$5M pledged for homeless

"Features"

02/15/2006

$50 million is goal for private funds

BY DENNIS LIEN
Pioneer Press

A Minneapolis-based private foundation on Tuesday pledged $5 million to help reduce homelessness in the Twin Cities, the largest commitment so far in a $50 million philanthropic effort to tackle the problem statewide.

The Frey Foundation will provide the money over the next five years to spur development of housing and support services for chronically homeless people. “We’re thrilled we have this opportunity,’’ Foundation President Jim Frey said at a Capitol news conference.

The contribution, the largest in the history of the foundation, is another step in a much broader $540 million state-coordinated effort to end homelessness by building, buying or refurbishing 4,000 housing units by 2012. Besides the philanthropic contributions, other funding is to come from federal, state and local sources.

In announcing the commitment, Frey cited the bipartisan State of Minnesota Business Plan to End Long-Term Homelessness, launched two years ago to raise $50 million in philanthropic and nonprofit contributions. “The Frey Foundation sees the Business Plan as a cost-effective means to support families and have a significant return on investment on public and private dollars,” Frey said.

Over the next five years, the foundation will provide $250,000 each to the Family Housing Fund and the Corporation for Supportive Housing, along with a $1 million gift to the Partners Fund to End Long-Term Homelessness. In addition, it will provide $3.5 million directly to Twin Cities nonprofit supportive housing organizations that submit grant requests.

On any given day, an estimated 20,000 people are homeless in the state, according to a 2003 study by the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation.

Over the course of a year, 3,300 people, including 500 children, are homeless for extended periods, according to the study.

Poor and often unemployed, those who are homeless long term also can be mentally ill, chemically dependent or the victims of domestic violence.

Meeting their needs is complex, according to Minnesota Housing Finance Agency Commissioner Tim Marx. Noting that housing and support services for a homeless family can be $15,000 a year, he said a strong effort would be made to stretch the money as far as possible.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty praised the contribution, saying it would go a long way toward eliminating chronic homelessness in the state in the next 10 years. “If we can work together, we can solve this problem,’’ Pawlenty said.

Pawlenty has included $25 million in his latest bonding request to increase the state supply of affordable housing, an amount Rep. Bob Gunther, R-Fairmont, predicts will pass out of his Jobs and Economic Opportunity Policy and Finance Committee.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said the foundation’s commitment is a key step in addressing homelessness in Minnesota. “You are seeing a magic moment,’’ he said, citing common efforts being made by federal, state, county and city interests.

Frey said he hopes other foundations, corporations and private philanthropists will join the effort, which now sits at about $5.5 million.

“The goal for our funding commitment is to expand and enhance the availability of supportive housing services and increase the supply of affordable housing in the Twin Cities,” he said.

Nonprofit organizations interested in applying for funding should submit a letter of inquiry to the foundation by March 31. Detailed submission guidelines can be obtained at http://www.frey foundationmn.org.

The Frey Foundation is an independent, private, grant-making foundation established by Eugene and Mary F. Frey in 1985. It grew rapidly after the family business, the Waldorf Corp., was sold in 1997.