Community Action Center has long worked to collaboratively alleviate hunger, homelessness, and all forms of poverty that impact families and individuals in our community. We believe in immediate response to crisis, but also prioritize systemic approaches to support long-term change that aligns with CAC’s mission of creating a caring, healthy, and just community for all.
We recognize that climate change will disproportionately affect the same low-income families our organization aims to support. Gaining recognition for its innovative process and design, CAC engages community leaders both locally and across the state from the construction and environmental community to address both homelessness and climate change in a shared community effort. It’s the right thing to do, it’s our responsibility, it reduces operating costs, it pays for itself, it’s affordable, and it aligns with CAC’s mission of a just community by bringing housing and environmental justice together.
“How is a child supposed to focus on school when they don’t know where they will sleep at night?”
– Beth Berry, Community Volunteer
CAC prioritizes an equitable and just application process. This process includes input and direction from CAC’s current housing advocates, Community Advocacy Council (group of current and former participants of CAC services), as well property management. It is designed to be trauma responsive and sensitive to those seeking housing while facilitating a tenant selection process. This process recognizes the need for a unique approach to support people with common housing barriers such as past evictions, credit challenges, and/or criminal history.
CAC recognizes that there are sometimes obstacles to building this type of housing. Government funds often create restrictions and having a housing development made up of only one demographic creates its own challenges. CAC prioritizes bringing together a mix of additional emergency shelter, transitional housing, and market rate/workforce housing. CAC has found success in a scattered site emergency housing model. We saw the broader needs of the community as a whole and took action to build housing when no one else did.
CAC’s four current emergency shelters are full 365 days per year — providing nearly 1,500 nights of shelter to families and neighbors in need.
CAC’s supportive housing units provide long-term housing for more than 10 families who experience chronic homelessness year round.
CAC provides emergency rent relief of nearly $100,000 to more than 150 families each year, preventing the traumatic impact of housing instability or eviction.
On average, CAC maintains waiting lists of 5–10 households in need of emergency shelter.
With an affordable housing vacancy rate at less than 1%, families struggle to leave CAC’s emergency shelters.
CAC currently spends thousands of dollars each year on hotel rooms, providing temporary shelter, but never a home.
Rice County is the third most expensive housing district in Minnesota, outside of Rochester and the Twin Cities.
CAC’s vitality depends on the community — from volunteers to donations to program-specific support — so that we can continue to meet our neighbors’ basic needs.