north metro

I find it disheartening that city leaders, in any city, might be attempting to minimize the number of homeless people in Anoka County. I am the director of a school, Paladin Academy, located in Anoka County. We have more homeless students at our school alone than the number (53) that is cited as "chronically homeless" above. I would argue that the 1,463 number is actually low, in large part because counting the homeless population is very challenging. At Paladin Academy, we have students who literally have no home, no permanent residence at all. There are nights that they sleep on a couch at a friends house, other nights they might stay at Harbor Lights (a shelter) in Minneapolis, other nights they will sleep in parking ramps or at transit locations. Does the fact that they sleep on someone's couch eliminate them from the number in the homeless count? I would certainly hope not. Last year alone we had 83 students who were living with these circumstances. Who is counting them, besides the public school system? And what county wants to claim them? They are homeless... AND they are high school students. Are these youth even in the count? I'd invite any of the council members - or anyone at any level of the government, to take a good hard look at their communities, to talk to the people who are providing the services, to come and meet the homeless students at my school; there is homeless epidemic in many Minnesota counties, and Anoka is just one of them. Pretending it is not there will not make it go away. Saying it does not exist does not solve the problem. And voting on the topic of recognizing homeless awareness month, does not do justice to the issue. True action is needed at all levels if this issue is going to be addressed. Our school is holding meetings to look at this issue in Anoka County, specifically the issue of homeless youth. If the government officials who vote on these topics need more information on the issue, they would be well served to attend. Feel free to contact me if you really want to know what the homeless population in Anoka County looks like. lirwin AT paladinacademy DOT us.

Homelessness is a issue, Paladin Academy is not the answer. 16% proficiency in Math in 2012, 36% proficiency in reading. Please let these students attend a school that shows results.

Hi fawnhall. When you have a few minutes, call me. Lets talk stats. I'm serious. My comment was about the issue of homelessness. The Anoka Cty numbers are not overstated, if anything, they are understated. If you want to talk test scores, we can do that too, but lets do it off line, with actual data.