On Friday September 3, 2021, the Legislative COVID Review Commission approved the $10 million in federal Fiscal Recovery Funds proposed by the Walz-Flanagan Administration to help shelters and other temporary congregate settings for people experiencing homelessness withstand and prevent outbreaks of COVID-19 that continue during the fourth wave of the pandemic.

These funds, which will be administered by the Minnesota Department of Human Services Office of Economic Opportunity, will be narrowly targeted to help respond to COVID-19 outbreaks in shelters and other temporary congregate settings for people experiencing homelessness, and will also allow organizations to propose specific uses of the funds that will help them become better poised to prevent outbreaks from occurring.

The distribution of these funds and their allowable purposes are anticipated to be substantially different from previous COVID-19 funding distributed by the State of Minnesota. A portion of the funding will be reserved and only deployed in helping to respond to current outbreaks. For the remainder of the funding, we anticipate inviting organizations to propose possible uses for these funds, but with narrower range of possible uses than previous rounds of funding.

It is increasingly clear that COVID-19 will impact our communities, and especially people experiencing homelessness, for the foreseeable future. In the hopes that this infusion of resources has the greatest impact possible, we are seeking your input and recommendations about these funds.

This survey will close at the end of the day on Monday, September 13.

Your response to this survey is anonymous. Please reach out to elizabeth.dressel@state.mn.us with any questions.