We believe that everyone deserves a safe place to call home. Unfortunately, many in our community struggle to find affordable housing or have lost their housing. At Community Action Center, we offer a variety of options for people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. Our services aim to prevent eviction, overcome crises, and find long-term housing solutions to create stability for individuals, children, and families.
Our team of housing advocates builds trusting relationships with people and offers case management, goal planning, and advocacy with landlords and other professionals.
Whether you have received help from us before or you have never reached out, we want you to know that we welcome you and we appreciate how hard it can be to ask for help.
nights of emergency shelter provided annually for children and families.
No Appointment Needed
CAC can help with:
- Short-term emergency shelter
- Long-term supportive housing
- Eviction prevention
- Advocacy with landlords
- Navigation of housing resources
Equal Access Rule Policy
The Community Action Center (CAC) aims to ensure HUD-funded housing and emergency
shelter programs are open to all eligible individuals and families regardless of sexual orientation,gender identity, or marital status. Effective in October 2022, in accordance to HUD’s established 24 CFR Part 5 Equal Access Rule regarding Gender Identity in Community Planning and Development Programs, CAC will adopt the following policies:
- The Equal Access Notice from HUD will be posted publicly in all offices and throughout CAC.
- CAC’s housing and emergency shelter programs are inclusive. Therefore, it does not have policies that involve special accommodations related to gender.
- Participants and potential participants will be offered a private space to complete intake paperwork and data collection.
- In alignment with person-centered practices, participants will not be asked to provide
anatomical information or documentation (physical or medical) of their gender identity. - Participants will self-report their gender identity, and their answers will be reflected in intake paperwork and other agency documentation.
- CAC will keep a participant’s transgender status confidential and ensure only the essential staff, identified by administrators, are told about a participant’s transgender status unless the participant gives permission otherwise.
- CAC is committed to and complies with federal, state, and local privacy laws.
- CAC has a grievance procedure to address complaints. This includes CAC’s internal grievance procedure, filing a complaint with HUD, or seeking services with Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services.
- CAC has a procedure to correct misinformation or inaccurate ideas about the supposed threat that transgender participants pose to the health or safety of other participants solely based on their non-conforming gender expression.
- CAC has identified harassment as a range of behaviors that are experienced as offensive, aggressive, or intimidating regardless of physical location or proximity to the project. For LGBTQ clients, this can include: consistently or maliciously refusing to use the participant’s preferred name or affirmed gender pronoun, asking any questions about a participant’s body or appearance, disclosing that a client is transgender or gender non-conforming, or physical intimidation.
Community Action Center’s Hillcrest Village is a community-centered housing development that brings together a mix of additional emergency shelter, transitional housing, and market rate/workforce housing.
Community Action Center, together with Healthy Community Initiative (HCI) and the Northfield Racial and Ethnic Equity Coalition (NREEC), has created a designated fund for mobile home repairs, rehabilitation costs, and lot rent assistance across Rice County.
Funds are intended to prevent eviction and will be accessed by tenants/participants through CAC as well as the HCI/Growing Up Healthy Mobile Home Rehabilitation Initiative Coordinator. 100% of donations will go toward mobile home repairs/rent assistance, as CAC will provide the staff time and administration for free.
We hope this designated fund will provide a way for community members to stand in solidarity with our neighbors living in mobile home communities who need our support now more than ever.
In partnership with:
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.