Three foundations put their heads — and $20 million — together to address affordable housing

NINA MOINI: This week, three Minnesota foundations launched Our Home State, a five-year, $20 million initiative to expand access to affordable housing and address housing instability in the state. It's a collaboration between the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation, the FR Bigelow Foundation, and the Mardag Foundation. St. Paul-based company Ecolab has also pledged an additional $3 million to the project.

Joining me now to share more is Alfonso Wenker, the Senior Vice President of Community Impact at the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation. Thanks for your time this afternoon, Alfonso.

ALFONSO WENKER: Thanks for having me, Nina.

NINA MOINI: Oftentimes, I'll get a news release or something about these big-number grants that are going out there, and you just think, whoa, $20 million. I wonder what it is about this that excites you in terms of how these dollars are going to get into people's hands.

ALFONSO WENKER: I think there's a couple of things that are exciting about Our Home State initiative. I think first is the cross-sector collaboration. We've got philanthropy and nonprofits alongside the business community, coming together to really say that we know, when Minnesotans are housed, when everybody has a safe, stable place to call home, Minnesota is stronger. So that cross-sector collaboration is especially exciting for us.

But we also that the nature of the funding is really important. So we're really proud that we'll be offering flexible general operating grants to our nonprofit partners so that they can be creative and responsive and innovative. Oftentimes, the contracts and grants from the government, it's taxpayer dollars. And so it's highly scrutinized, highly structured, right? Philanthropic and business dollars can really be those innovative dollars that say, sometimes you have to do something that's more responsive or off-plan, and we want to be your partner in doing that.

NINA MOINI: I have heard that from a lot of people that I've interviewed who have gotten grants and said, well, it says that I have to put it toward this specific thing, but I really need this other thing. What do you think is the solution to cutting through-- I don't know if you would call that red tape or the bureaucracy. Do you think it's kind of, like you said, more that foundations kind of step in in that way? Or how are you working with people to give them more of that flexibility?

ALFONSO WENKER: Well, I think general operating support is the key. That says, you, on the ground, service providers, housing developers, caseworkers, people who are with Minnesotans every day who are experiencing housing instability or homelessness, you know best what to do. Our job is to locate the resources and direct them through a coherent strategy. And your job is to be responsive.

And so general operating funding allows those partners to do what they is best. It's evidence-based. It's data-reinforced. And when they have those dollars in hand, they can respond in ways that are most appropriate.

NINA MOINI: Have you thought about what this will look like? I know you're wanting to give people more autonomy over how the dollars are used, but what do you think in terms of new units that are going to be built? Do you have a sense for how many more people would be housed after this?

ALFONSO WENKER: We're really focused on four strategies. Minnesota Housing, housing developers, they're absolutely tracking the number of units. But we want to focus in four areas with this funding-- organizations that are doing eviction prevention or working on stability, so making sure that they have those operating dollars to keep those programs running, especially in a time when HUD support for permanent supportive housing is under threat.

We want to make sure our shelters have capacity so we know that our shelters in Ramsey County and as well as around the state, there's pressure on their ability to respond. So we want to support them. We want to make sure that, in this climate, we're preserving the affordable housing that we have.

And then we want to make sure that we're having a conversation with the state, with our legislature, with city councils about policies that really make sure we can preserve that affordable housing. So we're not necessarily tracking through Our Home State a specific number of units. We leave that tracking up to the developers and the folks that provide those services.

NINA MOINI: Yeah no, that makes sense, approaching it from the whole spectrum. I wonder, too, zeroing in, if we could, on preventing evictions, I wonder if that is something that is a newer focus in terms of all of those different ways to tackle the issue. Or do you see that as somewhere that needs more resources than other places?

ALFONSO WENKER: Eviction prevention is a growing need in our state. I think having a stable home is farther and farther out of reach for more Minnesotans. And we see in every corner of our state increased requests for resources to pay rent or pay that monthly housing payment.

We do a study every couple of years at the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation called East Metro Pulse. And we've seen the number of people who are concerned about making their monthly housing payment go up. In our most recent East Metro Pulse report, 6 in 10 Ramsey County renters were worried about making that next payment. These are working people--

NINA MOINI: Wow.

ALFONSO WENKER: --who contribute to the economy, who, for one reason or another, an illness, a car accident, making maybe below a livable wage or a paycheck or a challenge away from having some stress around making that payment. And we know that when we can keep folks housed. We can prevent further trauma, further crisis, and also keep folks out of that shelter cycle as well.

And so it's a growing need. And I think there's a lot of things that contribute to that. And we want to make sure that, if it is about getting someone over that kind of momentary challenge or something that pops up during the year, if we can keep someone in place, that just creates a lot more stability in their life.

NINA MOINI: Definitely. And you mentioned briefly the across the whole state, that this is a statewide initiative. I wonder if you see different needs perhaps, or maybe the exact same or some of the same needs, in the metro versus rural areas. How do you think differently about what different communities need depending on where they are or their population?

ALFONSO WENKER: So I think there's one thing that's true and a lot of things that are different across the state. The one thing that's true is the state's stronger when everyone has a safe, stable home that they can afford. We know that's true in every corner of the state.

And housing stability's going to look different from county to county or corner of the state to corner of the state. So we're careful not to deploy a blanket or exact same strategy everywhere. We want to make sure that folks in Cass County are able to define their strategy differently than folks here in Ramsey County, where I'm sitting.

So at the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation, we like to say, community is our compass. And so every region of the state will be able to tell us what's unique about your context, and we'll direct grant funding to what's unique in those places.

NINA MOINI: Before I let you go, Alfonso, tell us a little bit about just the different areas that the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation works on and where you see housing on the spectrum. Is it one of the more critical areas that you all are focused on just through your philanthropy?

ALFONSO WENKER: So at St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation, we say, we invest in community-led solutions, we inspire generosity, and we advocate for equity. So those are the three pillars, if you will. And housing cuts across all three of them.

We went through a strategy process at St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation, FR Bigelow Foundation, and the Mardag Foundation last year. We've been in partnership with Bigelow and Mardag for over 50 years. And through that strategy process, all three foundations have said, we've had a historic commitment to housing stability, ending homelessness, supportive services. And we want to maintain that commitment and grow it. And so this is a top priority for all three foundations.

NINA MOINI: All right, Alfonso. Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing about your work. Really appreciate it.

ALFONSO WENKER: Thanks for having me.

NINA MOINI: That was Alfonso Wenker, the Senior Vice President of Community Impact at the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation.