BEMIDJI-Center City Housing and the Nameless Coalition for the Homeless are each working on separate projects to help Bemidji's chronic inebriate homeless population. Tuesday the two organizations met at the Headwaters Regional Development Commission office in Bemidji to celebrate some good news. Center City Housing is planning groundbreaking for a 60-unit supportive housing facility this spring.
Center City Housing Executive Director Rick Klun said he received notification on Oct. 22 from Minnesota Housing that funding has been approved for the almost $11 million facility. Construction costs will run about $7 million. In addition to adding housing options for Bemidji's homeless people, the facility will bring an estimated 20 jobs to the area.
"It could not have been without the support from Minnesota Supporting Housing and the executive director Mary Tingerthal," Klun said. Tingerthal is the commissioner of Minnesota Housing.
Klun also credits partnerships with the Leech Lake and Red Lake Reservations and Headwaters Regional Development with the success thus far. He noted 73 percent of funding awarded from Minnesota Housing is outside the metro area this year.
"The chemistry is here, it's here and in Beltrami County," Klun said. "Also is there a need here, so big."
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The Center City Housing facility will be built on an approximately 2.5 acre lot on Third Street between Park Avenue and Irvine Avenue Northwest. The building will be about six blocks from the Nameless Coalition's shelter, The Wolfe Center, set to open Dec. 1. Klun said the city of Bemidji voted unanimously to donate the land in June at which time the city and Center City Housing, a Duluth-based nonprofit housing development company, entered into a property purchase agreement. Center City Housing will need to submit application and be approved for a conditional use permit for multi-family housing and an interim use permit for counseling services prior to construction.
Center City Housing began participating in discussions on the city and county level in 2013 with a goal to establish a permanent supportive housing facility in Bemidji. The Nameless Coalition for the Homeless began pursuing an overnight seasonal shelter at that time.
"We kind of all started out together and branched off," said Headwaters Regional Development Commission Executive Director Tim Flathers. "But it really fits extremely well together."
Nameless Coalition Treasurer Kristi Miller said it has always been the Nameless Coalition's goal to operate as a stop-gap measure until Center City Housing opened a facility. After the Center City Housing apartments open in 2017, the Nameless Coalition will likely continue operation of The Wolfe Center.
"I believe even after we build the building there's going to still be a huge need," Klun said.
Separate centers, same need
The Center City Housing and Nameless Coalition centers both target the chronic inebriate homeless population being underserved in Bemidji, but there are differences in the way they will operate.
The Wolfe Center will be opened from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. in cold weather months and be staffed by an onsite manager and assistant to oversee the 16-bed shelter. The Nameless Coalition shelter will be arranged in a barracks style sleeping room with two beds sectioned off for up to two female adults. Restrooms and laundry facilities will be available. The Nameless Coalition will allow people to arrive under the influence and keep their alcohol and medications locked away during their stay to retrieve when they leave in the morning. If a person needs access to medication staff will assist.
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Center City Housing will have two separate entrances, one for the 40-unit section and one entrance for the 20-unit side. A commercial kitchen will serve the 40-unit side which will have full bathrooms in each unit. The 20-unit side will be efficiency apartments with bathrooms and kitchens in each apartment.
Alcohol can only be consumed inside a residents' rooms at Center City Housing apartments and illegal drugs will not be tolerated at either The Wolfe Center or the Center City Housing site.
Chemical dependency and mental health case workers are planned to be onsite at the Center City Housing facility along with a nurse to help manage medications. Klun said he has heard of cases where people literally hid their medication under a tree to prevent it from being stolen. Center City Housing operates San Marco, a similar facility with 70-units, in Duluth.
"We try to get people hooked up with a primary physician within 90 days of the time they come in," Klun said. "We'd like to make it a shorter time but sometimes it takes more time to get somebody to trust us. We try to really build a culture in our organization."
Operating Center City Housing
Operational funding for the Center City Housing facility will come in part from state-funded Group Residential Housing beds. GRH beds are offered through programs that provide supplemental income to people who are at risk of institutional placement or homelessness.
Beltrami County Health and Human Services Director Becky Secore worked with other counties in the state to increase Beltrami County's GRH bed count to 40 which will be used in one part of the building. The remaining 20 units will be efficiency apartments for low-income adults.
"It's permanent supportive housing, not transitional housing," Klun said.
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A portion of the resident's benefits, such as Social Supplemental Income, is used to pay GRH housing rates and the remainder, just under $100, goes to the resident. Klun said housing costs are estimated at between $1,300 and $1,400 a month. Another source of operational funding will come from Section 8 vouchers.
Klun estimates six people will be needed to staff the building in two-people shifts 24-hours a day creating between 15 and 20 full and part-time jobs in Bemidji. Klun said it is Center City Housing's hope to hire 100 percent locally.
Despite a need for a detox facility in Bemidji, Center City Housing will not be operating a detox center at the new apartment site. Klun said Center City Housing knows there is a huge need for detox, but he has seen detox used as emergency housing in the past. In Beltrami County the Sanford Bemidji Medical Center emergency room and Beltrami County Jail are where people who need detox services are brought when there is no room at the nearest facility. The closest detox facility is Pine Manors in Nevis, about 50 miles south of Bemidji.
