Counties say sheltering homeless people in hotels was a success — with challenges

Officials from metro-area counties are calling the hurried attempt to transition thousands of homeless people into hotel rooms last spring an overwhelming success, though the effort hasn't been without bumps in the road.

Both suburban and urban counties have been using hotels as shelters over the past year because they provide occupants with an isolated living space. Moving people into separate rooms instead of using open, congregate shelters curbed the spread of COVID-19, officials said, and helped hotels stay afloat, too.

"I think this was absolutely a life-changing and lifesaving solution," said Subi Ambrose, executive director of Matrix Housing Services, which runs a hotel shelter using Dakota County funding. "Everything about our previous setup for shelter was not COVID-friendly."

But there were challenges in housing a vulnerable population amid a public health crisis — including an increase in 911 calls from some hotels. Officials say lessons learned will improve future operations.

"We did some creative stumbling along the way," said Keith Lattimore, director of Ramsey County's Housing Stability Department. "Sometimes you learn lessons on the fly."

Washington, Hennepin and Ramsey counties' leases with hotels end in either May or June but might be extended, officials said. Dakota County's hotel effort will likely last through the year, though it depends on funding and whether another solution materializes by 2022.

Hennepin County began housing elderly or medically vulnerable homeless people at hotels in the first quarter of 2020 and has housed 1,400 people to date, said County Administrator David Hough. Occupants are now spread among five hotels in Minneapolis and Bloomington — two that are leased and three purchased by the county in late 2020.

Dakota County arranged for 110 hotel rooms for homeless people, divided among four different social service agencies. The total cost from April through December 2020 was $2 million; about $1.2 million came from CARES Act funding and the rest through grants or county funds.

COVID-19 rates at the hotels have been extremely low, officials from both counties said. But the hotels have faced a similar problem: increases in 911 calls at some sites.

Hennepin County brought on more staff after two Bloomington hotels saw 226 police calls between March 2020 and late September 2020, compared with 110 calls during the same period in 2019.

An Extended Stay America hotel in Eagan, leased by Dakota County, has also seen an increase in emergency calls. The number of incidents written up by Eagan police increased, too, with 78 incidents since the lease began compared with 31 the previous year.

"Officers are aware of the call load going up, and we have been there a lot more often," said Aaron Machtemes, Eagan police spokesman.

Charles Huebner, a long-term Extended Stay resident who plans to move out, said things have been chaotic since Matrix clients arrived — a "night and day" difference.

He described a couple across the hall who fight regularly, shrieking and threatening to stab each other. Police told him a February visit to his next-door neighbors was prostitution-related, though that call did not involve Matrix clients.

"No one is taking care of their needs," Huebner said of the clients. "We are sick of having to be in a homeless shelter that we did not sign up for."

Jennifer Wade, an Extended Stay America spokeswoman, said that hotel's occupancy rates spiked nearly 30% over the specified period, so more 911 calls makes sense. There have been a few issues, she said, but "we have worked directly with Matrix to address them promptly and with minimal incident."

When homeless individuals arrive at shelters, Ambrose said, they often haven't had recent medical care and are under stress. Some 911 calls due to medical or domestic issues are expected, she said, and may be more noticeable than if residents were distributed among multiple sites.

"I don't think that it's at an alarming rate for the number of people we serve and the number of people at large [at the hotel]," she said.

But Ambrose also said Matrix might have managed communication differently if COVID-19 hadn't limited gatherings and there was more time. She said she's not sure whether hotel staff told regular guests about the Matrix program, but she said she would have scheduled meetings and had hotel staff hand out fliers about it during check-ins.

Officials from multiple counties said they realized soon after their efforts began they needed to make changes, particularly adding staff. While some counties had previously used hotels as temporary shelters, the number of rooms needed during the pandemic was new.

Homeless people in Ramsey County have been living at five sites, including two St. Paul hotels that are close to capacity, Lattimore said. The county has sheltered 468 people since the pandemic began, using $16.2 million in CARES Act money.

Lattimore said the initial mind-set was "let's just get people inside" until the complexities became clear.

The county hired extra staff to coordinate food, transportation and laundry service, he said. More than 300 people came on, including volunteers, AmeriCorps participants and Ramsey County and St. Paul employees.

Some sites had laundry facilities; others required a laundromat contract. People needed transportation to appointments, which necessitated a van. Then the van required a sanitation policy.

"These are things you don't think about until you get right up to it," Lattimore said.

Officials made changes on the fly, including letting LGBTQ people stay at the women and couples' shelter so they felt safe. They saw that women needed more space and carved out 20 to 30 rooms for them, he said.

Sarah Tripple, planning and program manager at Washington County Community Services, said the county has sheltered 160 people in hotels at a cost of about $1 million. Most funding comes from state grants, she said, along with CARES Act money. People are spread out in 55 rooms in two hotels in Stillwater and Forest Lake.

Tripple said officials learned they needed more staff to help finding permanent housing for people living in hotels — a tall order in a tight rental market with little turnover due to the eviction moratorium.

In Hennepin County, which spent $32 million on sheltering single adults in 2020, officials said they learned they needed staff at hotels 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and that clients needed "intense, scaled up" case management — services that will continue after the pandemic is over.

"Crisis is, of course, a catalyst for change and innovation," Hough said.

Erin Adler • 612-673-1781