From a brand new location near downtown St. Paul, the Listening House day shelter intends to function an area where people experiencing homelessness can safely eat, congregate, receive counseling and hunt for jobs.

“Listening Home is and all the time can be a spot for people to go to with no questions asked,” said Molly Jalma, executive director at Listening House, during a tour on Thursday.

The Listening House moved from their old temporary location at 296 West Seventh St. in November. The brand new site is at the previous Red’s Savoy Pizza constructing. The constructing had been sitting empty after the favored pizza joint’s original owner passed away in 2017.

State Sen. Sandy Pappas, who helped secure $3 million of the full $6 million in remodeling funding as chair of the Capital Investment Committee, said the mission is important.

“It’s necessary that unsheltered people have a spot they will go where they will shower, eat, and meet counselors,” Pappas said.

Other sources of funding included the town of St. Paul, Listening House’s own board and personal donations.

A day shelter

Annie Byrne, the senior project manager at St. Paul’s Department of Planning and Economic Development, helped Listening House work through the event process, including an entire lot of paperwork.

“To go from all that paperwork to a constructing you possibly can stand in could be very satisfying,” Byrne said.

Listening House has been a day shelter for people experiencing poverty and homelessness since its first location in 1983. They supply visitors with food, private bathrooms that include showers, storage lockers and act as an address where mail may be received.

Listening House is exclusive amongst homeless shelters due to its little-to-no questions asked policy regarding guests and offering a spot to sleep in the course of the day. It’s a service Jalma said is very important due to how a lot of their guests work at night and would subsequently not give you the chance to sleep at overnight shelters.

She said that, in actual fact, a lot of those that stop at Listening House have jobs but still experience homelessness resulting from increasing housing costs.

“One method to dispel numerous the stereotypes around homelessness is talking about how vulnerable to losing our homes all of us are,” Jalma said. She said that she’s seen a selected increase in homeless children and elderly.

In 2018, the Minnesota Homeless Study and Wilder Research found that folks aged 24 and younger make up 15% of the homeless population, and that folks aged 55 and older were the fastest growing homeless population. Each homeless groups had increased in population since 2015.

Additions planned

Homelessness also often means an absence of necessary documents comparable to birth certificates, which generally is a further barrier to finding housing. Services that provide help getting copies of documents and filling out housing applications can be available at the brand new location, alongside medical and mental health counseling provided by Listening House partners comparable to Clinic 555 and Minnesota Community Care.

Listening House also intends to expand the constructing to incorporate more bathrooms, more sleeping areas, three “quiet rooms” for more private counseling, in addition to an out of doors courtyard.

Jalma said that the plan is to start out work on the constructing’s additions “as soon as possible,” inside the following 60 days, and that she hopes for it to be finished by autumn 2024. The ultimate facility can be 8,200 square feet in size

Jeff Stromgren, the architect who designed the brand new location, has helped built all the pieces from places of worship to cheese curd factories. He said it was “incredibly gratifying” to work on the project.

Criticism from neighbors

Listening House faced oppostion to the brand new facility, inculding a lawsuit from local businesses in 2022.

The previous location on West Seventh Street drew criticism and a lawsuit from neighbors who said officials didn’t screen guests for drugs, in addition to accusations involving litter, loitering and fighting.

Jalma said that there have been instances where she felt Listening House was blamed for incidents that they had no involvement in, citing a time she was called over a shopping cart that had been left blocks away from the constructing.

“When there’s that much hyperbole, it’s hard to know what’s real,” she said. Nevertheless, she also said she was thankful for community members who were willing to speak and share information.

Elyse Pennica, this system and services manager at Listening House, has been working at Listening House for lower than a yr. She began in June as a part-time office manager, and was excited when her current position became available.

Currently, Listening House employs 11 people, and relies totally on volunteer work.

“Being of help and repair to others is so necessary, and being there for the guests, that’s my favorite part,” Pennica said.

The courtyard to be built was one thing that excited her. She said it excited guests, too. Some were desirous about starting a community garden.

“I see only great things in our future,” she said.