“If you would’ve told me last year that your waiting list was going to get up to 340 people, I would’ve said you’re lying,” Jeppson said. “They have taken it upon themselves to do this study every three years, a very in depth study on the individuals who are found and asked,” Jeppson said. “It’s a huge questionnaire that we conduct here within the shelter for our residents and it’s pretty interesting information.”
Wilder Research conducts a one-day study to give insight on the state of homelessness in Minnesota. The 2018 results came out in March, and the research shows that the state has seen a slight increase since 2015. Overall, homelessness in Minnesota is up about 10 percent, but when it comes to adults over 55 years old, that number jumps to 25 percent. Jeppson said those numbers may not be exact, but it’s the closest to accurate they can get.
“The problem with these reports is that there’s not a perfect system, it really is the best worse scenario, because you’re counting human beings on a cold fall day and you don’t know what you’re going to get because you’re dealing with a transient population, a sick population a struggling population, and to find them to seek them out is very challenging, and this report is the best that we have to offer because we learn so much more,” she said.
Jeppson gave a sense of what that means for homelessness in Anoka County and what could be some contributing factors. The biggest cause by far, she said, is the lack of affordable housing.
“Affordable housing is a thing of the past. Affordable housing at one point meant 30 percent of your income, now affordable housing means 50 percent of your income. For these individuals, they’re having to pay 75-90 percent of their income for their housing so finding something that’s affordable to them, they can keep, they can stay in, have families in is very, very challenging,” she said.
Stepping Stone is sometimes able to be the middle man between the homeless population and possible landlords.
“It’s those relationships with the property owners and the land owners that we are their first go-to to find new tenants for their units, that’s the ideal,” Jeppson said.
She hopes the new data will shine a light and bring forth new ways to solve this problem.
“People that need to understand the severity are starting to, and so my hope is that people will start making better decisions based on the significant need,” she said.
Although the numbers do warrant concern, Jeppson said it does bring new insight on steps leaders across Anoka County can take.
The 2018 Wilder research study is available here.
