Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you. you

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

For the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners, roll call please.

Jevin Singh?

Here.

McGuire? Here. Ming-Bert, she is excused. Miller? Here. Moran? Here. Zhong? Here. And Ortega?

Aye. Can we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Land Acknowledgement, Commissioner McGuire.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Every community owes its existence and vitality to generations from around the world who contributed their hopes, dreams, and energy to making the history that led to this moment. Some were brought here against their will. Some were drawn to leave their distant homes in hope of a better life. And some have lived on this land since time immemorial. Truth and acknowledgement are critical to building mutual respect and connection across all barriers of heritage and difference. We are standing on the ancestral lands of the Dakota people. We want to acknowledge the Ojibwe, the Ho-Chunk, and the other nations of people who also call this place home. We pay respects to their elders, past and present. Please take a moment to consider the treaties made by the tribal nations that entitle non-native people to live and work on traditional native lands. Consider the many legacies of violence, displacement, migration, and settlement that bring us together here today. And please join us in uncovering such truths at any and all public events.

Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion on the agenda of August 4th, 2026. So moved.

Second. Second.

Seeing no discussion, roll call.

McGuire?

Aye.

McMurtry is excused. Miller? Aye. Moran?

Aye.

Zong? Aye. Jebensingh? Aye. And Ortega?

Aye. I'll entertain a motion on the minutes of July 28, 2026, as presented.

So moved. Second.

Seeing no discussion, roll call.

McGuire?

Aye.

McMurtry is excused. Miller? Aye. Moran? Aye. Zong? Aye. Jebensingh? Aye. And Ortega?

Hi. We now have a proclamation on Child Support Awareness Month, and Commissioner Miller?

Yes. Please join me. It's like, come on down, everyone. I know, I hope you guys will come stand up here with us too. We don't bite, we promise. I know nobody wants to be in the front row. It's a tough place to be, center stage. Okay, so August is National Child Support Awareness Month an annual time to raise awareness about critical income support program that helps millions of children and families across the nation. The Ramsey County Child Support Division, part of the County Attorney's Office, partners with the federal and state child support programs to deliver services that help families thrive and set children up for success. Ramsey County has been proactive in evolving the child support program to provide more equitable, family-centered services and to engage with the community we serve to better understand their needs. Child support is a complex program that operates at the intersection of legal work and human services, working with families on two of the most important and sensitive areas of their lives, their children and their families. Today, we have an opportunity to highlight the important work of the child support program and the dedicated Ramsey County staff who provide these services. I'm going to give you this, and then I will read our proclamation. So, whereas the month of August is National Child Support Awareness Month, and whereas it is a time to raise awareness of the mission and initiatives of the Child Support Division of the Ramsey County Attorney's Office, whereas child support reduces reliance on public assistance highlighted by the 60% of parents on the Ramsey County caseload who are former recipients of public assistance and whereas the goal of child support program are best achieved through an approach that recognizes the unique needs of the whole family and honors the whole the role of fathers and whereas Ramsey County Child Support is a leader and a partner with the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families in recognizing the challenges that survivors of domestic violence face and changing practices so they can safely access child support services. And whereas the employees in the Child Support Division are committed to public service and the well-being of families and strive for continuous improvement in processes and procedures to better serve families. And whereas it is also a time to acknowledge and show appreciation for Ramsey County child support employees who served nearly 20,000 children and their parents by establishing legal parentage, locating parents, and obtaining and modifying child support orders and collecting over $38 million in child support payments. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed. The Ramsey County Board of Commissioners declares August 2026 as Child Support Awareness Month in Ramsey County, and be it further proclaimed, the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners recognizes the employees of the Child Support Division of the Ramsey County Attorney's Office who make a difference in the lives of children and their families. Thank you.

Good morning, and thank you for having us here today to do this proclamation. I want to give a shout out to the staff in child support who work so hard to try to get child support orders timely to families who try to collect on those child support orders to make sure that we're getting money to the kids that need it. A couple things that I just want to highlight very, very quickly. One is that when we talk about child support evolving over the years, there's about 95% of the child support that is collected that goes out to the families that we serve. And that's a big change from when the child support program started over 50 years ago, when it was primarily a reimbursement program, where we were trying to recoup ADC dollars and AFDC dollars back in those days. And now it's really a family-centered program, and we're quite proud of that. One other thing I wanted to mention is we talked a little bit in the opening remarks Commissioner Miller did about domestic violence survivors. We know that in the child support program, at least 40% of the custodial parents we serve are survivors of domestic violence. So that number is higher than what we see in the general population. And we're learning more and more about how we can provide safe access to child support services. through a grant that we are a part of. And I want to give a shout out to two of our supervisors who have been very, very involved in that, Amy Donahue and Stephanie Struthers. Give a wave. And we're right now doing a new pilot where we're assessing safety concerns for people who come into our program to make sure that they understand how the program works and that we do good communication with them so they can make the best choices in how to receive child support services or not so that they can keep their families safe. And in the past, what we would do is just protect addresses, and we've learned that there's so much more to it. So this is some work that we're very proud of that I wanted to highlight. So thank you for your time today.

Thank you.

Do we want to, let's do a photo first, and then we will have everyone introduce themselves, and then we can, like, line up. Okay.

All right, so try to put in your window. You're fine. I don't want to. Three, two, one, and three, two, one.

And I apologize. I should have introduced myself first. I'm Trish Skopamer. I'm the Director of Child Support Services.

I'm Rachel Nieder. I'm a Senior Child Support Specialist.

Petrina Travers, the Assistant Director of Child Support Program.

Jen Kuklak, I'm assistant director on the legal side.

Joe Thicke, child support supervisor.

Ben Mullen, child support specialist.

Tony Gutierrez, supervisor.

Amy Donahue, child support supervisor.

Judy Jacobo, child support specialist.

Good morning, Jody Abel. I'm a planning manager in child support. Thank you. Tarita Tyson, child support supervisor.

Teresa Juno, child support supervisor.

Melissa Zeeman, child support supervisor.

Stephanie Struthers, child support supervisor.

Corinne Anderson, senior child support specialist.

Vernon Broom, child support supervisor.

Anne Marie Peterson, child support specialist.

Good morning. Katie Axtell, administrative assistant. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Commissioner McGuire, the administrative agenda.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to move administrative items number four, Project Budget and Financing Plan for Teams Rooms Technology Project. Item number five, the amendment to the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant Master Plan. I'm going to pull that. We're going to pull that. Item number six is the obligation of the 2026 State Affordable Housing Aid for Housing Development Projects. Thank you. Item number seven, obligation of 2026 Local Affordable Housing Aid for Housing Development Projects. Item number eight, amendment to the agreement with Minnesota Housing Finance Agency for Family Homelessness Prevention and Assistance Program.

I'd like to pull that please.

Okay, pull that. Item number nine, proposed changes and additions to social services fees. And item number ten, Ramsey County's response to encampment closures in the city of St. Paul. You can pull that, okay. Second.

Okay, roll call, please.

McGuire?

Aye.

McMurtry is excused. Miller? Aye. Moran? Aye. Zhong? Aye. Jebin Singh? Aye. And Ortega?

Aye. Okay, item number five, Tara.

Yes, I would like to move item number five, amendment to the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant Master Plan.

Second.

And only to highlight how banal that this is, that after a lot of years of inactivity and all of that, that this is very simply a clarification of what had been an ambiguous height specification on a building, and that Arden Hills has already gone ahead and okayed this, and we should too. But we're at that point where we're dotting I's and crossing T's and making things happen. So I wanted to give you that update that that's how small of a change this is to that plan.

Thank you.

And Mr. Chair, if I could just add to that. It's small change, but big work still being done. I mean, all the work that's being done to get this site just ready for the development, and it's just progressing. It's exciting to see the progression. Thank you.

We have now Rina, item number six. Oh, I'm sorry, vote. Roll call, please.

McGuire. Aye. McMurtry is excused. Miller. Aye. Moran. Aye. Zhong. Aye. Jevenson. Aye. And Ortega.

Aye. Kavina, item number six, please.

I'd like to move item six. I think, you know, six and seven are kind of like same, similar thing.

You'd like to move them both together? Mm-hmm. Together. That's okay. Yep. Okay, that's good.

Second.

So I'm just looking at the, looking at to approve an obligation of state affordable housing aid or recommended projects. And if someone can, you know, as I was looking at the projects that we have put forward, I noticed that some, I mean, some like fully funded Others are funded by 4% or 6% in different percentages. So can someone talk about how we come up with those type of recommendations and numbers? Max?

Good morning, chair, commissioners. I bring before you two board actions today. Item six is obligation of local affordable housing aid, and item seven is obligation of state affordable housing aid. Obligation of local affordable housing aid is kind of our biggest source this year. So the county received over $16 million in local affordable housing aid. Per our spring board workshop where we discussed local affordable housing aid and that continuum, Housing continuum, we designated half to progress affordable housing projects across the county and then half for housing stability work. Here, this is our 2026 obligation of those funds based off of the work at the board workshop. So today we obligate $8.194 million of local affordable housing aid. Again, this is all applications coming out of the 2026 Housing Development Solicitation. This is the fourth of five board actions, bringing forward five different funding sources. We received over 45 applications. And so you see before you on the local affordable housing aid, 10, and then two on SAHA. SAHA, State Affordable Housing Aid, is a much smaller source, and we designate that towards owner-occupied and affordable home ownership projects. whereas local affordable housing aid is focused on deeply affordable housing and how to progress that part of the housing continuum. As we review, score, underwrite, and then discuss with other governmental partners on all applications that receive a high score, we end up funding projects in a variety of ways. One of those ways that you'll see here is many of these are partial awards, where the developer may have asked for a greater amount of funding, but after underwriting and conversations, we believe that the developer could be awarded less or find that funding from a different source. And so that's how we're able to progress more projects forward.

And what is that based on, that thought process or that recommendation?

Chair, commissioners, as part of the application process, developers must submit a multifamily workbook. That is a very detailed spreadsheet of all of their financial and projections for this specific building. It includes their proposed number of units and how much rent they would get from those units as well as all their expenses. That is then reviewed per Minnesota Housing Standards. We use the same review standards as the other governmental sources as well.

Mr. Chair, so when we are funding someone 100% of the acts, it's 100% of the acts, right? And that is based on all the documents that you received stating how they are going to utilize the dollars to complete the project.

Chair and commissioners, in the attachment, the narrative project descriptions, that's where we discuss the percentage of total development cost. Usually if we see 100% total development cost, it's usually an acquisition or rehab project of an existing apartment building where we're the only governmental funder. And so we'd be 100% of that. that will go to rehab of existing units. And in many cases in this LAHA board action, many of those are actually vacant units that we're hoping to get back online, so it's additional supply as well. So that's when you see 100%. If you see a much smaller percentage of total development costs, like 4% or 6%, that's because we're just one funder amongst many. Sometimes there's seven or eight different funders in one development.

So the less support, the more we support.

Chair, commissioners, I think if we have a smaller percentage, it just means that there is more funders involved so that their type of project was able to gather sources from others, whereas some of those acquisition rehabs, we're one of the only funders who really focuses on that. And so that's when you might see a higher total development cost there.

Okay, thank you.

I just have one quick follow-up question. What is the timeline for these projects? So kind of piggybacking after Commissioner Moran. So when they say that they're 8% funded or 100% funded, are these projects ready to go and ready to break ground? Or do they still have some fundraising parts on their own? And what is our timeline? Because I did see in one of the board actions that some dollars were given back because one developer from previous years.

Chair, commissioners, each project is on a different timeline. So some of these, especially an acquisition or a rehab or a preservation project, they're ready to go. They're excited to close in the next couple months. Others are still collecting sources from other funding partners. For example, on the LAHA board action, Crane Ordway Renaissance Box are two buildings in Lowertown. And they need to collect additional sources from the state. So they won't be ready to close probably for about a year. But our award helps position them to be able to get funding from other governmental partners. And every year, we see a few projects that, for a variety of reasons, say, hey, I'm not going to move forward. And we're able to reallocate those awards in a future solicitation process. So I think in our 2026 HRA, which obligated HRA funds to projects in this 2026 housing development solicitation, we went through our old years of funds and figured out which projects did not move forward and were able to reallocate those to new projects.

OK, great. Thank you. Max, do we still follow the practice of last dollar in?

Chair, commissioners, due to the amount of funding that we are obligating to housing, we can both participate as first in funding to help position a project into Minnesota Housing, as well as last in funding to help get that project over the finish line. So we're functioning in both spaces right now, Chair. Okay. Thank you.

Any further questions?

Mr. Chair, I just want to talk about the incredible amount of work and the projects that we are allocating today, especially in our conversation later about the encampments. We are actively putting millions literally into preserving deeply affordable housing units as well as moving units that are vacant so that it can be used and utilized. and I'm sure director Wilkins may mention this a little bit more about just the challenges around moving people into housing is really because there are not units that are affordable that folks can get into so this is just one part of our ecosystem in our housing continuum that we are investing in and I just want to highlight that you know these are millions of dollars that we are pouring into our ecosystem here. And then finally, just want to thank staff again for the incredible amount of work and time that they have put in here. We only see a few of these projects here, but I know that they've reviewed multiple applications. May you remind us how many applications came in again this year?

Chair, commissioners, we received 45 applications with over $72 million of requests. In this year's housing development solicitation, through these four broad actions, we've had over $16 million recommended to advance affordable housing projects. Just quickly on our unit impact in this round, 897 multifamily units have been impacted, whether that's preservation or new construction. and 22 owner-occupied units. Of those, 457 of those multifamily units will be at 30% AMI. And that's 546 of those almost 900 units are rehab or renovations of units, and 115 of those are in buildings that are mostly vacant right now. So there's untapped potential in existing buildings as well. That's one of those pieces that a project ends up scoring higher, and then we bring that as a recommended award to you Thank you Thank Thank You mr.

Chair can you just remind me and I'm sorry if you said this do this do some cities get Laha and Do they get the local and the state funds or so st. Paul has that's what we did last last week right st. Paul gave us some of their funds to help with the encampment closures? Am I correct in thinking that these are those kind of funds, that these funds go to some of our bigger cities and us, and we try to coordinate these funds?

Yeah, Chair, Commissioner McGuire. Cities of a certain size receive local affordable housing aid. So almost Moundsview, Roseville, Maplewood, White Bear Lake, Vadnais Heights all receive a little bit of local affordable housing aid. And they use that on their priorities, whether that's a multifamily building in their jurisdiction or a single family program, or if they want to participate across the housing continuum in housing stability work like St. Paul chose to do recently. State affordable housing aid is for every county in the state of Minnesota and outstate greater Minnesota cities as well. Local affordable housing aid is only for the seven-county metro area.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And projects can ask for county dollars as well as their city dollars, right? So if there's a project in one of our cities, they can combine these projects. And not like our EDA and our HRA dollars, which we've committed to doing county. Well, I think we always want to be countywide with our dollars. But, you know, we really are hoping that the projects are as much in the suburban areas and the city of St. Paul. These dollars, I'm sure you try to spread them out as well, right? But there's no – they can go anywhere in the county, right, these dollars?

Yeah, Chair, Commissioners, all of our different funding sources have different geographic limits. So home and CDBG are suburban only for us. And so on August 18th, we'll bring home projects forward, and those are only in suburban Ramsey County. Our HRA, we aim to do a 50-50 split every year. So in our June 23rd board action on HRA, we achieved that 50-50 split. LAHA and SAHA can be used countywide. And I think in this list, they lean towards the city. But those geographic, we try to balance that through all of our different funding sources.

That's what I was noticing, that these are mostly city, but in the long term, You do try to even match those countywide. And thank you for all your work with all of these different grant dollars. And I know you're trying to maximize the money that we get to help our communities with. So thank you.

Oh, just a quick, I know that we've been getting, we've been voting on these to move the actions along in each of the five pockets, you know, independently, and soon we'll have the final of the five. You rattled off the actual impact as far as housing units and some of that. At the end, it would be lovely to get a nice, tight summary. Yeah, because... It's wonderful to be able to see the actual impact and what that's going to do for our housing stock and where and what opportunities that will be for families.

That's great. Chair, commissioners, our last board action will be on August 18th, and we'll encapsulate the whole housing development solicitation at that time.

Fantastic. Amazing.

Commissioner Moran. So as I was reading through the different funding streams, I wanted to say thank you. And I'm glad the board have put a priority around investing in more deeply affordable housing at 30% and 50% of the AMI. You know, there are so many families who have been challenged in this port of time. And they really need a pathway to be stabilized and to be in a place where they can afford the rent because we have this cycle of homelessness that is happening rapidly. So it's really, really good to see that we are investing more deeply affordable housing. So I just want to say thank you for that.

Chair, Commissioners, thank you for your support of this work.

Thank you, Max. Hearing no further discussion, roll call.

McGuire.

Aye.

McMurtry is excused. Miller. Aye. Moran. Aye. Xiong. Aye. Jebensingh. Aye. And Ortega.

Aye. Item number 10, Ramsey County response to an- Number eight. Oh, did I miss? Yeah, you did. Okay, let me get the old one back. Item number eight, Mai Zhang.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to move item number eight, the amendment to the agreement with Minnesota Housing Finance Agency for Family Homelessness Prevention and Assistance Program. Second. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I just had a question about the additions of the dollars. This more than doubles our budget of what we had put into this, too, with dollars from the state. So I wanted Director Wilkins to just give her an opportunity to share about the investments, where it's going, so that we make it clear to the public and our partners about how we have been responding to homelessness as well.

Good morning, Chair, Commissioners, County Manager Becker. I'd also like to introduce Renee Thies, who is our FHPAP planning specialist. And I will have her speak to some of your questions, and I'll support her as well.

Thank you so much for letting me speak today. So Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program, or FHPAP, This funding is being committed to six of our subrecipients. We're also keeping a portion of the funding in-house to support internal projects that particularly support families in shelter and also single adults that come through our shelter entry line. The majority of our funding is supporting prevention projects. So the legislature committed this funding primarily in response to Metro Surge. And they want the funding spent by the end of the year, which is a really ambitious commitment. Yeah, and so we are mindful of that. And at the same time, the funds are added to our existing agreement with Minnesota Housing, which goes to September 30th of 2027. So we have a little bit of flexibility to spend beyond the end of the year. but we're committing largely the funding to prevention to support households at risk of eviction. And households can be at risk of housing loss not just from receiving an eviction notice. They can be at risk because of their housing conditions. For example, hoarding conditions, which our House Calls project helps with immensely. Also, I want to note that when households access our services, they are being connected to a variety of supports. So it's not just a one time, one and done, I'm getting help to pay my back rent, or clean up my home, or pay a utility bill. It's really about accessing a network of support, county services, services embedded in the agencies that we fund, educational programming, childcare, food access, and so forth. So when people access our services and they might get some financial assistance, it doesn't stop there. They're able to continue working and networking with the folks that they are connected to.

And just a follow-up question around the eligible uses there, too. Is it able to go into parts of coordinated entry, or is this entirely just for family homeless assistance?

That is a great question. Minnesota Housing and FHPAP funds coordinated entry along with prevention and rapid rehousing. We also do a little bit of street outreach through that as well. Our funding, because it's one of the only sources that funds prevention in the state, We use it primarily for prevention, but we do have a coordinated entry project that we've historically funded through FHPP. That's our Catholic Charities Coordinated Access to Housing Services. So that project was actually fully funded for the entire grant period. put the ask out to all of our sub-recipients and they said, we are good, thank you for the funding, and we'll support these other projects.

Okay. And then for the, at least for the prevention side, for the rent assistance, do they call the county or do they go through some of these organizations that are our grantees?

such a great question this is a question i get every single day so right now we utilize what's called a no wrong door approach so households can go to any agency to get support this does bring up a coordination issue which we've been actively working on and one of the things that our heading home ramsey board supports is centralizing access to help and as housing stability continues to build and leverage the funding that we receive through LAHA and other supports, we're looking at long-term centralizing that access so that when a household enters, whether through our county door to access emergency assistance or they go to, for example, a neighborhood house, we can actually streamline that to one door so that they don't have to sort of hop around to find help.

Great. Thank you. Yeah.

Beth?

So it's good to hear what all we're doing and the dollars that we have until the end of the year and maybe even after the end of the year to support families in preventing homelessness. As I think about this work through a holistic, comprehensive, maybe even a regenerative type of approach and the many facets of ways that we are supporting individuals and families, I think about a story that I just heard yesterday, late last night, and when I received a call. And I know we're doing awesome work, I think, heading home, Rampton County, continuum of care, where we're working together with the city and the county and nonprofit organizations and just an array of entities come together to solve this huge issue, was a young lady who was sitting on the curb in St. Paul with her four-year-old son and was pregnant and was just crying with many people walking past her. And eventually one of the housing advocates stopped to say, how can we help you? And she shared her story that she had been put out and she had nowhere to go. She had no assistance. And she needed help. And they called 211 to find out where she could enter to get the support. that she needed. And unfortunately, I was told that Ramsey County didn't pop up at all. So they had sent her over to Minneapolis to do an overnight stay, I believe, in a hotel. where they paid for the night in just one night, herself, a four-year-old, and she's pregnant. And so the next day, she found herself in the same situation. And the young lady called this community advocate who took the call and was scrambling. to figure out how could they support, and what resources were available at Ramsey County to help this woman. And they ended up sending her to Eagan to get the help that she needed. And I think they put down, a deposit and waive the fees so that she could stay there for a few more days. And so my question to you is, what are we doing that everyone is not going to enter through a coordinated process? They just need help now in where they are. And what are we doing with moments like that, with these dollars that we have that we are opening up and have availability to help people, not just for one day or for one night. And a lot of people don't want to go to a shelter, right? What are we doing to support individuals who need maybe a week or two or three or a month just to get themselves together? What are we putting in place for moments like this?

Good question, Commissioner Moran, and I appreciate that nuance. I don't know the story specifically. One thing I can say is that statewide we meet with all the coordinated entries, and we all are trying to piece together a situation like that. So if Ramsey County does not have a bed available or funds available, we do often reach out to other counties to say, do you have openings? Could you help this individual? So it's a shared effort when resources run thin, which also some other counties might reach out to us if they have somebody. Depending on the fiscal financial county at the time where that resident was when they became homeless, there's some different funding streams that we have to do for eligibility criteria. But Renee spoke to that coordination piece and the braiding of funds and that constant heading home. Ramsey and other coordinated entry entities, that's really important. We have networks built in where we're meeting regularly with other providers. And most of the providers, even on our shelter teams, know each other. They can pick up and get an advocate. We do work very closely with United Way 211, so that surprises me that Ramsey County didn't pop up. So I will follow up on that to make sure that that is not the case. But we are listed in 211. And like I said, oftentimes, behind the scenes, workers are talking to each other. So the shelter intake in Dakota County knows the shelter intake in Ramsey County and Hennepin County and vice versa. So we're working really together when resources run thin to make sure that families need that. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of money for hotel stays. You mentioned that families don't want to go to shelter. Sometimes that might be the only option of safety. And we do try to assess, again, that situation as to why that would be and be creative and innovative. But there is not a lot of money for shelter capacity in any county right now. It's mostly shelter beds. But if you ever see that issue coming up, please contact myself or the family intake line, and we could help triage some of those individual calls without knowing all of the circumstances.

Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that. And it was like 9.30 at night. I'm getting this phone call and on the phone for 11 o'clock and say, go on and on. Right, with all good information because I know we're doing good work, right? And it's good to hear that we have strong partnerships so that if a bed is not available in Ramsey County, we're able to reach out to other neighboring counties and cities to provide the services because this is not just a Ramsey County issue. It is really a statewide issue and concern. And having strong partners and partnership is really key and important. to the work that we are doing to really keep, especially for me, women and children safe and off the street. Could you share why we don't have stronger, able to utilize hotels more?

Commissioner Moran, the run of the reasons is hotels are expensive. They don't often come with services or people are scattered, and so it's not the best practice or the best model that people have for people getting the care that they need long term. It is reserved for some of those emergency situations, for maybe the situation that you just described, maybe somebody who is fleeing domestic violence. So we triage some of those emergency things, maybe somebody who has health needs, that can't go, maybe there is some safety in the shelter. So it's really reserved. We triage them on an emergency basis and we do have a fund for that. But when we have shelter beds available, we really want to utilize that because best practices says that's where they can get the wraparound services, where they can get connected to our shelters. And we're funding those shelters and so we really want to be able to refer people there. And the bottom line is it's expensive. Hotel management for shelter is expensive and is reserved for very specific emergency situations.

So I'm hoping as we move forward that we can be creative and innovative and to negotiate with hotels to get a block or something. And when it comes from accounting, we can make those type of deals that we can negotiate a block of rooms that are there for emergency purposes, right? And you know, I... I hear you say that a shelter, they often, you're coordinating with the wraparound services, but often that doesn't happen either. Often people stay a night and they leave, right? And not to say that's never, every, all, and never, ever. Those things is not part of my vocabulary, right? But that we are... I like the fact that we're looking at best practices, right? But this is a moment in time that we have to be innovative and creative. Because really, even for people who are working, it's being called the working poor, where wages are not aligning with the cost of living. Right. And definitely, you know, when we hear we are creating more developers who are creating space at 30% of the AMI is exactly what we need at this moment in time. Right. And even, of course, within that, there's more, there's lots of barriers at the federal level. And, you know, we've got to be conscious at the state level and county level because sometimes we keep people in poverty. where they're not able to advance up without being pulled off of something. But again, we can only do what we can do here at the county level. And I know these are the conversations that we're having at Heading Home Ramsey County within our steering committees and those work groups. It's why we're thinking about bringing in more landlords to be partners with more landlords who can create spaces for moments like this. It was also shared with me that in Minneapolis, there's a, I still call them landlords. There's another name right now, property owners or something, right? Where they have an abundance of, I think they say a 64-bed building. right, where community-based organizations have been able to work with this property owner to, within, there may be, I think she said there was like five or six bedrooms. where they are allowing individuals to rent out a bedroom, where it's still a part of a community where they can cook, where they can wash their clothes, where they are a part of a community within that house itself. It could be a 64-bedroom or a house with six bedrooms where they're renting out room. I think it was a little bit spendy. I think she said they're asking for $1,000 a month per room. But that encompassed everything. And I don't know what we are investing in that to negate whether that's too much or not around what we are spending for individual to stay out of shelter. I would like those numbers. I am very curious of where this $2 million is going and what we're getting for, what we're paying for in a shelter, in a bed. Because that's a very transit type of, you know, folks are not going to want to be in a shelter. If you don't come in at 8 o'clock, they just give it to somebody else. And it's this whole rolling thing. So I would like to really know what that looks like. What's this recycling look like once again? And I think I'll talk a little bit more about this as we talk about the encampment and the work that we're doing around the encampment. But being innovative and creative and doing what was done in 1990, do that work in 2026. What was done in 2000, do that work in 2026. How do we recreate? continue to recreate the work that we do. Because I know in Ramsey County, we are innovators. We are leaders. We're doing the hard work. We are supporting the families. We're looking at the kids. We're looking at adult men. We're doing it right. But keep in mind that holistic, comprehensive, and regenerative type of mindset that we are looking at the moment that we're in that creates the future. Thank you.

No further discussion. I'll call.

McGuire. Aye. McMurtry, excuse. Miller. Aye. Moran. Aye. Zhong. Aye. Jebensingh. Aye. And Ortega.

Aye. Item number 10.

I think I pulled that, Mr. Chair. I had like three agendas, so different agendas. So I'm like, where is that?

Mr. Chair, I could give a situational update first and then, OK. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Commissioner Moran. I really appreciate that we were able to put this item on in the context of this particular meeting. I think hearing of those three items and that you were able to have some discussion with staff, I think it's good for our community to know this is the normal work of the county. Those were not special items as a result of the encampment. These are strategic investments that the county has been working on every day, grinding out along the continuum of housing that we do across our departments and as business as usual in many ways of just the work that we're about. So in terms of an encampment response, I want to just give a high-level summary since we are on the eve of the planned closure. So on July 8th of 2026, the City of St. Paul announced plans to close encampments across the city, citing growing concerns of health, safety, and well-being of the people living in them. The first closure, Pigs Eye Park, is scheduled for tomorrow, with additional encampment closures occurring on a rolling basis, though we do not have dates. In response, Ramsey County quickly mobilized one Ramsey County effort by launching a community wellness and response resources initiative. On July 14th was the first day that we went out to the encampment as part of that coordinated response. We've been going out previously as different departments, but this was our first coordinated response. Bringing together financial assistance, social services, public health, housing stability, and the Office of the Chief of Staff, and working in close partnership with the city, community organizations, and contracted outreach providers. This initiative delivered a coordinated, person-centered response focused on building trust, understanding a person's unique circumstances, and connecting Ramsey County residents with county services. Since the city announced the closure, county staff have made more than 5,000 individual contacts with encampment residents in these past few weeks. These interactions have included meeting immediate basic needs, assisting with public benefits, conducting housing assessments, coordinating shelter referrals, connecting individuals to physical or behavioral health services, and helping residents access financial assistance and other county programs. This coordinated response has involved more than 90 employees across our organization. Ramsey County has invested more than $1.1 million in emergency shelter and intensive case management toward the effort. We've also spent $33,000 on outreach supplies in these past few weeks. And we've done a preliminary calculation and estimate repurposing about $150,000 of county staff time over the past few weeks on this effort. So yesterday, as part of the transition, county outreach teams began distributing outreach bags to residents in preparation to the closure. Each bag included a shelter and services resource guide, nanoxone, electrolyte packets, bottled water, body wipes, granola bars, to help the immediate needs during the transition. Ramsey County also is planning to provide temporary track phones to individuals who have been identified as one who is actively engaging in housing, shelter, or treatment as part of their coordinated plan to stay connected. Providing the phones through scheduled appointments will help residents maintain contact with case managers and housing navigators and health care providers as they work toward more stable housing. As the encampment encloses tomorrow, Ramsey County's work will continue. Beginning Thursday and continuing for at least two weeks, Ramsey County will operate a temporary resource site at 555 Cedar from Monday through Friday from 10 AM to 2 PM to provide ongoing case management, housing navigation, connections to shelter, health care, and other community resources. We felt it was important to have a singular place that people could refer back to, as we are no longer going to be at the Pigs Eye encampment with those things. County and city staff will continue to coordinate through shared residence lists, priority planning, and weekly case coordination meetings to align our efforts and monitor progress. While the encampment closures represent an important transition, they do not represent the solution to homelessness. Homelessness is driven by a complex combination of housing affordability, economic pressures, behavioral and physical health needs, and other systemic factors. This RBA that's before you affirms some of that on behalf of this county board to the community. And we recognize that addressing these challenges requires both an immediate response to support the people experiencing this today and a sustained commitment to expanding the housing continuum into the future, which was reflected in some of the work that we referenced earlier in this meeting. As part of this RBA, we are asking the board to reaffirm your commitment to treating every person experiencing homelessness with dignity and respect, while recognizing the meaningful progress will require a coordinated action. It will require strong partnership and ongoing long-term investments. As the county manager, I'm fully committed to leading this work along with our teams. Our priorities are extremely clear. We will continue to strengthen our coordinated response in partnership with the city by expanding our outreach and work, but the work doesn't stop at the encampment. It's part of the full continuum. So at the same time, we need to stay focused on the Heading Home Ramsey strategic plan, which I plan to ask our teams to share more in depth with you at an upcoming board workshop. In addition, the work aligns with our economic competitiveness inclusion plan. That means expanding access to housing, increasing supportive housing capacity, strengthening homeless prevention, housing stabilization efforts, preserving and developing affordable housing, and championing policies and systems changes that will improve housing outcomes across the county. You heard some of that today. As I appreciated, Commissioner Jevonsingh, your last question to Max and the team. So in the next couple weeks, the county will be making an official announcement but I'll call it to mind today, that we'll be bringing together a summary of a lot of the investments that we've made. And since December of 2021, which has been about five years, Ramsey County has invested approximately $106 million of affordable housing renovation, preservation, and construction. And this investment has touched over 7,000 units. And so we look forward to sharing a lot of details about that in the next couple of weeks as part of this broader conversation. So the work of building a strong housing continuum, as you see, is not accomplished through a single initiative nor organization. It requires a substantial amount of sustained leadership, accountability, collaboration, and investment We as staff are extremely grateful to all of you, both to this current board, but the board that preceded you, to ensuring that Ramsey County continues to lead with its investments with a sense of compassion and definitely urgency, but with a lot of purpose while working toward a future where fewer people are experiencing homelessness and more residents have the opportunity to achieve stable and safe housing in our community. This board action that I have before you provides a reaffirmation of our path, one that reflects our values and strengthens our coordinated response today and advances the long-term work that is before us. And I look forward to doing that with all of you and with our teams. Thank you. Rena?

Is there anyone else who would like to speak?

I just have a question.

Thank you. And thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, County Manager Becker. This was really helpful background and to just outline all the things that we are doing and have been doing for this work. I've been just getting some questions from the communities that I represent because we've had issues with encampments in the suburban area and they've been We've been really dealing with them in a positive way and they're a little worried that as St. Paul closes their encampments that we push the, we stop these and then they'll move over to other encampments. So we know that this could happen and it could happen, obviously it can happen within St. Paul, it can happen in any area that this would transfer them to other areas. And then I was just curious, how we're thinking about dealing with that, and even how are we going to prevent people from going right back to the encampment after we move them out? If you could give us some thoughts, because I've been getting questions in the community, and I know we're going to keep dealing with these issues as we have always done, which is to work with people that are experiencing homelessness wherever they are. to try to find them, to try to get them into the coordinated effort and help them. So I don't know if there's anything extra. I mean, I think we'll just keep doing all this work.

Yeah, thank you, Commissioner McGuire. I'm happy to address that. Well, first and foremost, I want to make sure folks know that the Heading Home Ramsey continuum of care represents all of Ramsey County. So we have had substantial input and involvement from suburban organizations as well as suburban mayors. And so we definitely don't see this as a St. Paul issue alone. And beyond that, I think the suburban community, several of them, have been very proactive in terms of connecting to their own community resources, connecting through our Housing stability, but also their own collaborations that they have and actually embedding some housing folks advocates within their Organizations I will say several the larger suburban cities have done that and they work in close partnership with us In terms of enforcement that is the role of not the county in terms of enforcement so I just want to make sure that you understand that while certainly we do have some role when it's on a county property or if it is in one of our contracted cities, but it's a little bit indirect and we could talk about that more at some point if you want. And then lastly, the most important thing is this is not a St. Paul issue. It's not a Ramsey County issue. This is a statewide challenge and there's people living everywhere that struggle and they tend to generate proximity around where there's more services, certainly. But this is something that the state legislature and the governor are going to have to take up in partnership with us as we look to the future. And we would welcome all those suburban communities to also advocate for resources because it's not just in one person's backyard. It's a systemic issue. So thank you.

Thank you, County Manager Becker. Thank you for those reminders and those good words. And I know that some of my cities do have housing advocates embedded And they are doing amazing work. And I just want to give a shout out to all the people throughout our entire county that are doing this great work. So thank you for that.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to lift up that, you know, thank you to the work of so many of our advocates, our faith leaders, our partners all around Heading Home Ramsey, who has lifted up the fact that, you know, Closing the encampments basically just disperses the issue and that there are really major challenges with connecting them to resources again. So one, I just want to thank County Manager Becker for being responsive, for listening, and thinking through about the actions that the county can take. because we are not the enforcement authority. In addition to that, I just want to lift up some tangible and real stories and experiences why folks are unhoused. From Wilder, they have people who have been at the encampment for several years now, and the fact is that we have been under attack with Operation Metro Surge and immigration, is a barrier to actually getting housed and to actually getting proper documentations. In addition to that, there are also folks who have lost housing because they were in unsafe conditions and were forced out. Those are just some of the stories that were shared. In addition to that, I just want to lift up the work of the district councils in my district who, in the Southeast Community Organization where Pigs Eye is located directly, they have asked for an extension so that the groups and providers can respond. And they asked for at least a 60-day extension. On top of that, Payne Phelan District Council supported no sweeps indefinitely. And they said to me that it comes from a place of what we have experienced with Operation Metro Surge, where folks showed up for their community members and said that they did not want to separate community members from their communities here. So with many of those asked, I just have a question around, as a provider for us, what does 30 days get us? What does 60 days, what does 90 days get us as a provider?

I can just give some broad overview here. Commissioner Zhang, I might invite Director Wilkins to join me as well. But if you don't mind, Director, just come on up and we can address this one together. But we've talked a lot about this internally as a team. And certainly on a very practical level, regardless of whether shelter is the answer for many people or not, we believe that with 30 more days, we would be able to secure at least the additional shelter beds from the money that we received from St. Paul with that recent JPA. procurement process right now, those beds are not secured. I would assume that within 30 or 45 days we would be able to secure those additional beds. Again, no additional money from the county, but we would be able to kind of finalize that expenditure for the city's money that you guys signed the JPA for last week. In addition, we have a solicitation right now that's being reviewed for case management. Within 30-ish days, I would assume we would be able to have more case managers available to support some of the folks that are transitioning out of the encampment. With those two things in mind, I'm going to turn it over to Director Wilkins to see if she has any other things that she'd like to highlight are possible in 30 or 45 or 60 days.

Chair, commissioners, and county manager Becker, I think those two are the main things that would really help would be increasing shelter bed capacity, the case management services, creating services to connect people to basic resources and other pathways if shelter is not the option. I think the other thing that a 30-day pause could also help with would be coordinating some efforts with other service providers that are doing the work and really looking at maybe more triage of identifying folks that need more services if shelter is not the option. Unfortunately, I was talking to County Manager Becker about this. If there is increased units, I don't think that 30 days is going to solve that. To move people into actual housing instability and getting the application fees, the damage deposits, and moving, it could maybe give us the ability to identify where those places were and start that movement. But I don't think that a 30 days pause would make that tangible. I think the biggest thing would be the case management and the increase in emergency shelter beds and the conversations to have people to talk about what that would look like. I would also say buying time for people. We were out yesterday. A lot of people are saying, we think there's a pause. We think there's a wait. So we're not going to move until we find out what happens. So if they don't want to move because they're waiting to find out, we're out there saying like, hey, we can take you to shelter now. There's beds. But they're saying we don't want to go until we find out what happens on Wednesday. So I don't know if the pause will also sort of address or help with that issue. But I think the biggest things that County Manager Becker would be would really to get those solicitations funded and begin that work.

Thank you. Let me just say, moving forward, at this point, I'm assuming that Wednesday is going to be a goal. The city's moving forward from everything we've communicated with them. I think the appropriate place What I would like to see moving forward would be the rollouts of the other two. Because to your point, Commissioner McGuire, to what extent are we spreading the issue throughout the county? And the other is it gives time. Heading Home Ramsey is where we have the nonprofit sector, the city, the county. And that's where we should put forward, you know, come together and have a plan. So I look forward. We need to schedule that workshop on Heading Home Ramsey and what their strategic plan is so we can provide input as we see it on the ground. And at the same time, hopefully we've learned from the experience of what we're going through with this camp. And we can move forward. So I'm hoping that the city does not roll out, or at least have that discussion at Heading Home Ramsey to look at and address some of the issues you're bringing up, which you're right on key. Thank you for your good work. Commissioner McGuire and Jean.

I just want to thank you, too, for all your, you and your team, your amazing work. I'm encouraged when you come before us and let us know all the work that you're doing. Just thank you for all of that.

chair and commissioners and county manager becker i also just want to raise up a big thank you to ramsey county it's not just housing stability that's doing this work it's all hands on deck really at this point and we've had some really passionate staff come up and lead some really good initiatives um we've been doing the work every day but to sort of bring everybody collectively in this for this purpose has been really um welcomed and i appreciate it as a new employee it was really great to feel the support rally around this effort and so it's not just hsd or myself it's really it's all everybody that's really worked really really hard these past 28 days

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I definitely agree with your statement that closures are inevitable. I've had conversations in that meeting last week with state legislators as well as with the mayor's office, and they're using the levers that the city has. They only have the tool of the enforcement, and so they are enforcing their ordinances there. However, as a partner, I'm disappointed in that type of response when we have been doing the work, and today we're moving millions into this as well. And I know that our state partners also care very deeply about this. So I would say I'm disappointed by that, that even just 30, 60, 70, 90 days would actually reduce the harm too. I think it's using a moment where we can activate so many of those providers and so many of our faith-based communities who have stepped up to say that they're willing to bring people, they're willing to bring resources to the table, too. So it's a big missed opportunity.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Stay there. I might need you. We're not letting you go. Go ahead, Reena. Thank you.

I think the first thing I'm going to question for, as we, in our support at the encampment, because they're going to disperse people tomorrow, and you said they're moving to 5-5 season. How are we getting that information out to community members and community partners and those who've been impacted?

Commissioner Moran, that's a really good question. So we have put together flyers and also to-go bags to those residents. We also will be updating, to your point earlier, United 211 with that information as to where they could find us. We've shared that with Heading Home Ramsey. We've shared that with all the service providers and the faith-based organizations that are out there, that if people disperse and would like to reconnect on shelter or all other resources, we set up that location where they would be able to find us. We've also having some cell phones. Again, we're strategically deciding who would get those phones. That would be an appointment with an intake worker. This would be for somebody that has a treatment bed that they're waiting for. Or maybe they have an apartment, but it's like seven or 10 days away. we are providing them with a phone so that they would be able to contact our staff or their case manager to make sure that that opportunity doesn't slip away. So those are some strategic efforts. We'll continue to do the outreach. We'll continue to work with our service providers. But the main thing is getting the information out that if they need to get reconnected or they would still like resources, that we will be at the same location every day at the same time until August 20th and extend that time if needed.

Thank you. So Mr. Chair, County Manager, and members, commissioners, I'm really torn here on having to be so reactionary to what is happening that was not a part of the plan, our strategic plan, of how we was going to utilize our money, spend our money, and be very strategic on having an impact. I would say and believe I am one of the strongest advocate for around this issue, one of the strongest advocate on the issues around moving people from homelessness to housing, to home ownership, to stable housing, to home ownership. But I want to read here what, in this document that we talked about, that we are directing the county manager to advance existing strategies and develop additional strategies to strengthen the housing continuum, including the following actions in alignment with the heading home ramp and strategic plan, which means that we'll continue to work on expanding housing access through building partnership with landlords, to increase supportive housing capacity through strategic investment and coordinated system planning, to transform access to housing by redesigning and modernizing the coordinated entry system, to strengthen systems that improve housing stability by addressing complex behavioral, health, medical, and housing needs, advance the community wellness and response initiative through a one Ramsey County approach that coordinates and integrates the work of financial assistance services public health, community correction, social service, veteran service, workforce solution, and other departments, to champion regional policies and system change through advocacy at local, state, and federal level, to build data-driven systems performance, to build data-driven system performance by aligning investment and systems improvement, with data from the Ramsey County Community Needs Assessment and other resources. And I'm going to just repeat that again, because I think this is really important, that we are building a data-driven system performance by aligning investments and system improvements with the data from the Ramsey County Community Needs Assessment and other sources. Preserving and assisting affordable housing by supporting the acquisition, the renovation, and the preservation of naturally occurring housing, affordable housing. To increase the supply of affordable housing through competitive housing development funding, expand opportunities for home ownership through down payment assistance and support for home rehab and repair. To strengthen homelessness prevention and housing stabilization efforts to help household remain stably housed and reduce inflows into homelessness. to repeat, to strengthen homelessness prevention and housing stabilization effort to help households remain stably housed and reduce inflow into homelessness, to strengthen partnerships across cities, health care, housing, Philip Droppet, local government, and community organizations to improve coordinated responses to housing stability and homelessness. And so I read that, and I repeat that, and I read it and repeat it because we have been thrown into reaction to a population that is very, very hard to stabilize. and to wrap around all the services that they need and what systems and what data and what research and what practice would show that this is a circle of them being homeless. I would like to know how we are investing our dollars to get to the result of what we want to see happen in stabilizing people and families and others. This is a very, very difficult population that we are spending, because we are being reactionary, almost $2 million. And I'm going to say this again. I really want to know what we get for that and what is the impact and outcome that we are looking for with the dollars that we are spending. To me, that is really, really important, right? Because I don't think this just falls on Ramsey County and the Ramsey County residents that we are taxing to do this work. There's a cost that is associated with this that is ongoing to what ends are we trying to get to? And does it align with what I just read here, right? Because we have been put into this position that we are reacting to a crisis. And yes, they will move to another county. Yes, they will hit Roseville, Maplewood, and other cities and townships across Ramsey County. But they're coming from those places too. And they're coming from Hennepin County. They're coming from other counties. And so I want us to be open to ask for their help. Why is the burden falling on us, Ramsey County and Ramsey County alone, with our community partners that we're funding?

Commissioner Moran, I really appreciate your context. I know you and I have had a lot of conversations over the last few weeks. I will say that, you know, that is the reason why last week, and I think before I said it at the board, I shared a memo with you about the importance of, you know, that the resources are not finite and we have to stay focused on the kind of the long game. I've tried to continue to reinforce that. Our county commitment thus far has been the $1.1 million. It is not $2 million. I understand that there's frustration of just reactionary buying additional shelter beds. I will say after consulting with our housing stability director and others, we understood that, one, we were responding to the encampment, which we did not choose to make the decision to close, but we are responsible somewhat for the health and well-being of our residents to mitigate some of the harm. As Commissioner Zhang talked about, we won't be able to mitigate all the harm, but there was an existing... a gap in shelter capacity even before the encampment closure was announced. I will say I've been tracking them the beds each night. And while, on one hand, I have said there is some capacity, there is. But it is not abundant, and certainly not for some of the target populations that we are now trying to buy some beds for, whether it's for different gender identities or for families. And women, especially. There's very few women beds every night, I will say. I've noticed that. So there is a gap in shelter capacity. So while it was reactionary to spend those dollars around the mayor's and the city's decision, I do think it is something for the next year. Having that extra capacity in our community will not do more harm, but actually hopefully do some good. I do think it was a good investment. With that said, I've also been very clear of telling our team and the city that we've kind of drawn our lines in the sand here, and we're not going to buy any more shelter beds on behalf of the city. If you want more beds, they asked us to facilitate the solicitation on their behalf. What I did want to purchase, and I did spend county reallocated LAHA funds on, or additional funds from the county on, is case management. And I do think that is our responsibility to make sure that people have who are in those beds actually have the support they need and the wraparound services. So I talked very strategically with DCM Francois and with Director Wilkins to make sure the money we were going to spend at the outset was going to hopefully get a good return for the reaction to somebody else's decision. But now we have to take a moment and step back. And I've continued to encourage all of you, as I've written to you and called you and talked to you and publicly have said to the city and others, we have to get back to the continuum of care work and Heading Home Ramsey. We have to get back to that table and work on all the parts. And I even would go further. I know I shared it in a memo to all of you. I will be excited. I had thought about putting it publicly so we could share it. But on our county web page, we have a housing continuum you'll see an excellent graphic that goes all the way from prevention, shelter, all the way to home ownership. And that covers the things that CED is working on and HSD is working on. That is our responsibility to do that work. There's lots of ways we do that. But we are not the only ones that do that work either. We need a lot of partners. And you are absolutely right. I was at a meeting with Minnesota Housing last week, Dr. Wilkins and I. Hennepin County was at the table. City of Minneapolis was at the table. The state is interested in facilitating some of those conversations. And it's part of my other county connections around SNAP, but I actually meet monthly with the other metro administrators and county managers, and housing has come up as well. And we all know this is a regional situation, but I will say it's also a statewide issue that we have to address. So I think all the things you said are true, but I will say that as an immediate... measure, I think we had a very measured and appropriate response in terms of what we could do at this moment.

Commissioner, sorry, County Manager Becker and Commissioner Moran, if I could also add, in our budget workshop, or sorry, in our board workshop that we had previous with our LAHA dollars, we already did use the strategic plan that we had, and we did have earmarked money for shelter and emergency shelter operations prior to Encampment closure so part of this money was already earmarked for that initiative It did get expedited due to what we are in right now But it was earmarked before in the budget workshop and it is included in the needs assessment as well as the strategic plan So it's been something that we've had our eyes on for a long time. We've always known that we've had a The data that shows we have a limited shelter capacity, especially for those priority populations that County Manager Becker mentioned. So I just want to say that even though it seemed expedited, it has been in the works with our strategic plan and community needs assessment that Heading Home Ramsey has had, and we are completing the needs assessment for 2026, which is almost finalized, and it continues to be an issue on that whole continuum.

So I'm not saying that it's great. I know, right? It's a whole container, and that includes shelters, right? And I'm not saying we shouldn't invest in it. That's not the point here, that I'm saying that we shouldn't. But what I would like to see come out of this, I know we did 1.1. The other is coming from the city. What I would like to see come out of this is a report that shows the impact of this investment. I mean, what are we getting? What's the end goal here? Were we able to see how many individuals showed up for the additional services? Did we have a steady flow of 10, 100 individuals that stayed with us so that we can track that they were not going from having a bed to having the services provided for them? Or were they back in another encampment? And I guess if they don't show up, we're going to make some assumptions that other things are happening in their life because this is a challenged population. I just want to have some data, something that we can go back and say, this is what we spent and this was the result. And maybe that's OK, right, that they I think we can be prepared to know that often they become invisible again. And sometimes they don't follow through because they're dealing with some really, if it's not substance use disorder, it's mental health, it's a lot of things. But for those, the working poor who are working every day and want to shelter there, how are we elevating them to the next level too? What's the end goal, right? That we can say that. you know, three years, five years later, we could say, we didn't make a dent in homelessness at all, right? How have we been more intentional to show that those individuals who, because we make this assumption that everyone who is in the encampment are addicted or they have mental illness, and that is not the case. That is not the case, and so how do we, that we have some outcomes that we can look at and say we have achieved. Was this 10 out of 100? Whatever. But we can show at Pathway. I think we need that. And I'm just going to end with this here, which is a story. You've probably heard this story before. But I'm going to share it anyway here, again, about this group of young people who were walking through the forest. Right, just walking young people, just riding back and having a great time. And they came to a stream. And as they looked at the stream, they noticed that there were babies in the stream. And they all started running. I'm going to say it was a young girl that started running to the stream to start removing the babies. And they all just ran. And they just began to just begin to pull the babies out the river, pull the babies out the river, one by one by one, pulling them out. And finally, one of the young people just ran away. They just ran away. And someone yelled out and said, hey, where are you going? We need your help right here. And she said, I am going to find out why the babies keep coming down the string. And the fact is, we need to go upstream to find out why they keep coming down. What are we doing? What else do we need to do? How do we need to be more innovative, more creative? How do we stop the flow? You know? of so many families, because it's not just about individuals who are underwater, drowning. And how do we prevent and intervene and stop the babies from coming down the river? So that's my whole concept here. How do we do this and be more effective and strategic around what we spend? These dollars, they're our precious dollars to get an income that we can say we had a dent in homelessness here and not have people say to us, it has gotten worse. So I'll just end with that.

Thank you. Again, thank you for your good work. These are trying times. Thank you. I need a motion and a second. Second.

Second.

Do we have no further discussion? Roll call.

McGuire? Aye. McMurtry is excused. Miller? Aye. Moran? Aye. Zong? Aye. Jebensingh? Aye. And Ortega?

Aye. You want county connections? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll try to be quick here. Last night, I had the opportunity to meet with the Ramsey County Charter Commission and provide an update on several of the issues kind of shaping our organization right now. I really appreciated the chance to engage with them. Typically, I would go there only once a year to talk about the budget, and so I decided to add another checkpoint just to give some contextualization of the state of the county. And it was really appreciated. I know they'll be reaching out to Clerk Yang probably because there's a couple of vacancies that they declared last night in a couple of your districts. So we'll want some help in getting that word out. And as I alluded to, I continue to meet regularly with the other metro county administrators and managers. And most recently, we spent our time talking about the fiscal impacts of HR 1. Obviously, there's some things that are going to be showing up in budgets across counties in Minnesota here in the next year, but we've been primarily engaging with the Association of Minnesota Counties right now, in particular, monitoring the Farm Bill. There is some discussion about some tradeoffs being discussed when it comes to the error rate and possibly a delay of implementation, but it might mean a higher charge the counties based on the air rate schedule, things like that. So there's some risk either way with that work, but we continue to track and try to plan our advocacy around a statewide effort, a metro-wide effort, rather than just going alone, obviously. So we'll keep you updated. I will say that it continues to put pressure onto our budget, both in the supplemental of the 2027 budget that I'll be presenting soon, as well as we look ahead into 28 and 29. I've asked our financial assistance services team to present a policy presentation to you next week as to some real impacts that are going to show up in the supplemental 2027 budget. So I wanted to have a chance for you to engage in that conversation before approving or considering an RBA on the 18th of August. Lastly, I just want to make a mention about elections. We are currently in the midst of primaries, as you know. We have revamped our elections website. It is really great. I want to thank both the elections team and our communications department. There are a lot of frequently asked questions there that are very simple to follow. And I really appreciate that we've been getting out flyers and the website out to a lot of community partners to help share that information. We are also going to have a board workshop about elections August 18th at 1030. So I just wanted to make sure that that was known because I know there were a lot of community members here today before the board meeting interested in our elections work. So I want to make sure that that's flagged for them. So thank you. Thank you.

Outside Board and Committee reports, Maishan.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Last week, I was joined by Deputy Director Max Holthusen from Community and Economic Development Team, St. Paul Public Housing Agency, and the City of St. Paul Assistant Mayor Nick Stummelanger to do a ribbon cutting for the townhomes. I'm going to butcher the name. Dunandine? Dunandine?

What?

Yes. What he said.

I want to know that we was there building, putting the installations in the home one year ago. I'm just saying. I'm just saying.

Yeah, yeah. But I just wanted to lift up the important work of the St. Paul Public Housing Authority as a partner in the continuum for... deeply affordable housing units. These are public housing units that folks pay just 30% of their income to be able to live in there. And these are for families. They're also accessible, which is also a need in the community for this. It was just really good and really speaks volumes to the partnership and the foresight of our staff who started making investments in these areas with public housing authority. Because as federal funds are diminishing and HUD is also always on the chopping blocks, they're going to be a big partner for us in our conversations around supporting and preserving deeply affordable housing units in our communities. Next, I also want to share something from my district and also an announcement that the MPCA released in their announcement. Unfortunately, Northern Iron is a foundry in my district. They have been operating and have been in costly legal litigation at the MPCA around their permits and have decided to close. So they are winding down and I believe this is just a very unfortunate situation because it's very rare for any business to lose their permit or not lose their permit but then to not be able to work with the regulating entities, and the MPC rarely ever takes that action of moving to revocation. So this is directly the response, it's what Northern Iron has done to itself and to our communities essentially, so it is very unfortunate. However, I will say that community members in my district, they feel a sigh of relief that the pollution that they've been experiencing from the soil to the air to the soot that has been landing on their homes, they are just relieved that it's what's happening. Thank you. And then other than that, Mr. Chair, I just wanted to say today's National Night Out.

So after this, it's still a long day for us.

So we'll be going to black parties. Thank you.

Commissioner McGuire.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And yes, everyone go to your Night to Unite events tonight. And thanks to all the community members that are hosting those and to all of our law enforcement agencies that are making the rounds tonight. So congratulations. Much gratitude to everyone. Last week, Rice-Larpenter Alliance had a great member lunch and learn. We talked about issues impacting neighborhood safety, health, and well-being of our community residents. We had mayors of our three cities were there. Mayor Dan Rowe was there from Roseville. Mary Lee Abrams from Maplewood, and Mayor Kelly Herff was there from St. Paul. It was a great conversation. We had law enforcement present, of course, businesses. And it was just a great event hosted by Kim O'Brien of Rice-Arpenter Alliance. And they do such great work there. Thank you for that great meeting. And then Ramsey Washington Recycling and Energy Board did meet. We had our auditor joined us to finalize the 2024 audit and talk about the 2025 audit. And we got updates on the budget, waste reduction programming. R&E Center facility. We received a safety update regarding our R&E's strong safety performance. This is very exciting. We recently got an insurance rating that's where we have a below average safety related incident. So it really helps with our workers' comp and things. So we have a safety person that's really been on top of things, really reducing the incidents, the unsafe incidents. And so it's just a great finding that we have such low incidence of non-safety, and it helps our insurance rates. So kudos to the R&E Center for that. We have grants going through the state, including funding for solar panels being installed at the facility, anaerobic digestion construction, and the purchase of an electric yard tractor. So kudos to them for getting grants that are helping with our work there. And we got two awards from the Minnesota Association of Government Communications for the work that they're doing on all of our programming. So they're just moving forward in great ways. When you get a chance, you should subscribe to the podcast Trash Talk with Trista, which is a resident-geared podcast that discusses best waste practices and policy and innovation. So that's a great podcast. And the Food Scratch Program is progressing through our communities, and we have now almost all of our residents, and we just have a few more communities that are left to go, and we're just grateful for all of that work. Then, just want to give a shout out to all of our communities for their great festivals. We had, St. Anthony had their Village Fest over the weekend, this past weekend, and Little Canada had Canadian Days. I was actually, they gave me a little recognition plaque because they got a critical corridors grant for their corridors, and they had great signage, and They gave me a cute little plaque thanking Ramsey County for their partnership on working with the community and working with our cities. And I do want to just give kudos to all of our departments, our community economic development and our public works for the work they do in our communities. And yes, these are really great, great signage. in our cities. So thank you for that, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Oh, wait. One more thing. I'm sorry. I have New Brighton Stockyard Days coming up this weekend. So a night to unite tonight and Stockyard Days this weekend. So thank you.

Commissioner Singh?

Yes, I just want to say that through all of our discussions today, we indicated how much of the work that the county does and how much our partners do and how much community does. And in the end, I think that this work is just how we choose as a community to take care of each other. And whether you are an advocate who says, I refuse to not look away, and I will bear witness to what's happening in my community, or you're somebody who picks up some water or some food or makes room in your home, for whatever, whether it's... reacting to something happening with the encampments, whether that it's happening with making sure that our elections are safe and everybody has their opportunity to vote if that is their right, all of the different ways that it is inspiring because it is easy to criticize and it is easy to say that these things are hard and it is easy to say that the world is full of suffering and problems and then decide just to keep to yourself. And so I just really want to thank everybody who stays in the game and continues to want to be part of taking care of each other. One of the opportunities for that was that the dwelling place in Moundsview opened up a program center. The dwelling place serves women and children who are survivors of domestic violence. And the new program center allows them to, they had expanded and had room for more residential housing as people were getting back on their feet. But they had reached the capacity for their children's programming, their daycare and education program that allowed them to really receive families. And so this new program center allows not only for the stabilization of the adults in the room, but for the children as well, which is part of our future upstream of how do we keep people out of the river. And these are our community partners who are doing this work. I also had the opportunity of attending Heartbeats for Hunger for the White Bear Lake area food shelf. and seeing community members. And the thing that was wonderful for me there was not only seeing community members enjoying Ramsey County Park. There were people who were swimming and doing cookouts as well as the event. But then also seeing so many of the volunteers who work with that food shelf who do so much more in community. And to see a young woman from Blaine who was there with the music. We just happened to share a high top because we were having the edible cookie dough, which I highly recommend. But she was spending her summer working as an intern doing this kind of community work as well. And again, the folks who choose to continue to be engaged. I was able to go to tour the Lake Johanna Fire Department open house. This is a combined firehouse that's serving the cities of Arden Hills, Shoreview, and North Oaks. Lovely to see the combined effort to keep our community safe and to provide first responder training and living in functional facilities for those communities. And then I just want to highlight that the White Bear Historical Society is hosting The Wall That Heals, a three-quarters scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. And it will be exhibited at Polar Lake Park. And that is later this week. And I know Commissioner Miller and I will be taking the tour. And I encourage folks, if you haven't had the chance to go to DC and experience the wall and to honor everybody who has served in our armed services, but particularly the individuals in the whole generation that was impacted by the Vietnam War, to take a moment. It reminds us, again, that ultimate act of community service.

So that's what I have.

Thank you. Commissioner?

Yeah, I'm going to go back a couple weeks, because I know we were, so I just want to touch on the mosquito, on 7-22, I attended the Metropolitan Mosquito Control District. The commission approved the 2027 maximum levy and preliminary budget direction. So they approved max levy reflects a proposed 10.75% increase to support implementations of MMCD's strategic plan. including expanding mosquito control services, infrastructure investments, and additional staffing. So if adopted in the final budget, the estimated impact would be around $1.19 per year for the median valued home. I just wanted to mention that. And then attending NACO. I was a member of the NACO's EELU, or Environment, Energy, and Land Use Steering Committee. We reviewed and approved 24 policy resolutions that... That will help guide NACO's federal advocacy on issues including water quality, solid waste, energy, infrastructure, environmental stewardship, and local government authority. It was a great conference down in New Orleans. And then last week I attended the WEWIN conference. It's Women Empowering Women for Indian Nations Conference. National conference where the theme was Warrior Woman, Creating Balance, Mind, Body, Heart, and Spirit. So all the sessions really focused on trauma-informed leadership, resilience, whole person wellness, and healthy boundaries and gratitude, and then our indigenous leadership values. That was just a consistent message we kept hearing throughout. I only missed one session, and that was while I was in the board meeting online last week. But it was also cool because I attend that conference every year with my daughter. So my daughter gets to also learn from other strong native leaders across the nation and meet people. So it's really great. And this, I'm just going to say one fun thing, if that's OK. We attended SummerSlam last weekend on Saturday. We're big WWE fans. My kids are. And then the convention center had some free things. And I got to jump off the top rope and be named Kelly the Conqueror as my WWE superstar name. So I have a trading card and a photo if anybody wants to see. It's pretty cool. I did jump off the top rope. Just so you know. And we are hosting National Night Out tonight for our community and our block. So I'm pretty excited to not be out and about in three different communities and be able to host and be in my neighborhood. So yeah, that's that.

I just got to tell you that about three, four weeks ago, we took my two granddaughters camping overnight. And everybody was commenting that there were no mosquitoes.

Oh, the mosquito control.

I told them to send a thank you to Commissioner Kelly. Ben and Moran.

That's big.

Okay.

Okay, a few things. I attended a grand opening of Luther Social Services, new center for changing lives that's located at 709 University Avenue West in the district. This is a new site that expands access to housing, stability, financial counseling, family support. and other essential services that strengthen our community and provide new opportunities for residents and families. They did a beautiful place with the old Lucha Social Services building. So there's also housing included in that. Really, really nice job. I also participated in a couple of meetings. I did the West 7 meeting on the planned closure of Pig Eyes Park encampment. Our discussion was focused on coordinating outreach, housing resources, and a lot of other things around what's next for these individuals. It was really just good to be there and hear from our community partners and those who are doing the hard work of supporting those individuals over at PXI Park. And of course, they were definitely asking for a pause. Let's see. On Friday, Commissioner Jefferson and I participated in the Twin City Habitat for Humanities Build Day. So it's really fun to do that again this year. This is our second year participating in that. It was good, again, to be in the room with the CEO, President Chris Coleman, who is the former mayor of St. Paul, who's leading Habitat for Humanity. We were able to lay flooring in one of their homes in North Minneapolis. It was great partnering with my colleague over there in Hennepin County. So this is a partnership. Or sometimes we're trying to be competitive, because we want more people from Ramsey County to show up than Hennepin County. But kudos to Commissioner Heather Edison, along with Commissioner Kevin Anderson, and Chair Irene Fernando, who all showed up and participated. Thank you, Commissioner Fernando, for lunch. We appreciate that. And it just reminded me that when we come together across county, increase and build stronger relationships. We definitely build more homes and stronger communities and more opportunities for families to achieve the dream of homeownership. And lastly, on Sunday, I participated and I showed up at Star House. I don't know if you heard of Star, have you heard of Star House? Which is a crisis nursery for zero to six year olds. It was an opportunity to meet the owner or the director of Star House, and the partners and supporters and the community leaders who are helping to expand services and opportunities for youth and families through the Star House mission. I mean, they did a beautiful job. I think there was six bedrooms in that house. It has done, wait, I have good notes here. I'm going to go here, because I was just really, really impressed with the work. So Star House is the only nonprofit crisis nursery in Ramsey County and dedicated to serving the most vulnerable constituents, children age 0 to 6 and their families. It says, when parents face a sudden overwhelming emergency, such as a medical crisis, housing instability, or extreme stress, Star House provides a free, safe, and nurturing environment for their young children to stay while their family stabilizes. And that is true. When I first came to Minnesota and I had an individual say, I dropped my kids off at respite care. I'm like, what is respite care? She says, it's a place where you can take your children when you need time to yourself or you're overwhelmed. And they do it free. And I was like, wow. As a mother of seven, where was that at when I needed it, right? Because we all need some type of support sometimes. We all need some help sometimes. But it's a beautiful place. This is a private owner who is renting the house to them. So they pay rent. But he's very, very supportive of the work. Him and his wife were there. And they have several other buildings that they And so I definitely took his card and said, you know, we're trying to work at heading home to Rampton County. We are creating a property owner work group. And we need the voices at the table, right, who are willing to, you know, when property owners are not or are leery of taking a risk of renting to someone who has a UD, an unlawful detainer, or who have a bad history, It's an opportunity for Ramsey County to say, we are working with these families, these individuals. And because of that, they can open up their doors and rent to them. So a great weekend. I left that. And I went to, on Friday, I better mention Rondo Days, which was on Saturday. So I was able to participate in the Rondo block party. It was wonderful, again, to be around neighbors and families and friends who just come together and celebrate. And get to know your neighbors. Some basic things, right? Get to know your neighbors. Food, music, local vendors, dancing, community energy was off the chart. It was just really, really inspiring to be there and participate in that. And last, heading home, Ramsey County Governing Board. We met last week also at Catholic Charity. So thank you, Catholic Charity, for opening up your doors and allowing us to meet in that space and to just get a feel for the work and see the work that's happening over there at Catholic Charity. And we will just continue to work on and to advance our collaborative strategies that we are putting forward in partnership with so many others.

And that's it for me.

Thank you. I'd like to share with you that last Tuesday I was participating on the panel with the city, with the system there, homeless folks, and other nonprofit folks on the panel. There was about six of us. It was about a two-hour discussion. It was a Q&A, community asking questions. There were a lot of homeless folks participating. It was a good interaction, as you could well imagine. Folks were concerned about the camp enclosures. But the discussion was a good one, and I think it was necessary just to let folks vent and let know what their wishes were. The other is I was on a panel last Thursday at the Landmark Center for the premiere of El Norte. It is about a 45-minute film on the journey of migrants from Latin America to the United States from various countries. was on a panel there with folks. And that turned out very well. So I want to just give kudos to both Landmark Center for a good job. Theater was packed. And the West Seventh Street Federation District Council for sponsoring that community event to hear folks let us know what they think. So thank you very much. Also had meetings with Chris Coleman and the executive team of Habitat for Humanity just to sort of brainstorm about how they should move forward in light of the various projects they have, but certainly the heights being a major concern. Moving forward here today, we have a workshop which We are behind by a half hour, but our discussion this morning was necessary. So I will...

I want to say one thing for you. I wanted to just wish Lene Becker a happy third of anniversary. Thank you. Oh, my God.

We have a workshop that's going to be chaired by McGuire. We'll take a five-minute break. Yeah, because we have staff waiting for us. We are adjourned.