Agate Housing workers speak out about coming closure of downtown Minneapolis homeless shelter

It would cost $40 million to construct a new facility like the one Agate Housing and Services runs at 510 S. 8th. St., a refuge for 137 homeless people, and just $3-5 million to fix it up.

But without emergency funds to make repairs, Agate will shutter the shelter and needs everybody out by Oct. 9.

Twenty-three employees will be laid off. Agate’s Food Centre at 714 Park Av., which served daily meals and dispensed groceries to people who would line up around the block each Wednesday, will also close. And with the loss of the two public showers at 510 8th St., Minneapolis will be down one of three permanent sites where homeless people can take a free hot shower.

On Wednesday during their lunch break, Agate cooks, street outreach workers and homeless advocates held an informational picket with tenants outside the century-old 510 S. 8th St., formerly known as the House of Charity.

“People are losing their home. I don’t think that’s really clicking for people,” said Lazeric Young, a cook who said he eschewed a culinary career in restaurants that would have boosted his resume in favor of a job that had meaning and longevity, or so he believed. “A shelter is being closed down right before holiday season. Let’s think about that for a second. That means people that’s been living together for years have to find a new family right during the holidays.”

Young said people think it’s only adults who make use of food shelves, but working at the Food Centre showed him how many children face food insecurity. He said they were constantly serving kids who’d come after football practice, kids who experienced homelessness with their parents, kids who otherwise wouldn’t get lunch in the summertime because school was out.

The building has 42 emergency shelter beds and 95 individual “board and lodge” rooms, a form of low-barrier, temporary housing for society’s hardest-to-house people who pay rent that covers support services and three meals a day.

A new Agate complex is currently under construction in the Longfellow neighborhood of south Minneapolis. It’s set to open in a year and a half and will eventually replace the shelter beds at 510 with 54 new beds. But the 95 board and lodge units will be permanently lost.

While Agate was awarded a shelter capital grant to construct the new complex, the Legislature did not approve any funding for 510. Workers on Wednesday drew attention to the irony that the new complex will cost $25 million, meaning it would cost the public less per unit to preserve 510.

“The city and the state need to look into rearranging things and conserving their money, because a person sleeping outside costs the state and costs the county way more than a person staying here,” said Agate shelter worker Emery Brush. “It is going to put strain on other homeless shelters, and the end result of it is going to be more people sleeping outside.”

Agate CEO Kyle Hanson commended Agate workers for bringing attention to the imbalance in Minnesota’s public funding models, which offer far more money for new construction of affordable housing than the rehabilitation of existing buildings. Affordable housing providers across the state have been sounding the alarm about the loss of older buildings to disrepair, break-ins and vandalism, with a law passed this year forming a legislative task force to further explore the phenomenon.

“The funding sources that covered the expenses of [helping] the residents didn’t, at the end of the day, have enough leftover money to cover major replacement of aging piping systems, bathrooms, showers and roofs that need repair,” Hanson said. “The reality is, if somebody magically steps up with government support, foundational support, or individual support, this building could operate for the next 15 to 20 years without any more deep capital needs.”

Hanson said more than half of Agate’s 140 employees have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, meaning they not only care about their clients, but understand what they’re going through. Announcing 510′s impending closure two weeks ago was the “most heartbreaking day” of his career, Hanson said, because he also had to tell employees who have surmounted major challenges that they were out of a job.

Agate hired consultant Sheila Delaney to help the staff rapidly rehouse everyone in the building by Oct. 9. They have created a list of everyone living at 510, noting characteristics that could aid in their swift transition, such as seniority or tribal membership, Delaney said. They’re also helping people obtain birth certificates, identify barriers in their rental histories and apply for public and private housing from second-chance landlords who accept people with imperfect records.

“We’re making sure that they know we’re really working hard on their behalf, because this causes trauma for them,” Delaney said. “It’s very stressful for them, and as we get closer to the closure date, the more anxiety they will have.”

State Sen. Omar Fateh, DFL-Minneapolis, and City Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai attended Wednesday’s picket.

Fateh, whose wife worked for St. Stephens Human Services before it combined with House of Charity to form Agate in 2021, called 510′s closing “a failure of the city, of the county and of the state.” He vowed to reach out to other local elected officials and “come up with a plan.”

Agate will continue to operate the county’s only shelter for couples out of First Covenant Church in downtown Minneapolis. It also serves about 2,000 people living in homes across Hennepin County not owned by Agate.