Third Way Housing Meeting Monday, March 18th, 2002

A group of SJA members and a few visitors met in The Upper Room of the Parish Center on Monday evening to present the model for developing a third way for responding to the affordable housing crisis.

Neither advocacy nor charity, the approaches SJA has chosen are now being put into action. With the vision and guidance of Paul Halvorson of the TRIAD consulting group, those in attendance Monday evening reviewed statistics about affordable housing and brainstormed ideas to affect the situation. Particularily startling is the fact that the number of people who are homeless in the extended 15 county Metro area is 15,742 (Wilder Foundation). One of the approaches, the Adopt-a-Family Initiative, is working with a family in Field School to find ways for them to retain their current housing. Nancy Becker along with Kate Mattessich are the co-leaders of the Adopt-A-Family group.

Connections with other groups working on this pressing issue are being pursued. With 1500 people homeless in the Metro area, there is plenty of need for creative thought and action! Many of the homeless are children, whose education is essential. Unfortunately, the child’s education often ends up being a casualty of the situation, as a family searches for an affordable place to live.

One possible opportunity to develop new housing will be discussed at a community meeting at Lake Nokomis Presbyterian Church on April 1, at 6:30 p.m. Under discussion will be the possible uses of a property at 48th Street and 5th Avenue South. All are welcome, and the address of the church is 1620 E. 46th Street. If new duplex or townhouse models were to be built, it would probably require a combined income of $28 per hour to purchase a unit.

Other approaches are developing. Members of the parish who have extra space have volunteered some of that space for remodeling as apartment or shared living areas. The committee currently has several members in the construction fields who advise on how to go about this, including dealing with zoning and other governmental bureaucracies.

Jean Jachman is a consummate volunteer. Jean pitches in at the parish office, waits tables at Cabaret, and contacts and schedules the readers for masses. All that and a career as a nurse that included time in a refugee camp on the Thailand-Cambodia border.

Jeff Grosscup

Jeff Grosscup, along with Paul Lipetzky, has been convening the "Dream Team" to consider the contribution we can make in this challenging situation. Contact Paul Halvorson at 612-332-1311 to share ideas, or sign on to help with any of the initiatives of the Third Way program. We CAN make a difference!