MESH: Who we are and What we do

Metro-wide Engagement on Shelter and Housing (MESH), a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, was founded in May 2000 as a means of addressing housing and homelessness on a metro-wide basis. To this end, MESH is a unique collaboration of more than sixty nonprofits, government agencies, elected officials and providers of shelter and affordable housing services representing the seven counties of Ramsey, Hennepin, Dakota, Carver, Washington, Scott and Anoka. Through its membership, MESH brings providers, advocates and county staff together to address the issues of homelessness, housing and the manner in which services are provided on a regional basis. By its nature, MESH provides a neutral place for counties to discuss their policies and providers to give input on how the implementation of those policies affects people experiencing homelessness, these policies include not only how people access services, but also regulatory barriers that counties and municipalities enact that makes the siting of affordable housing next to impossible.

The key to addressing homelessness is ensuring that there is enough affordable housing, both with and without on site supportive services throughout the metro area. This affordable housing takes many forms from permanent supportive housing to affordable rental housing options to affordable homeownership opportunities. In order end homelessness, it is imperative that service providers team up with builders – both non-profit and for profit, governmental entities, advocates, and the business communities to begin to address housing options throughout the metro area. By collaborative efforts with the non-traditional allies, MESH envisions an ability to work with all of its partners to address county barriers that inhibit the production of affordable housing in the seven county metro area.

The first MESH meeting in May of 2000 was convened by a formerly homeless man, Greg Horan, who had experienced firsthand the labyrinthine difficulty in understanding shelter and service policies from one county to the next. Mr. Horan, as co-chair of the St. Paul Coalition for the Homeless and a board member of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, recognized that county dialogue and planning across jurisdictional lines would be important tools for addressing systemic issues of homelessness, housing and the manner in which services are provided. Services for homeless individuals and families vary drastically from one metro county to the next, with each county struggling separately to meet the need for shelter, and people in need of services trying to negotiate several sets of requirements. For people in need of shelter, for example, Dakota County has a 60-day residency requirement, Ramsey County has a thirty-day residency requirement, and Washington County has just a 24-hour residency requirement but currently provides no shelter. The inconsistency and difficulty of negotiating services is a major factor in prolonging an individual’s or family’s homelessness. We have many stories of people who have found shelter in one county, though their job is in another county so that, in addition to trying to secure stable housing, they are struggling with transportation issues, dealing with the fact that their children may now be living—however temporarily—in a different school district, and trying to navigate the county’s requirements for services.

Recognizing the difficulty in accessing services and the differences between counties in addressing homeless issues, the mission of MESH is to, through partnerships between counties and non-profits, build solutions to address affordable housing, homeless and service needs.

In its short history, MESH has had many great accomplishments toward a coordinated approach between counties to address housing, homelessness and service needs. To realize this end, MESH has accomplished:

• A regional tour of shelters and affordable housing developments for policy-makers including a discussion of the continuum of housing from shelter to affordable housing ownership opportunities, creative affordable housing projects, and barriers to creating enough affordable housing to address homelessness.
• Providing trainings for shelter and transitional housing staff on issues such as Mental Illness, and Healthcare Issues of People Experiencing Homelessness, and The Culture of Poverty.
• In partnership with Twin Cities Community Voice Mail, MESH has established a regional hotline for people experiencing homelessness to learn what shelters and transitional housing programs are available and what the requirements are for accessing services.
• MESH provides technical assistance in the predevelopment stages of developing shelter across the metro area. MESH has a shelter and housing specialist on staff who is working with providers interested in creating new shelters capacity or replacing existing shelters by providing assistance on site location, reviewing applicable zoning ordinances and attending community meetings.
• MESH is working with county staff from each of the seven metro counties, Wilder Research Center and the Corporation for Supportive Housing to compile a regional needs assessment and inventory that will provide an overall profile of homelessness in the region. As part of the Regional Needs Assessment, specific recommendations for policy change, coordination of services and production goals for shelter, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing and affordable housing, both rental and homeownership, will be identified.