate as well. Family Promise of Anoka (FPA) is the only homeless family shelter in Anoka County, said Junita Cathey, executive director.

Slightly more than one year in operation (it opened Sept. 5, 2010), the FPA has served 36 homeless families with temporary housing. Families stay at different congregations’ churches for one week at a time. The congregation provides food, beds and fellowship.

Services are supported by donations from congregations, families, corporations and grants.

During the day, guest families have free access to laundry facilities, showers, a kitchen, computers and books at a day care center in Coon Rapids. Those with jobs go to work. Others conduct job searches. The children attend school. Younger children remain at the day care under their parents’ supervision.

At night, guest families are transported to a host church, where they receive supper, clean the dishes and make lunch for the next day. They spend the night.

So what does this mean for homeless youth?

“It creates a caring environment for them to feel safe,” Cathey said. “Eliminating uncertainty equals a more productive student in school.”

A stay at Family Promise shelter allows children to remain in the same school with their friends.

“It does create some consistency and security in a time that’s chaotic,” Cathey said.

 

Healthy living

Assisting youth fits within the YMCA’s three-pillar model of youth development, healthy living and social responsibility, according to Ostergaard.

“It’s definitely increasing,” Ostergaard said about the number of homeless youth.

The Y gets referrals from schools, the county and a youth resource hot line.

Among its many services, the organization assists youth or those at-risk of being homeless with problem-solving and connects them to community resources.

Support specialists might make calls to child protection, teach homeless youth how to use the bus system, help create resumes, accompany them to court or to a doctor’s appointment or help them get a state identification card.

Or they might assist them with transitional housing with a goal of getting them into stable housing.

The Y has funds available through the state’s Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program (FHPAP) to get into apartments. The funds help pay for first month’s rent, a security deposit and short-term subsidies.

 

Stimulus funds

Emma B. Howe has assisted 23 families with children get into housing from funding provided by President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package.

Approved by Congress in 2009, part of the package called for a Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP). The program ended in August.

Under the program, the Y assisted families with finding housing and provided a subsidy toward the rent.

To qualify, the applicant was required to hold a job and to work toward becoming self-sufficient. The Y ensured families had food and clothing and connected them with community resources.

Program recipients were placed in scattered sites throughout the county in apartments that would work for them – in apartments located close to their schools of choice, for example, or close to child care or their workplaces.

“You can’t just say here’s a spot for you. Make it work,” Ostergaard said. “We wanted to make it work for them.”

An HPRP funding recipient was required to attend a monthly independent living skills class.

Among the many course offerings were classes on budgeting, healthy relationships and college opportunities.

 

Sleeping in a car

As part of his duties, Ostergaard collaborates with Spring Lake Park and Centennial school districts to help homeless youth.

List of needs for the homeless
• Canned meats
• Deodorant
• Canned fruit
• Shampoo/conditioner
• Canned vegetables
• Toothpaste
• Canned beans
• Toothbrush
• Boxed dinners
• Tampons and pads
• Soups
• Kleenex
• Any pasta
• Toilet paper
• Spaghetti sauce
• Dishwashing soap
• Peanut butter
• Laundry detergent
• Dried beans
• Towels and washcloths
• Rice
• Can openers
• Diapers
• Granola bars
• Formula
• Cereal
• Wipes
• Chapstick
• Baby food
• Hand sanitizer
• Packages plastic silverware sets
• Plastic storage bags, gallon, quart and sandwich
• Soap
• Hangers
Items may be dropped off at Anoka County area schools, churches, shelters, wherever food shelf boxes are set up. Items may also be donated to the new Pathways food and clothing shelf at 11224 Crooked Lake Blvd. N.W. in Coon Rapids or any local food shelf.

So far, in his three years of working with the schools, he has helped 90 homeless youths.

He hopes to work with the St. Francis School District as well.

One of his 19-year-old clients sleeps in his car, while his girlfriend spends the night in homes of friends.

“It’s hard to sleep in your car,” Ostergaard says.

Finding a spot to park over night is difficult. Parks are out. Parking lots may be patrolled. And there’s the safety factor, he said. You don’t want to call attention to yourself.

 

Tons of calls

In total, the Emma B. Howe YMCA at Northtown has worked with 560 homeless youth in Anoka County since the program’s inception three years ago, according to Ostergaard.

“We might be the only adults that stop and listen to a kid,” Ostergaard said.

The glaring absence of a youth shelter and emergency beds in the county continues.

“And we get tons and tons of calls,” he said. “There’s not any resources to fill that need.”

Some of Ostergaard’s youth clients sleep in parks, by the Mississippi River near Anoka-Ramsey Community College, in their cars. Others sleep in the heated bus shelter at the Northtown Mall.

“Three walls and a heater is better than no walls and no heater,” he said.

Many of his clients are bouncing from friend to friends’ homes looking for a place to spend the night.

The Emma B. Howe Y works with the Anoka-Hennepin School District as well as the Spring Lake Park and Centennial school districts.

Last year at the Anoka-Hennepin district emphasis was placed on educating the teachers and staff, particularly, teaching teachers how to identify homeless youth.

The Emma B. Howe Y receives funding from grants, including the Anoka County Children and Family Council, the Office of Economic Opportunity, the Family Homelessness Prevention and Assistance Program and a transitional service program. The Y also has its own fund-raiser. Additional funding comes from a federal Community Development Block Grant. Starting in January, the United Way will help fund a youth parenting and young couples program for those up to 24 years of age.

 

Host home program

The Emma B. Howe Y has plans to offer a host home program. In a community effort to stabilize struggling homeless youth, the idea is to ask caring adults with an extra room to open their homes and offer the youth a place to temporarily stay.

“The kids don’t need a family to attach themselves to,” Ostergaard said. “They need a place to crash and a place to be.”

The host home program is in play at the Northwest Y in Hennepin County and has been successful, Ostergaard said.

As for a youth shelter in Anoka County, Ostergaard said, getting the money to build the shelter is not the problem.

“It’s the programming money to sustain it, to actually staff it, to keep it going: that’s the need,” he said.

Kim Washington, youth support specialist, and Ostergaard’s co-worker at the Y, hopes the community will recognize the need to help the homeless “and make sure the money is there to provide the services,” she said.

Ostergaard hopes the Anoka County community will take care of its own.

“It’s a steady influx. All the time,” he said.

*******

Emma B. Howe YMCA: Anoka County resources for youth and families  (partial list) 

YMCA: Supporting youth 16-21 experiencing homelessness or a housing crisis, 763-493-3052

Basic needs

ACBC Food shelf and clothing closet, Anoka, 763-422-0046

CEAP: Basic needs and food shelf, Blaine, 763-783-4930

Emergency Food Shelf Network, www.emergencyfoodshelf.org or 763-450-3860

Salvation Army: basic needs, one-time bus tokens, clothing vouchers, food, 763-755-6873

Crisis

Anoka County after hours: Emergency needs, 4:30 p.m. to 8 a.m., weekends, holidays, 651-792-3022

Crisis Connection: 24-hour crisis counseling by phone, 612-379-6363

National Runaway Switchboard: 24-hour crisis hotline, 1-800-621-4000

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Free 24-hour hotline to anyone in crisis, 1-800-273-8255

United Way 2-1-1: Resources 24 hours a day, 651-291-0211

Housing

ACCAP Transitional Housing: Homeless families with children, 763-783-4730

Elim Transitional Housing: Adults and families (single women and parenting teens), 763-785-9114

Medical

North Metro Pediatrics: Sliding fee for families who are uninsured or underinsured, Coon Rapids 763-783-3722

Nucleus Clinic: Sliding fee for teens and low income, Coon Rapids, 763-755-5300

Shelter

Alexandra House: Battered women and their children, Anoka County, 763-780-2332

Family Promise of Anoka County: Family shelter, 763-568-7365

Sharing and Caring Hands: Homeless adults and families, transitional housing at Mary’s Place, Hennepin County, 612-338-4640

Stepping Stone Emergency Housing: Adult men and women, Anoka County, 763-323-7006

Metro Shelter Hotline: Provides information on shelters for individuals, youth and families, 1-888-234-1329

Source: Emma B. Howe Northtown YMCA

 

 

 

Elyse Kaner is at elyse.kaner@ecm-inc.com