St. Paul forms homelessness response team

By Rebecca Omastiak

The Catholic Spirit

In 2021, St. Paul officials implemented a Homeless Assistance Response Team in response to a significant rise in the number of unsheltered residents.

As program coordinator, Andrea Hinderaker is at the helm of HART, which is part of the city’s Department of Safety and Inspections and consists of three team members.

The team often crosses paths with Catholic Charities Twin Cities; in one of HART’s weekly reports, Hinderacker noted that “St. Paul is fortunate to have Catholic Charities St. Paul Opportunity Center as a hub for someone to find even just one solution to myriad barriers: meals, laundry, showers and service providers from across the country.”

Hinderacker has been in her role with HART since March 1, 2022. Before that, she spent almost 10 years working at the Listening House in St. Paul — a daytime shelter for those experiencing poverty and homelessness. She also worked at St. Paul-based Model

HOMELESSNESS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 the foot care clinic allows nursing students to “honor where people are in their life journey and provide that sort of non-judgmental care” to recipients. Williams, 48, said she tells her students that “it’s more about that therapeutic communication that you can have with a client.” She describes wholehearted care as “recognizing people’s humanity and meeting them where they’re at and recognizing they’re more than just the illness that they might present with … so that they’re recognized as a person first.”

For Arntzen, being in that caretaker role is about “giving respect to one

Cities, where she learned the “dynamics of families transitioning out of homelessness” — including for two and a half years helping to run the Model Cities emergency shelter contracted with Ramsey County at Safe Space Shelter in St. Paul. Her experience also includes working in the adult foster care system and at group residential housing sites in Dakota County.

“I’ve always had a passion to help people,” the 46-year-old said. Working with HART “brings me so much joy,” Hinderaker said, especially when members of her team interact with those experiencing homelessness “and say ‘Hey, we see you, and you’re valuable, and you deserve better, and we want to figure out how to change things.’”

Growing up in poverty in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Hinderacker said her mother experienced a persistent mental illness and her father struggled to land stable and consistent work. Hinderacker said “I watched him get up every day as if he had a job, and he did odd jobs all day long to keep our family afloat.” another … solidifying that wholeheartedness and being just good, godly people.”

“I’ve learned firsthand about the stigmas and the challenges, just watching my family navigate them,” Hinderacker said.

Seats filled up and the nursing students soaked feet, trimmed nails and talked with clinic visitors. The scents of soap and essential oils filled the room, mingling with the soft “spa music” Williams played from her phone. A recipient of Arntzen’s care stood up and both smiled as they hugged.

Michels said these acts of care allow for special attention to be paid to the “day-today experiences that, when you’re living in the cycle of homelessness, you lose sight of.”

‘It’s not just numbers’

In its conclusion, the report from

Her experiences have taught her how “to pause when I meet people and to better understand that there’s complexities behind the person standing in front of me and that it’s never as easy as (saying), ‘Just get a job’ or ‘If you take your meds, everything will be better’ or all of those things.” She said oftentimes, people she encounters through her work “don’t have someone to protect them from the world, to offer them a safe space, to love them unconditionally.”

It’s why — when asked for her thoughts on the nationally-recognized concept of “housing first,” which advocates getting people experiencing homelessness into permanent housing first and then finding ways to improve quality of life — Hinderacker said, “I feel that housing is most successful if it comes with community. If it’s just a roof and walls, it’s just as isolating as anything else. But if it comes with a community of people … they offer a safe space. It’s unconditional care, it’s creativity, it’s patience, it’s all of the things that we appreciate in our own social worlds.” She added, “It’s not enough to just put someone somewhere; you really have to remember that as a human being, there’s so many other things that we require.”

MDH and HHRI recommends investments in “cross-sector health and housing programs” to address high death rates among Minnesotans experiencing homelessness.

A cross-sector approach can restore the dignity of a person’s “unique and varied” experience, as Michels said. It also avoids reducing a person’s experience to a statistic.

“Every time I put those (HART weekly reports) out, what people are really wanting is the stats,” Hinderacker said. “But I try to say, it’s not just numbers. These are people, there are lessons to be learned here and there’s compassion to be found here.”

Scott K. is looking forward to having his own place again.

He and his mother have been at Higher Ground St. Paul since the beginning of February. “I was fortunate enough to sign up for the lottery and get a bed over there the very first day,” Scott said. “And I’ve had that bed since.” His mother has a bed in the on-site women’s shelter.

Scott and his mother — who has spinal stenosis and who Scott helps care for — were evicted from their apartment and are in an ongoing court eviction hearing process.

“As stressful as it has been, I do stay positive, and I keep a positive mindset and I just keep going,” he said.

Scott has been utilizing housing and job resources at the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation St. Paul Opportunity Center in St. Paul and his mother has been utilizing housing and medical services.

Though he’s eager to move on from the shelter, “there are small things that do make me happier here,” Scott acknowledged. “I love feeding animals, so I’ll go outside sometimes and feed the pigeons out here. And I love doing that.” He also visits nearby Rice Park with his mother; sometimes, “the pigeons and squirrels will eat right out of our hands.”

He pays attention to those who surround him at the shelter. “Everyone has their own stories and their struggles, and you don’t know. Sometimes talking to people here, if you get to know them well enough and they do tell their story, it’s interesting. It can be inspiring.”