Take Five is MHP’s series that asks the same five questions of a variety of people intersecting with MHP, from staff to housing advocates! We are excited to welcome Housing Campaign Organizer Madeline Hammerlund, and Capitol Pathways Intern Micah Coatie.

Madeleine Hammerlund

Q1. Who are you?

Madeleine Hammerlund; Housing Campaign Organizer. I am joining MHP as special staff to the campaign Our Future Starts at Home, advocating for a constitutional amendment

Q2. What attracted you to working with MHP?

MHP is driven by research-supported work and creating a more equitable system through housing policy which aligns with my values. The organization provides an opportunity to improve the lives of all Minnesotans through strategic organizing, building relationships and partnerships while growing as a community worker, and conducting ethnographic research.

Q3. What’s a challenge in the field of housing right now?

Right now, I feel challenged by the individuals who don’t YET recognize housing to be a human right. It is also clear that our housing system needs more sustainable and continuous funding, and I am enthusiastic about ensuring more affordable and accessible housing through the passing of Our Future Starts at Home amendment.

Q4. Is there a book by your bed, and what is it?

There are three books by my bedside: Hero of a Thousand Faces by James Campbell; Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer; and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Q5. Who is your superhero? 

My superhero is the person who actively aligns their words with their actions, someone who can remain kind in challenging times, and those that gently welcome the full spectrum of emotion. Those who have helped shape my perspective include John Fire Lame Deer, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and my Moms.

Micah Coatie

Micah joins MHP as our 2023 Capitol Pathways intern, he has already been busy assisting our policy team during the legislative session. The Capitol Pathways program places college students who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color in paid internships with government offices, nonprofits, corporations, and law firms where they gain policymaking experience and built relationships in and around the Capitol.

Q1. Who is Micah?

When I think about who is Micah? Multiple ideas come to mind immediately, but one idea that keeps coming to mind is teachable. I am a person who needs and wants to experience and learn new things. Even though sometimes the lessons are hard, and I don’t understand at times the deeper meaning of the lesson. I am still grateful for the opportunity, because sometimes a simple or even complex lesson can open up a whole new way of thinking.

Q2. What attracted you to working with MHP?

Over the last two years I have worked at the non-profit Avivo Village. While working there, I support residents directly with day-to-day issues and struggles. Over the last two years I have questioned multiple times why residents who have everything in place to move and live in their own space have been held back from moving. I was attracted to MHP because it gave me the opportunity to see the behind the scenes of how the advocacy work we do today affects the residents I work with tomorrow!

Q3. What’s a challenge in the field of housing right now?

I would have to say not having enough social workers in the field to help with are homeless population today is a major challenge in the field of housing right now. Even if we house this population without the proper long-term support eventually the cycle will continue, and this population will be back on the streets in the matter of months.

Q4. Is there a book by your bed, and what is it?

I currently am going through a phase of reading autobiographies and currently the book by my bed side is Viola Davis’s autobiography Finding Me.

Q5. Who is your superhero? 

William Lund

Look out for more Take 5 profiles coming soon!