Minneapolis City Council proposes emergency funding to save homeless shelter

Some Minneapolis City Council members are proposing emergency funding to save a downtown homeless shelter and food and shelf. They say saving Agate Housing and Services is critical, considering the constant closing and shuffling of the city's homeless encampments.

"Agate is at risk of losing quite a significant amount of our shelter capacity because they're just in a building that needs a lot of repair," explains City Council President Elliot Payne.

And if they were to shut down?

"That is exactly why this is such an emergency," he says. "We don't have just extra bed capacity. In the city, facilities like Agate have emergency shelter capacity, but they also have boarding rooms. And so if we don't preserve these units, the next place to go might be outside."

The proposal calls for a $1.5 million grant for Agate to make much-needed repairs to its shelter and food shelf.

The council needs to get the proposal to the budget committee on September 16 to get funding for a downtown homeless shelter and food shelf. The building is currently in need of significant repairs and is set close on October 9.

Payne says if this were to happen, the consequences could be extreme.

"If these shelter beds come offline, that immediately translates into people on the street," Payne says. "So I do believe that whether it's the county or even our philanthropic partners, I think there's going to be a real desire to step up and save these beds because the alternative is just really unacceptable.

A closure would affect more than 80 residents and 23 employees.