A homeless Veteran and her three small children are the first tenants of a newly remodeled apartment in Chaska, moving into one of four units that will be offered to homeless Veterans after the facilities are restored. This apartment complex is a partnership between the Carver County Community Development Agency (CDA), Carver County, and the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV). 

In St. Paul, 15 units in a newly remodeled Dorothy Day Residence have been dedicated for homeless Veterans, with Veteran preference given to all units. The six-story facility has 177 affordable apartments and a resource center for career training, a dental clinic, a hair salon, and other services. Since the facility opened in late 2019, 23 Veterans from the MDVA Homeless Veterans Registry have found homes here.

MDVA continues to strive toward the goal of Minnesota becoming the fourth state in the country to effectively end Veteran homelessness. In 2019, 471 Veterans were housed, the highest annual number since this effort began in 2014. 

A collaboration of public and private partners has already effectively ended Veteran homelessness in five of 10 areas in Minnesota. Ending Veteran homelessness does not mean that another Veteran will never experience homelessness in Minnesota. Instead, it means that we have a homeless response system that prevents a Veteran from becoming homeless whenever possible, and any homeless experience is rare, brief and one time.

As of early January, the MDVA Homeless Veterans Registry lists 295 Veterans who are experiencing homelessness in Minnesota.

We continue to encourage landlords to open their doors to homeless Veterans, and we now have incentive and mitigation funding available for landlords who are willing to rent to Veterans with barriers to housing.  

Interested landlords should call HousingLink at 1-866-522-2827 to list current or upcoming vacancies on the Veterans-exclusive vacancy list.