Representative Keeler urges expanded shelter funding, saying 'shelters save lives'

Representative Emma Keeler urged the Capital Investment Committee on April 14 to back two bills aimed at expanding emergency shelter capacity across Minnesota, saying the 2023 Pathway Home Act was only the start of a broader effort "to end homelessness." Keeler noted the bills reserve 40% of funding for greater Minnesota to ensure non-metro communities share access to state dollars.

Matt Treanor, executive director of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, testified that $100 million in one-time 2023 funding helped create or improve about 1,450 shelter beds but left approximately $365 million in unmet requests. "Shelter saves lives," Treanor said, and he described local projects funded last year — motel conversions, hotel renovations and tiny-home villages — as examples of fast, practical responses that also connect residents to services.

Tribal and lived-experience witnesses underscored localized needs. Sam Strong, secretary of the Red Lake Nation, said a 2023 Wilder study recorded 627 people experiencing homelessness on the reservation — nearly 10% of the local population — and urged culturally appropriate investments to protect people in subzero winter conditions. Youth speakers Tatiana Haynes and Chloe Roosevelt described how youth shelters helped them stabilize and called for more beds and services targeted to parents and young people up to age 24.

Committee members from both metro and greater Minnesota voiced support and emphasized that hearings and testimony have highlighted geographic disparities in access. Keeler closed by asking legislators to preserve the program design that increases greater Minnesota participation and to continue funding that can convert existing structures and scale shelter operations.

The committee did not take a final vote on either bill during the hearing; testimony and member discussion concluded the presentation.