St. Paul interfaith group steps up to help house surge in families from Central America

A St. Paul-based nonprofit is launching a mobile shelter program in partnership with Twin Cities houses of worship to accommodate a growing number of families arriving from the U.S. Southern border.

Interfaith Action of Greater St. Paul is a nonprofit that mobilizes volunteers from different faith communities to provide shelter for families and other services. Modeled after another mobile shelter program the organization hosts, the organization will launch Faithful Hospitality in early March to alleviate the growing strain on Hennepin County shelters. 

Through a contract with the state of Minnesota, Interfaith Action received funding to provide a $5,000 monthly stipend to each participating site that provides overnight shelter beds to families.

According to Interfaith Action CEO Liliana Letran-Garcia, Hennepin County family shelters are at 400% capacity. 

“Our community shelters are overflowing, but we definitely appreciate that our interfaith communities are stepping up to help,” Letran-Garcia said.

Letran-Garcia added that the organization is working with about 17 houses of worship, including churches and a synagogue, in Ramsey County to serve 60 to 80 individuals referred by neighboring Hennepin County. Each month, two to three houses of worship will host 20 to 24 emergency shelter beds. 

Each house of worship will rotate every one to three months. There will also be on-site volunteers at each shelter, some of whom are Spanish speakers.

“Right now we’re not accepting outside referrals,” Letran-Garcia said. “This is a pilot program, so we want to focus on the cohort that we will be getting and then tailor all the wraparound services around their current and immediate needs.”

David Hewitt, the director for housing stability in Hennepin County said the county has expanded its shelter system to accommodate the growing capacity. 

“Hennepin County continues in our commitment to shelter families, and to help make homelessness in our community rare, brief, and nonrecurring,” Hewitt said in an emailed statement. “We are continuously working to help prevent family homelessness, to help families experiencing homelessness transition quickly into permanent housing, and to make that housing sustainable.”

Between contracted shelters and overflow sites, Hewitt said the county is exceeding four times the normal capacity with almost 500 families in shelter, including about 900 children. He said family homelessness in the county began increasing following the end of the pandemic.

He added that the county began seeing more requests for temporary shelter from families newly arriving to Minnesota in 2022. As of January, more than half of the families in shelter are identified as new arrivals.

When residents arrive at Interfaith Action’s shelter sites, volunteers first assist in meeting their immediate basic needs, such as giving them food and the chance to take a shower. Once they’re settled, volunteers get more information on their background, communication methods, and other needs, Letran-Garcia said

Residents will take a bus during the day to a day center to receive services such as English language classes, housing support for residents exiting the shelter, employment services, legal help, and other benefits.

The goal is to connect each resident with a more permanent housing solution within three to six months, Letran-Garcia said. Interfaith Action is also launching a host program where families can rent a room or section of their home.

Letran-Garcia said most of the residents have recently arrived from the Southern border and some came through other cities like New York and Chicago. Interfaith Action is working with U.S. consulates from Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, and Guatemala to help residents track documents they need for their immigration cases.

“One of the objectives of this program is for us to be able to increase the participation of houses of worship that are Latino-led,” Letran-Garcia said. 

There are 12,867 pending asylum cases in Minnesota’s immigration court at Fort Snelling as of February 14, according to Syracuse University which tracks immigration caseloads across the country. About 1,920 cases originate from Ecuador, 1,634 from Guatemala, and 1,207 come from Somalia.

School buses will also pick up children from the day center for school. Residents will also be bused between mobile shelters when each house of worship rotates.

Cindy Radtke was a volunteer and coordinator with Interfaith Action’s previous mobile shelter program, Project Home with Fairmount Avenue United Methodist Church in St. Paul. The church is also participating in the Faithful Hospitality initiative.

Radtke grew up in Virginia with refugee neighbors from Cambodia who were taken advantage of by their sponsor family.

“My family ended up helping them out of that situation,” Radtke said. “We’re still very close with them.”

Radtke said she’s remained committed to serving people seeking shelter and she appreciated the way Project Home engaged the people it served to determine their needs and maintain stability in their lives.

“The children got to stay in their schools. They didn’t have to change schools. So there was stability for the families,” Radtke said. “I’ve really come to appreciate that quality of their program that I know they’re going to bring to Faithful Hospitality.”

The responsibility of the house of worship is to create a safe and welcoming environment. Fairmount Avenue UMC will provide snacks, a place to sleep, and a few activities for kids before bedtime, Radtke said.

Radtke added that Interfaith Action will provide training and expertise for volunteers to provide culturally competent care. She said some of her congregation’s volunteers were born in Spanish-speaking countries. Others plan to use Google Translate when needed.

Elaine Tarone is a member of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul. Like Radtke, she is also a former Project Home volunteer. Her congregation is looking to participate in the Faithful Hospitality program. Tarone said she felt motivated to get involved after reading about migrants arriving on buses from border states.

“The conditions in which they, with their children, are trying to sleep at night and make their way leave a great deal to be desired,” Tarone said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tarone said local government officials were trying to find places to house homeless people. As part of that effort, they would have conversations with people living nearby to collect their opinions. 

“The county officials that came to St. Anthony Park were expecting a similar response they had received in other neighborhoods, which was a NIMBY [Not In My Back Yard] response,” Tarone said. “‘Why are you coming to our neighborhood? We don’t want those people here.’”

She added that the residents of St. Anthony Park, where her church is, were much more welcoming since a number of neighborhood congregations have housed homeless people before.

Tarone previously trained and coordinated volunteers and plans to approach her role similarly. She’s seen the mobile shelter model have a positive impact on the volunteers she works with. Parents in the shelter also appreciate the collaborative approach of volunteers to addressing child care issues.

“But really one of the biggest benefits has been for people who live in our neighborhood, having the opportunity to meet and talk to children and adults they don’t ordinarily get to talk to,” Tarone said. “It’s a chance to build a sort of basic, neighborly relationship.”

Correction: This story has been corrected to accurately reflect Cindy Radtke’s role with Interfaith Action’s previous mobile shelter program.

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