cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6463436
When Sheri Snetsinger moved back to the White Earth Reservation in 2013, she was returning home, but she had no housing for herself and her children.
Her family had a hard time finding a place on the reservation, with the apartments they toured in decrepit shape. She said other housing was off limits because her partner, who planned to join them soon, was incarcerated — a status that often leads to landlords refusing to rent and ineligibility for housing programs.
So they stayed with relatives and crashed on couches as Snetsinger worked multiple jobs and dreamed of a home for her family.
Her story illustrates the quiet nature of a statewide crisis that Native American community leaders say is hidden homelessness on Minnesota’s reservations. While Native Americans make up just 2% of Minnesota’s population, they account for 30% of homeless adults, according to two recent reports from Wilder Research, a St. Paul-based nonprofit that has been surveying homeless residents since 1991.
Homelessness among Native Americans looks different in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota, the reports point out. Instead of sprawling encampments, homelessness is hidden in greater Minnesota, with people often shuffling among homes of relatives.
Such “doubling up” often masks deep housing instability on reservations, said Mary Riegert-Soyring, deputy director for the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness, led by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
“If you go onto many of our reservations in greater Minnesota, you’re not going to see a lot of people outside,” said Riegert-Soyring, a descendant of the White Earth Nation. “They are living in cramped conditions, doubled up, tripled up, sleeping on couches. … It’s hard for people to understand that we have a lot of homeless people."
Sadly, this isn’t something new. I moved to Minnesota in '79, my father took a paper route that drove us through three reservations daily (which will tell you where I am if you are familiar with Minnesota), poor housing, cramped living, and hopping from place-to-place was common then.
As I grew up, I made many friends on all three reservations, which at times created some minor tension, but the housing issues never changed.
I don’t know of a solution to this, but it cannot be a surprise that it’s still happening after so many decades. Something MUST change for the native reservations. They deserve better; these are good, very good people.
