Policy Highlights &
Actions
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What Advocates Are Asking of Minnesota Legislators
In February, Sue Watlov Phillips spoke to the Changemakers Alliance participants about the state's 'surplus' and priority housing issues. In this short clip, she points out what we need to understand about the $7.7 billion budget surplus (at that time) that legislators are figuring out how to use in 2022. The current forecast is $9.253 Billion in abundance. We must ensure all Minnesotans have their basic needs met!
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Our 2022 Legislative & Policy Virtual Meetings were a hit!
Over 325 people joined us for the five MICAH Chapter Legislative Breakfasts and the Policy Luncheon that we co-hosted with Freedom from the Streets & No More Streets.
We appreciate the state & local policy makers who were able to show up and give their time, as well as the thoughtfulness and dedication of the people who showed up to listen and share. Everyone's support for equity in our policy responses, including the Lead Safe Homes Bill, Homes for All Legislation, Second Chance Coalition priorities, and the Promise Act, is heartening.
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Meet MICAH's Community Heroes of 2021 |
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MICAH's Community Hero Awards for 2021
Each year MICAH celebrates the individuals or organizations who work toward ending homelessness within MICAH’s mission to create and sustain a metropolitan area where everyone without exception has a safe, decent, accessible, and affordable home.
This year’s awards were presented at our December 2021 annual meeting.
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Did you miss our 2021 annual meeting in December? You can see the recording of the online event here. View the Bring America Home Now presentation, learn more about our policy, how we do what we do, and how far we've come over the last year. |
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We held our first legislative breakfast on Friday, February 4th. Representative Connie Bernardy spoke about the upcoming legislative session and Anoka County Commissioner Mandy Meisner spoke about funding that the county has received from the American Rescue Plan. They are in the first steps to identifying how the funds will be spent.
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Freedom From the Streets - Policy Lunch
On Monday, February 7, 1:30-3pm, Freedom from the Streets & No More Streets joined MICAH in hosting a virtual policy luncheon.
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MICAH’s Housing For All (Suburban Hennepin) Chapter’s 2022 Policy Breakfast was a tremendous success.
The event included State Senator John Hoffman and Hennepin County Commissioner Kevin Anderson discussing the urgent need for more Affordable Housing & their passionate support for solutions to eliminate homelessness & other forms of housing Insecurity.
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Minneapolis Community - Congrats!
Our own Candy Bakion has joined the Blue Line Anti-Displacement Work Group. She will be a great asset, here is a snippet from the welcome letter she received from C. Terrence.
"We couldn't be more excited about this work that we get a chance to do together. Truly, we're at the beginning of such important work. I appreciate so much that you've stepped up for the Blue Line Extension Corridor Community to ensure that the people that live there today benefit first from the great investment of the Blue Line Extension. But more importantly, our work can help ensure that current residents are not displaced as a result of implementing the Blue Line Extension. In this work group, we'll be considering housing displacement, business displacement, and cultural displacement."
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The NorthEast Suburban Chapter’s legislative breakfast focused on three issues – the Emergency Homeless shelter in Washington County, the new Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) money that will come forward (thank you for raising taxes for affordable housing!) and the Lead Safe Homes bill at the State Legislature. We had nearly 50 people come by and legislators from all levels of government.
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The St. Paul Legislative Breakfast was a buzz of energy and conversation this year. We had 90 people who caught part or all of it; 3 City Council members, 9 State Legislators, and enough Ramsey County Commissioners to cause possible problems with the open meeting requirements!
The focus was “Renting with a Record,” which is to say, it’s awfully hard to find an apartment if you have a criminal record, or a bad credit record, or a housing court record. Each of these systems is also rife with systemic racism - so far more black and brown people have to deal with this than they should.
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MICAH South Chapter (Dakota County) had another successful annual "Breakfast with Policy Makers" on February 11, 2022.
This was a zoom meeting that attracted 60+ attendees, which included state senators, state representatives, County Commissioners representing Dakota County areas, along with the mayors from West St. Paul, Eagan, Rosemount, and Lakeville.
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