By Bill Brady,
Commentary

On March 31, Interfaith Action of Greater Saint Paul closed on the purchase of the Best Western Plus Como Park Hotel in Bandana Square.

Plans for the property include creating an expanded space for the organization’s emergency family shelter, known as Project Home.

This is good news for families experiencing homelessness and good news for the Bandana Square neighborhood.

“This is a game-changer for families in crisis,” said Keith Lattimore, Ramsey County director of housing stability. “This space will serve as more than just a shelter. It will be a steppingstone to stability, security and hope for countless families. (It ensures) that children and their parents have access to safe, supportive housing as they transition to permanent homes.”

Is it good for the neighborhood?

Sounds great, you say, but will it really be good for the neighborhood, too? If recent history is an indication, the answer is yes.

Project Home will relocate from its current quarters in a former convent near St. Catherine’s University on Randolph Avenue. The convent, vacant for nearly a decade, became Project Home’s home in 2021. Since then, crime in the surrounding neighborhood has decreased, according to Project Home Director Sara Liegl.

“We think it’s because the property was better supervised, with more people around,” Liegl said. “Vacant properties are never a good thing for public safety.”

Project Home is one of two emergency shelters in Ramsey County designed for families with children (the other, in Maplewood, is run by Catholic Charities). It began in 1998 in the basements and vacant rooms of churches and synagogues, which offered their spaces on a month-by-month rotation.

It worked reasonably well, but was restricted to about 40 beds at most, nowhere near what the county needed. Moving into the former convent allowed space for up to 100 beds, a huge improvement, but even that is not enough on many nights.

Now, a larger facility

The Bandana Square property, with some 200 beds across 100 rooms, will allow for still greater expansion, assuming staff can be expanded concurrently to provide necessary services and oversight.

“We have enjoyed our time at the current site,” Liegl says, “But it’s frustrating when the waiting list fills up and we don’t have the capacity to take in any more. It will be nice to open the door to our own place in a building that offers a great deal of potential to grow.”

That includes room for many additional services to be provided by the staff of Project Home or its parent, Interfaith Action, including “rapid-exit” housing case management, tutoring and job coaching—all critical to the goal of providing families with a pathway toward stability and economic mobility.

Last year, 78% of Project Home families eventually moved into stable housing, and of that group, 98 percent were still in their homes six months later. An expanded operation in Bandana Square offers the prospect of improving upon that these success rates and extending the benefits to more families.

All of this is possible thanks to state and county support for Project Home’s mission. The Minnesota Department of Human Services provided $6 million of the building’s $7.3 million purchase price from the American Rescue Plan State Fiscal Recovery Fund. Ramsey County is also supporting the project with leadership from Lattimore and the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners.

“The work of Interfaith Action is brought to life by community—strength is built when communities work together to support their neighbors,” said Interfaith Action CEO Liliana Letran-Garcia. “The growth and impact of Project Home shows this strength in action. This milestone enables Interfaith Action to write the next chapter of our story, providing shelter to even more unhoused families while continuing to strengthen our roots and relationships in the community.” 

Bill Brady, copy editor for the Park Bugle, also serves on the board of directors for Interfaith Action of Greater St. Paul.

Photo: Once a maintenance facility for Northern Pacific Railway, decades later a Best Western Hotel, this 100-year-old structure at Bandana Square will live on as emergency shelter for homeless families. Photo courtesy of Interfaith Action of Greater St. Paul.