Church Officials Propose Housing for Homeless West Metro Youth

Representatives with nearly 30 congregations gathered at Edina Community Lutheran Church last week to discuss the lack of housing for homeless youth in the west metro.

Lauren Morse-Wendt, mission & ministry developer with ECLC, said the organizational meeting was a natural extension for a congregation that "has always been passionate around issues of homelessness."

"A few years ago we started really studying the local issues and learned there are no beds for homeless youth at all in the western suburbs," Morse-Wendt said. "We've heard story after story about teenagers who sleep on classmates' couches or spend their nights in Porta Potties because they lock and offer more protection than a park bench."

ECLC has recently started talks with PORTICO Interfaith Housing Collaborative about ways to help make some sort of shelter in the west metro a reality. Morse-Wendt said a site has not been picked at this point, predominantly because "a lot of considerations need to go into choosing one."

In addition to public transit nearby, she said it's important to have plenty of jobs for unskilled teenage workers near any potential shelter sites. The plan is to create a small apartment building that not only houses youth in individual living spaces, but also has a case manager and social workers on hand.

"The goal is to have all of the support they need to become self-sufficient," she said. 

While there are a number of shelters in the Twin Cities, Morse-Wendt said there are none close enough to the west metro to serve the youth who attend classes or work in the area. 

"It's hard to tell a suburban 16-year-old to take busses to north Minneapolis for a bed," she said. "Edina students, for the most part, have never even been on a bus."

The 28 congregations and PORTICO are also seeking help from organizations throughout the western suburbs, continuing what Morse-Wendt said has been "a groundswell of support so far."

"Once you learn about the incredible youth who are sleeping in parks, yet are getting straight A's in school, it's inspiring," she said. "They've had to overcome so much in order to accomplish something like that, which is why we want to help them out by making this happen."

Morse-Wendt said anyone interested in helping with the project can contact Allison Johnson with PORTICO at 651-789-6260.

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