ANOKA, Minn. – (Jan. 16, 2015) – On any given night, there are about 14,000 homeless people in Minnesota. In the summer, in the spring, and in the winter. About half of them make it to some kind of shelter, but the other half does not.
“People in suburban homelessness are very hard see. Often times it’s invisible,” says Julie Jeppson, from Stepping Stone Emergency Housing.
Stepping Stone Emergency Housing in Anoka is one of the places in the state where people experiencing homelessness can stay. They house 60 men and women while providing them with food, showers, clothes, laundry, and a bed.
After about 10 days, they ask their guests to start working to find the root of their homelessness.
Roots of homelessness can be very different. Sometimes, Stepping Stone sees guests who don’t have enough money for an apartment who are working to get a GED or college degree. Sometimes they see guests come directly from jail, with nothing more than the clothes on their back. Sometimes, homelessness can be traced back to substance abuse, domestic violence, mental illness or foreclosure.
“Homelessness is not a noun. It’s not something that somebody is. It’s something that someone is going through at that particular moment in time,” says Jeppson.
Stepping Stone has been at their current site for more than two years, and now, they are is making some major improvement to their site, after adding 8,000 square feet in their building to their lease.
“We are adding classrooms, a bike shop,” says Jeppson. “We’ll also have a recreational room and exercise room.”
Jeppson admits that she was hesitant at the ideas at first, even calling them “extravagant”, but after thinking about how much exercise can help people work through stress, and after remembering that being active helps emotions, she concluded that this is exactly what Stepping Stone needs.
Other parts of the new space will be used for education – education that they plan to maintain mostly with volunteers.
“We also have computer lab and some meeting room space.”
And, even more big changes are coming to the way the guests at Stepping Stone eat. A new cafeteria with commercial grade equipment will not only have the potential to provide job skills and bring in more volunteers to serve meals, but also help create community as well.
Stepping Stone is always happy to have an open bed for a new guest, but they are even happier when that guest moves on to permanent housing.
“We really focus on our guests being better educated, whether it’s learning a few skills on the computer, or just understanding what there is to life that is much better than what has happened to them in the past,” says Jeppson.
Stepping Stone often has a waiting list of more than 100 people. They are always accepting donations and volunteers.
RELATED LINKS:
Volunteer at Stepping Stone
Donate to Stepping Stone
