This page details the process to develop Crossroads to Justice, which is the culmination of a year-and-a-half-long process that was co-led by 10 paid Justice Consultants, all people with lived experience of homelessness representing different experiences and different parts of the state.
The plan was developed in phases. Phase 1 focused on defining housing, racial, and health justice and Phase 2 focused on developing the results, strategies, and actions to move towards justice. All of the details on these two phases can be found below.
The Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness, led by Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan and made up of the Commissioners of 14 state agencies, recieved feedback on the draft of its newly developed Housing, Racial, and Health Justice plan for people facing homelessness from August 2 to September 1, 2023. The Justice Consultants and the Council agencies reviewed the feedback and made adjustments to the plan. On October 27, 2023 the Council committed to Crossroads to Justice: Minnesota's New Pathways to Housing, Racial and Health Justice for people facing homelessness.
Review the summary of themes from the public comment
Phase 1
Completed June 2022
Centering the voices of those who have experienced homelessness, Rainbow Research is leading a process to co-develop a unified, operation definition for what we mean when we say housing, racial, and health justice for people experiencing homelessness.
Phase 2
Completed October 2023
Using the operation definition from Phase 1 to drive specific strategies, actions, and commitments that the Council and other partners could pursue as a part of the strategic plan. The Council will adopt specific actions in this phase.
Phase 3
Ongoing
Implement, monitor and iteratively refine the plan.
On June 10, the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness committed to the definition of housing, racial, and health justice for people experiencing homelessness developed over the past several months through the process led by Rainbow Research and their team of consultants with lived experience of homelessness.This definition will serve as the basis for driving the Council’s work on preventing and ending homelessness, and we hope can help guide efforts across the state.
Rainbow Research hired 11 consultants with lived experience of homelessness to lead a community driven process to develop a definition of housing, racial, and health justice for people facing homelessness. The process involved participation of over 140 people in five working group sessions and three community conversations between April - June 2022. You can review all of the Phase 1 materials from the work group and community conversations below.
Work Group Meeting 1: April 29, 2022
- Meeting recording (Work Group breakouts are not recorded) and slide deck
- Opening and evaluation menti
- Housing Justice Work Group menti
- Racial Justice Work Group menti
- Health Justice Work Group menti
Work Group Meeting 2: May 6, 2022
- Meeting recording (Work Group breakouts are not recorded) and slide deck
- Opening and evaluation menti
- Housing Justice Work Group menti
- Racial Justice Work Group menti
- Health Justice Work Group menti
Community Conversation 1: May 13, 2022
Work Group Meeting 3: May 20, 2022
- Meeting recording (Work Group breakouts are not recorded) and slide deck
- Housing Justice Work Group
- Racial Justice Work Group
- Health Justice Work Group
- Evaluation Menti
Community Conversation 2: May 24, 2022
Work Group Meeting 4: June 3, 2022
Work Group Meeting 5: June 17, 2022
Culminating Community Conversation: June 22, 2022
Phase 2 is focused on identifying a set of results that moves our work to prevent and end homelessness towards justice as well as developing the specific strategies to achieve those results. These three pieces form the framework of our next plan:
The ten consultants with lived expertise and MICH staff have worked together to synthesize all of feedback we have received into five bold results. The process to develop these results was collaborative and iterative. We utilized the consultants’ expertise as well as what we have heard from many partners during the justice workgroup discussions and community conversations in Phase 1, participant feedback from our weekly webinars, and multiple agencies’ staff expertise. The process generated many ideas and has been synthesized to these five results.
- Council agencies will collaborate and co-lead with impacted communities that have been historically oppressed and excluded such as Black, brown and people of color, poor/low-income, LGBTQIA2S+, people with disabilities, older adults, foreign-born and people who have faced homelessness and Tribal Nations to implement the action plan on housing, racial, and health justice.
- Homelessness is prevented whenever possible, and services and supports are provided to ensure no one returns to homelessness.
- A robust crisis response geared towards housing outcomes supports people staying outside, in emergency shelters, and in community.
- People facing homelessness have access to housing options that meet their needs and honors their choice.
- Homelessness is treated as a crucial health and public health crisis wherever it occurs.
The Council contracted with Rainbow Research who in turn hired 10 consultants with lived experience of homelesness to co-develop Crossroads to Justice. These 10 Justice Consultants worked, from April 2022 - October 2023, with community partners and agency teams to develop the definition, results, and specific strategies and actions in the plan. Learn more about the Justice Consultants below.