Re: [Mpls] CCHT, Peace House

[M Miles]

Steve Meldahl writes: "County  auxiliary shelters are  empty and the regular shelters are substantially empty now."   Where do you get that information?!  The Henn Cty Board just approved (within the past couple weeks) the funding to keep the county "overflow shelter" on Portland Ave open for another stretch because it is FULL every night.  The "overflow" is the grimmest of shelters--mats on the floor, port-o-potties instead of actual bathrooms--and is typically only accessed by the homeless, for obvious reasons, after other shelters are full.  Private shelters continue to report high numbers of turn-aways after they're full each night.  There is a City/County Shelter Advisory Board that meets monthly to address the lack of sufficient shelter if you're interested in specific numbers. Margaret Miles Whittier ----- Original Message ----- From: steven meldahl To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2002 5:57 PM Subject: [Mpls] CCHT, Peace House Unfortunately, CCHT and other non profits are not required under current state law to disclose where they get all of their money or where it goes.  Until the law is changed, they will continue to operate in secrecy.   As far as vacancies that CCHT has had, we can only surmise based on talks with former residents in their buildings.  In January, the Hennepin County board  and HUD was notified of the extensive vacancies in CCHT buildings and other non profit buildings.  At the time, the County affiliated shelters were full as well as the auxiliary shelters.  The Hennepin County board requested that the non profits including CCHT disclose their vacancy rate to them immediately.    Guess what - it took the nonprofits, including CCHT,  until last week (3 months!) to get this information to them.  Hoe hard can this information be to supply???   They reported that as of last week that their vacancy rate was now in the 3 to 5% range - basically half of that in the private sector.  But guess what - the County  auxiliary shelters are  empty and the regular shelters are substantially empty now.  Gee, I wonder where  these people went?  DUH !!!!!!!   Steve Meldahl 3rd ward (work)