Homelessness dominates Kelly talk

04/27/2005

Jackie Crosby, Star Tribune
April 27, 2005

Saying he didn’t want to give a traditional State of the City address that marked past achievements, St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly on Tuesday pledged that he would do his part to end chronic homelessness.

Kelly delivered the 50-minute address at the Dorothy Day Center in downtown St. Paul, where high-ranking government officials filed through the main door as people seeking services at the shelter milled about or went inside to listen.

“People wait all around us for the very basics of life that we are so blessed with,” said Kelly. “Even when they have a full-time job, they are still not able to afford many of the basics. ... Well, I can tell you, I am not a patient person. We will wait no longer.”

Kelly, who is seeking reelection, joins a chorus of voices at the state and federal level who are calling for stable housing and more support services for the homeless. Kelly, too, sees the solution in the combined efforts of government, business and nonprofit groups.

On any given night, Kelly said, as many as 400 youth aged 13 to 20 are on the streets, living in cars or “couch hopping” from one house to another. He said the city would help teens get job training, expanded services and rent subsidies.

Homeless advocates applauded Kelly’s stance but said a solution requires a commitment to creating living-wage jobs and finding a lasting solution to affordable housing. Kelly said he would make high-wage jobs a priority of his new economic development program, which seeks to create 10,000 jobs over the next five years.

John Spurling, who attended the speech, would agree. He said he’s been homeless for 10 months, but said what he needs most is “a permanent job with decent wages.”

Kelly also said he would make finding housing for chronically homeless adults a priority. Quoting federal statistics, he said about 10 percent of homeless people fall into this category, but they consume more than half of the resources.

One such project, a 120-unit housing complex for homeless men and chronic alcoholics, has hit snags in recent months. Although the City Council has approved spending $3.3 million for land, finding a suitable location that neighbors and the city can agree on has proved to be tricky.

About 400 people attended the event, with introductory speeches given by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Archbishop Harry Flynn and Philip Mangano, who is President Bush’s executive director of the Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Pawlenty recently signed $12 million in new bonding money to build housing in Minnesota’s effort to end chronic homelessness by 2010, but his critics say other policies are adding to the problem.

“It’s completely outrageous that [Kelly] would share the stage with a governor who is trying to kick 30,000 low-income Minnesotans off state-supported health care and who is cutting housing subsidies by 20 percent this year and to be talking about ending homelessness,” said Ben Goldfarb, executive director of Progressive Minnesota, a liberal political group.

Kenneth Minix, who said he has been using homeless services for a year and a half, was critical as well. He said he found the speech-making, lighting of candles and piano music that started at the end of Kelly’s speech to be “more focused on entertainment than on fixing anything.”

“Hearing about being homeless and living it are two different things,” he said.