On Dec. 19 at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, Gov. Tim Walz, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, and community leaders announced the formation of the Minnesota Homeless Fund, a public-private partnership to provide immediate shelter for people experiencing homelessness. 

“This is a call to action,” Flanagan told the crowd of reporters and advocates. “It is completely unacceptable to the governor and to me that anyone is sleeping outside, especially at this time of year.”

Walz announced that nearly $5 million had been raised for emergency shelter across Minnesota by charitable foundations and private companies.

“This is nothing new,” Walz said. “No one here thinks they’re reinventing the wheel. No one here believes that this is a one-off initiative and that we can ease our consciences and forget about it.”

The Minnesota Homeless Fund will help create new opportunities to bring people indoors that are currently unsheltered and so far has raised $5 million which is being administered by the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation. 

The Fund seeks to get resources to the community immediately and is accepting applications for projects at www.spmcf.org/minnesota-homeless-fund through Jan. 7 for the first round. Review and distribution of resources will be on January 9.