ACTION STEPS: Volunteer, Talk, Interact, Learn

Volunteers Needed for Minneapolis Homeless

Peace House offers lunch, conversation, and practical services for people experiencing homelessness in Minneapolis. Regina joined the Peace House community around 2013. Health and substance use issues impacted her, but she connected there with peers and volunteers. She was encouraged to attend a residential treatment program in Rochester and said it was good to hear from her friends at Peace House who encouraged her while she was feeling lonely at the treatment home.

Regina is now housed in a southern metro suburb, but visits occasionally. As she said in a recent Peace House story: “I have been gone for nine months, and it feels great to walk back through the door again. People are happy to see me and I’m happy to see them.”

Peace House director Marti Maltby says they have three volunteer needs:

Daily volunteers, who come about once a week to hang out with community members. “Many of these volunteers just sit and chat with folks, but some provide services (haircuts, hand massages, foot care, bicycle repair, etc.). This tends to be a very social role. We like having volunteers come in from 10am to 2pm one day a week, but we can be flexible on both the hours and the days.”

On-call handyman: “We have many small repairs that come up randomly, and we don’t want to keep calling plumbers or electricians. However, I and the staff don’t have the tools, expertise, and time to do many of the repairs properly.”

Board members: “We would like to find someone with experience in project management or event planning, but we can also use help with marketing and similar areas. Having said that, we are open to a wide variety of backgrounds and skills. We have had several people who have never served on boards before and who have learned as they go. The time commitment involves one meeting a month (two hours), plus service on one committee.”

Thanks to Wilson Social Justice Fund of First Unitarian Foundation of Minneapolis, we have $500 to offer a reader who wants to become a Peace House board member (board members are asked to raise $500 each year).

Is there a housing space in your community that needs volunteers?

Talk to Candidates About Housing

Minnesota Housing Partnership works with partners to prepare materials to help people talk about housing issues, as well as to educate voters and candidates. We intend to share their 2026 materials, which should be ready after the August primaries.

As the election cycle kicks up this summer, do you want to be part of a team that helps Minnesota Women’s Press co-create guides about what candidates have said and done about housing, gun violence, immigration, and other issues? Sign up for an online discussion: tinyurl.com/TalkDoMWP

Interact

• Share these stories with friends and talk about which ones resonated with you.
• Send us a letter to the editor about your reflections on anything you read in this issue.
• Talk to neighbors about stories in this issue and how you can work collectively to be part of the solution. Let us know about any movement at community@womenspress.com

Learn

• See what the Hamilton sisters have built in Grand Marais: Hamiltonhabitat.wordpress.com
• What can you do about housing insecurity? Contact the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless (651-645-7332), a nonprofit focused on improving public policy.
• What can you do about disability issues? Contact the Minnesota Council on Disability (disability.state.mn.us) and Minnesota Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (mnccd.org).

Organize a Community Forum

The MICAH Speakers Bureau, called We Are Your Neighbors, is comprised of individuals with lived experience of homelessness and housing insecurity. The bureau is now available to facilitate panel discussions for community gatherings. With support from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, the bureau is dedicated to sharing solutions to homelessness and addressing its root causes through panel discussions. The standard format includes three speakers and a moderator, useful for after-worship educational hours or stand-alone evening events. The bureau can tailor events to an audience’s specific needs and can also accommodate an in-house moderator or panelist.
To learn more or discuss potential dates, contact Linda Lee Soderstrom

Minnesota Housing Partnership housing campaigns

Our Future Starts at Home supports a constitutional amendment to create a pool of dedicated housing funds.

Yes to Homes adjusts zoning laws statewide to make it easier to build.

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