New organization aims to help unhoused Hmong in Minneapolis and St. Paul

NINA MOINI: Well, back here at home in Minnesota, temperatures are dropping, and winter is on the way. And that means conditions are more dangerous for people experiencing homelessness and living outside. A recent story from Sahan Journal looked at two encampments that have become a home base for unhoused Hmong and Karen people in East St. Paul

A new organization is visiting these encampments on Tuesdays with food and supplies while trying to connect people with services. Sahan Journal reporter Katelyn Vue wrote the story, and she's on the line to talk about it. Thanks for being here, Katelyn.

KATELYN VUE: Hi. Thanks for having me.

NINA MOINI: Really appreciate your reporting, Katelyn. How did you find out about these two encampments? And how long have they been there?

KATELYN VUE: Yeah, I first found out through-- I think, well, a lot of people found out about these encampments on social media, on Facebook. During the summer, there was a series of videos that went online featuring interviews with some of the folks that live at the encampments.

NINA MOINI: OK. And so what are you thinking that people there are thinking as winter does approach? What were the conditions over the summer? And how are they thinking that's obviously maybe going to change?

KATELYN VUE: Yeah, so these two encampments, so they're at different stages, I think. The first one that's behind the Kmart, that's in St. Paul, if you look behind the Kmart that's closed down along 35-E, that highway, that one is a lot smaller. And right now, they just have tents pushed back to the trees. And there's a much smaller group that lives there, but most of them are Hmong or Karen.

And there's also another one that's been around longer. So that one's located by the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. And there's a lot of people that live there, some of them Hmong. And it's more, I guess, less bare bones. There's a lot of tarp structures and trash and things like that everywhere.

NINA MOINI: And for anyone who maybe doesn't know, we have a really big population of the Hmong and Karen communities here, particularly in St. Paul and the Twin Cities. What did you hear from people there about what brought them there? Was it word of mouth and just thinking, oh, there's other people from my community there, or what did you hear from them?

KATELYN VUE: Yeah, so a lot of the folks I've spoken with, they've been homeless for a while. And they have all moved together to these separate locations as a group. And what had brought them there were a lot of the same challenges that they dealt with. They dealt with similar challenges, like with having a criminal background, it makes it harder for them to access job opportunities. Some were dealing with mental illness. Some had trouble just making enough money to pay for rent and had a lack of family support for them.

NINA MOINI: Sure, the same things a lot of people are dealing with when you talk to people at encampments. You mentioned things like mental illness. What do you think about culturally specific help? Do you think that's something that might be coming and what that might look like? Oftentimes, we hear about trying to-- when there's a group of people from a culture, approaching them with ways that are going to help them related to their experiences.

KATELYN VUE: Yeah, so that part was really interesting to me in the story because I don't really know what that looks like in the Hmong community. I think that when spoke to Hmong American Partnership and the Lao Community of Minnesota, they said that they don't have programs targeting the homeless community. And they don't have services that they know of that are directly community focused around this group.

So even those organizations aren't really sure. But when I spoke to Hmong Haven of Minnesota, what I thought was really interesting for me to learn was that they were trying things that seemed to be helping the Hmong community, like speaking to them in their own language and bringing food to them that was familiar and bringing family members that resemble their own family members that live in the camps and doing prayers and things like that. I thought it was really interesting that Hmong Haven really wanted to start being the first group to be focused on specifically how to help this community.

NINA MOINI: Sure. And it sounds like they saw a need and stepped up. But who does it include in Hmong Haven? And when and how did they decide to get started?

KATELYN VUE: Yeah, so they started a couple of months ago. And I found them through a GoFundMe that they were doing. And it was to raise funds to help buy winter essentials for these folks. Many of the folks in this group are from church. I talked to the CEO, who said that she started coming to the camps and started seeing other people coming to the camps.

And they all had this similar religion, and they were there for the similar reason. So they just said, why don't we make this an official thing?

NINA MOINI: And what about city leaders, county leaders, other organizations? What are you hearing? Do they have any plans to begin any sort of outreach?

KATELYN VUE: Yeah, so I did talk with the city about whether this is an issue that has been growing in the community. And the city of St. Paul doesn't track specific ethnic demographics when it comes to who's homeless at this moment. And I did ask if the city's own homelessness response team has those specific resources directly for ethnic groups. And they don't have that at the city level, but what they do have is that they contract with different local organizations that make those efforts to be culturally specific.

But again, even when I've spoken with Hmong-specific organizations, they couldn't really think of what could be offered. It's just, I think, such a topic, I guess, that I guess it's not really been explored a lot in the past.

NINA MOINI: Well, and that's why it's so important that your reporting is exploring it. You mentioned mental illness, substance use disorders, and how sometimes in certain communities, it can be even more stigmatized than maybe it is at large. Of course, that's more anecdotal. What about these communities have you heard in terms of-- is Hmong Haven tackling any of those types of issues, mental health, substance use?

KATELYN VUE: Yeah. And, yeah, that is a really big part of the story. I know that Hmong Haven, when they come to bring them food, they pass out brochures about medical services. And they also try to connect them, drive them to clinics, and things like that.

I spoke with the head of Hmong American Partnership, and she says when she does meet some of these Hmong homeless folks, she tries to get them to come in to get help, but oftentimes they refuse. And her sense is that there's that shame and the stigma in the community about being homeless. And so that makes it, I think, hard for people to want to ask for help or seek that help.

I also think that these issues, like criminal background, substance use disorder, there's shame, but there's also-- that breaks up families. And I think that's something that I thought was interesting that people from Hmong American Partnership brought up, was that when it tears families apart, it makes it very hard to be stable.

NINA MOINI: Sure. And as winter is approaching, we know there are other encampments across the state. We know that homelessness, being unsheltered is a really big issue, and we know it only gets harder when it gets cold out. What have you heard about how folks are going to be preparing for that?

KATELYN VUE: Yeah, I've spoken with a few of the people that live in the camps. And a few of them have actually told me that they've left shelters because of bullying that they've experienced and not getting the help that they wanted. And so Pao also from the Hmong American Partnership said that they refuse-- most of the time, they refuse help.

But I know that Hmong Haven plans to continue helping them throughout the winter. And I know that the situation at shelters isn't a fit for everyone. So I think that speaking with them, it does put them in a tricky situation because when it does get cold, they've talked about how brutal it can be for them to just do daily tasks.

NINA MOINI: Mm-hmm. And we'll see if the city or the county ends up stepping in as things progress. Katelyn, thank you for your reporting. I really appreciate you sharing it with us.

KATELYN VUE: Yeah, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

NINA MOINI: Katelyn Vue is a reporter for Sahan Journal. You can find her article at sahanjournal.com and mprnews.org.