Governor's homelessness effort gets a boost

Governor Tim Pawlenty
Gov. Tim Pawlenty
MPR Photos/Tom Scheck

A coalition of business, nonprofit and faith leaders plan to raise $60 million to assist homeless people. Organizers of the coalition, known as HeadingHome Minnesota, say their goal is to compliment statewide and regional homeless programs already in place.

Gov. Pawlenty announced a public-private partnership in 2004 to solve the problem of chronic homelessness by the end of the decade. On Wednesday Gov. Pawlenty said the additional private sector money will help to turbo charge the effort to build 4,000 new housing units.

"While it is a moon shot plan, it gets everybody coordinated toward the same goal with a common set of objectives and tactics," says Gov. Pawlenty. "And it really has been successful as being kind of an organizing or focal point for the housing community broadly."

So far, state officials have created more than 1,600 housing units toward their 2010 goal of 4,000.

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