This article was originally published by Minnesota Public Radio.
Chandra Colvin
MPR News
The Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center has started to welcome residents into newly constructed permanent supportive housing units. The south Minneapolis nonprofit began construction on 24 housing units last year.
The units are located on the center’s third and fourth floors in a housing community called Oshki-Gakeyaa, meaning “New Way” in the Ojibwe language.
CEO Ruth Buffalo says the new housing service will focus on providing space for unhoused members of the community. Native Americans experience homelessness at much higher rates than other groups according to the Minnesota Homeless Study. Buffalo says the program joins others offered at the center in preventative work.
“It feels good, but it’s a huge responsibility,” Buffalo said. “We’re under the same roof, and we want to make sure that everybody is well taken care of — the tenants, that they first and foremost feel safe and welcome but also have the support services that are needed.”
Residents within the new housing community will have access to programs and services offered by the center, including those cultural events, support groups and community meals. The approach, Buffalo says, differs in comparison to the center’s previous housing program.
“More attention and care is being designed to ensure that the tenants are able to reach out for help,” Buffalo said.
Staff and volunteers welcomed residents at the end of August. A ceremony and prayer were held the day before move-in.
Donna LaChapelle is an elder who does work with the center’s family services programming. She says staff and volunteers walked through each floor and unit with sage while singing and drumming.
“We wanted to cleanse the space to make it ours again and let anything that was residing there, that didn’t belong there, invited to leave and reclaim that space for our very own,” LaChapelle said.
She says by holding a ceremony to cleanse the space, she hopes it will encourage residents to walk a new path going forward. LaChapelle hopes to hold cleansing ceremonies each season for residents and the center.
“We’re super thankful for everybody who came and was able to partake in the event. It was beautiful to see our younger women on staff be the helpers to the elder,” Buffalo said.
Corey Baesler, housing manager for the MIWRC, attended the ceremony and helped with moving residents into their units. They said they felt pride and joy in being able to share excitement with the new residents in those moments of welcoming them to their new home.
“Being unhoused can be an extremely isolating experience. It’s a very stigmatized way of existing, and it’s really exciting and beautiful that we get to not only bring tenants into their apartment so that they are now housed, but also to bring them into the larger MIWRC community,” Baesler said.
The center is collaborating with Hennepin County in filling 20 units through a coordinated application process. Four units with accessibility features will be filled through the MIWRC. Buffalo says housing, treatment and other community resources can be found at the center on Tuesdays during its Resource Connect.
“It’s critical that we help one another and find ways to support the relatives move from one path in their life to a more, healthier one,” she said.
MIWRC is aiming to fill all units by March of next year.