Minnesota
Frigid temps bring added stress for unhoused Minnesota families
Tammie Pollard’s rock collection glitters on a window ledge in the sunlight of her room. The 55-year-old particularly likes rocks with crystals or minerals.
“Whatever that catches my eye, it winks at me,” Pollard said. “So I pick it up and bring it home.”
Tammie Pollard admires the things she collected and the things she saved from the fire that took away the apartment she shared with her two granddaughters. They moved into the Family Services Center in Maplewood in Sept. 2023. Kerem Yücel | MPR News
“It’s home away from home,” said Pollard, pictured Wednesday.
For Pollard, home is the Family Service Center run by Catholic Charities Twin Cities in Maplewood. It’s one of two family shelters in Ramsey County for people who have nowhere else to go.
Pollard moved here last fall after a fire drove her from the apartment she’d shared with her two granddaughters. She said she spent three weeks on the streets before the Maplewood spot opened. She called it a blessing to find the room before the winter season turned bitterly cold.
MPR News is supported by Members. Gifts from individuals power everything you find here. Make a gift of any amount today to become a Member!
“It’s my home away from home,” she said as clutched a large blue winter coat she got when she moved in. “It’s warm in here and I have a window view and [it’s] secure. I can’t complain.”
3 of 3
1 of 3
2 of 3
With the season’s first subzero temperatures set to descend on the Twin Cities this weekend, housing advocates worry many others won’t be as lucky as Pollard to find a warm bed. Counties and nonprofits have struggled to keep up with the rising need for shelter among families and people 55 and older, and the weather ratchets up the stress.
Homelessness among families with children in Minnesota rose 27 percent from 2022 to 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Wilder Foundation’s 2018 homeless survey found older adults made up the fastest growing segment of Minnesota’s homeless population.
For those families who aren’t able to access shelter before the worst of winter hits, it can be deadly.
“We had periods over the fall of 2023, in particular occasions, individual nights when we actually couldn’t meet all the requests because we simply didn’t have available space for families,” said David Hewitt, director of housing stability for Hennepin County. “And that was a new situation for our community.”
Hewitt said the county has had to quadruple the size of its systems in the last 18 months because of the shortage of affordable housing. That includes finding space for 490 families and 900 children.
Even then it isn’t always enough. Hennepin County has a “shelter all” policy, but for the first time Hewitt said they had to open up warming spaces as a contingency option for winter.
‘Lucky to have gotten this place’
Families with children have priority for beds in a shelter, but sheltering families can mean hard decisions have to be made. Hoang Murphy, CEO of the Minneapolis emergency family shelter People Serving People, said the ideal is to maintain family units together but that sometimes there isn’t enough room to house large families in the same space.
“Are they going to split their families so that they don’t freeze to death?” Murphy said. “Those are hard, impossible choices that any family [shouldn’t] have to make. And it’s doubly hard when families have to potentially split up as a matter of basic survival.”
Murphy said his organization has also seen families staying longer in their shelters. They used to stay around 60 days; now the average is 80.
“Most of our families do have jobs, they are working full time, they are trying to find a place to live, it just simply is just not available,” Murphy said. “The market just is not available to them to find a place that is affordable for them.”
Courtney Prescott and her 2-year-old son Croixdelle on Wednesday at the Family Services Center shelter in Maplewood. “Having this place has took such a weight off my shoulders. Especially with expecting I feel like bringing my newborn back here is gonna be great,” she said.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
Across the metro area, there are long waitlists for families seeking shelter. Courtney Prescott just arrived at the Family Service Center after being on the wait list with a 2-year-old child and one on the way.
“I had been waiting,” Prescott said. “And so I was lucky to have gotten this place for sure, especially out of Ramsey County, because I know that a lot of their shelters are full.”
According to the county’s website, Ramsey is 15,000 units short of affordable housing.
Laundry hangs from the bunk beds in Tammie Pollard and her grandaughter’s room at the Family Services Center run by Catholic Charities in Maplewood on Wednesday.
Kerem Yücel | MPR News
Keith Lattimore, director of housing stability for Ramsey County, said his office is seeing an influx of people needing overnight shelter in winter. Last year, the county started providing warming spaces and transportation for people seeking shelter and their warming spaces have seen as many as 600 people.
“It’s not the most glamorous of what we can provide,” Lattimore said. “Certainly, we’d love to do more, but we have to be realistic about what we have available to us.”
Lattimore estimates that Ramsey County needs at least $10 million to maintain its current shelter and housing supports.
He believes more focus should be put on advocating for funding and policy designed to prevent families from getting to the point of needing shelters or transitional housing, but that’s work behind the scenes.
1 of 2
2 of 2
“I think it is very visual when we see families that might be unsheltered. That pulls at the heartstrings of all of us Minnesotans,” Lattimore said. “But there’s also those individuals who’re on the verge of being homelessness that we don’t see. And it’s just as much work to try to make sure we advocate for those resources.”
Twin Cities housing stability leaders said the only thing they can do when shelters are full is hope people donate, advocate and help their neighbor if they’re struggling this winter.
A rest area along Interstate 94 in Minnesota has been closed to trucks until about Independence Day to accommodate an almost $3 million improvement project.
The eastbound I-94 Enfield rest area between St. Cloud, Minnesota and the Twin Cities between Wright County Road 8 and Highway 25 is now closed to cars and commercial vehicles as crews resurface the entrance and exit ramps, and update nearby sidewalks.
According to KNSI, the full closure is just the first phase of the project. The rest area will reopen to passenger vehicles only the week of May 11th. During that time, the truck parking area will remain closed as crews repave the lot.
The truck parking lot will reopen the week of June 30th, right around Independence Day. During that time, the passenger vehicle area will be shut down to allow for the resurfacing of the lot. The Minnesota DOT expects the rest area to be fully open by late July. The entire project is expected to cost $2.9 million.
Drivers heading east on I-94 are encouraged to use the Big Spunk Lake rest area near Avon, or to drive a little farther out to the Elm Creek rest area.
Could a UCLA baseball team that’s perfect in Big Ten play get better?
Bruins coach John Savage thinks so, which is a frightening prospect for the rest of a seemingly overmatched conference.
While Savage’s top-ranked Bruins completed a three-game sweep of Minnesota on Sunday with a 5-2 victory at Jackie Robinson Stadium — stretching their Big Ten winning streak to 21 games — he said there’s more upside to be realized.
“Offensively, we just really couldn’t get a lot going,” Savage said after his team went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and stranded six baserunners. “We just weren’t able to put a lot together, but when that pitching and defense shows up every day, it gives yourself a chance to win, and that’s kind of what we did all three games, really.”
Those elements were so good Sunday that they overshadowed Roman Martin’s solo homer in the third inning and Will Gasparino’s two-run shot in the sixth.
Bruins left fielder Dean West made three superb catches — two leaping and one diving — and four relievers combined to give up only one run in 4 ⅔ innings. Closer Easton Hawk needed only six pitches to record a 1-2-3 ninth inning while notching his third save in as many days.
Savage credited Minnesota’s pitching after the Golden Gophers (22-17 overall, 5-13 Big Ten) held the Bruins (36-3) to an average of five runs during the series and said many of his team’s offensive struggles were situational.
“We have very, very good offensive players — some of them are in … little ruts right now, but that’s OK,” Savage said. “These guys play a lot and get a lot of at-bats; there’s a lot of ups and downs.”
When it comes to UCLA’s conference record, it’s all been up.
What it means
UCLA’s sweep is further evidence that the Bruins aren’t getting complacent because of their record.
“This culture is really solid, and these guys truly believe in one another and they’re playing for the team,” Savage said. “We’re very fortunate to have this group, and so they love playing together, so there’s no complacency and there’s no reason to because we haven’t done anything; I mean, you’re 36-3, that’s great, but at the end of the day it’s about getting better and playing your best baseball the next 75 days.”
Turning point
Spotting a dominant team an early lead is never a good idea.
That’s what happened when the Bruins struck for two runs in the bottom of the first inning.
West led off with a single to center field, took third on Roch Cholowsky’s double to left and scored on a balk. With one out, Martin hit an RBI infield single off the pitcher’s glove. UCLA was up 2-0, and the Golden Gophers could never catch up.
Did you see that?
Minnesota did not like it when Gasparino admired his home run by lingering in the batter’s box before commencing his trot around the bases.
There was consensus in both dugouts because Savage also didn’t care for it.
“I thought he probably stayed in the box a little too long for me,” Savage said. “That’s kind of not who we are, and they didn’t like that; I wouldn’t like that either, really.”
MVP
West saved multiple extra-base hits with his catches.
Which was his favorite?
“Probably the diving one,” West said. “I think that was the coolest one. I got to leave my feet and make a play on it.”
Up next
The Bruins will open a five-game stretch of nonconference games when they host Hawaii on Tuesday evening at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
Of the many terrible roster decisions Minnesota sports teams have made over the past 30 years, the worst of the bunch may have been trading Randy Moss to the Raiders for the No. 7 pick in the draft and linebacker Napoleon Harris.
Why are we bringing up a trade that happened 21 years ago? Because the New York Giants traded defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence to the Cincinnati Bengals for the No. 10 pick in this week’s NFL Draft. It was the first time a non-quarterback has been traded for a top-10 pick since the infamous Moss trade in 2005.
Minnesota traded Moss for the Raiders’ first-round pick, Harris, and a seventh-round pick on March 2, 2005. The Vikings used the No. 7 pick on wide receiver Troy Williamson, who never panned out in the NFL. He had 24 catches for 372 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie, 37 receptions for 457 yards and zero touchdowns in 2006, and just 18 catches for 240 yards and one touchdown in 2007.
Williams led the league with 11 dropped passes in 2006. Minnesota traded him to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a sixth-round pick after the 2007 season, where he played in 10 games over two seasons and totaled just eight catches for 64 yards. He was cut before the start of the 2010 season, and that was a wrap on the former South Carolina speedster’s NFL career.
Moss didn’t put up jaw-dropping numbers with the Raiders for two seasons, but he set an NFL record with 23 touchdown catches in 2007 with the New England Patriots. He caught 47 touchdowns in 48 regular-season games with the Patriots from 2007 to 2009.
Whether it was trading Moss to the Raiders, the Timberwolves sending Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics — or drafting Ricky Rubio AND Johnny Flynn over Steph Curry — or the Twins cutting David Ortiz and watching him become one of the greatest players in MLB history with the Boston Red Sox, Minnesota sports teams have a long history of making terrible decisions.
The Bengals, meanwhile, gave up the 10th overall pick for one of the best defensive tackles in the league. They’ll likely get great production from Lawrence, while the Giants are now under pressure to get the 10th pick right. New York also holds the No. 5 pick in Thursday’s first round of the draft.
By the way, the Vikings had two picks in the first round of the 2005 draft. After taking Williamson, they used the No. 18 pick on defensive end Erasmus James. He was just as much of a bust as Williams, playing in 23 games in three years with the Vikings. He had four sacks as a rookie, but injuries wiped out most of his 2006 and 2007 seasons before he was traded to Washington for a conditional seventh-round pick.
James was cut by Washington in December 2009, marking the end of his NFL career.
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow
-
San Francisco, CA5 minutes agoSea lion pup found in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset malnourished but ‘feisty’
-
Dallas, TX11 minutes agoDallas Cowboys 2026 NFL Draft debate heats up
-
Miami, FL17 minutes agoMan arrested in Miami for alleged sexual battery on 10-year-old girl – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports | Fort Lauderdale
-
Boston, MA23 minutes agoFormer BYU star Clayton Young crushes lifetime best in Boston — on short notice
-
Denver, CO29 minutes agoColorado boasts two of the best coffee shops in the Americas, according to new ranking
-
Seattle, WA35 minutes agoDelta flight from Seoul to Atlanta diverted to Seattle after report of suspicious package
-
San Diego, CA41 minutes agoThe Best Things to Do in San Diego: May 2026 | San Diego Magazine
-
Milwaukee, WI47 minutes agoMarvin Bynum named to BizTimes Milwaukee’s Notable Leaders in Law | Marquette Today