Mission Accomplished...And the Work Continues

Dear Friends,

The last woman staying at Haven Housing @ Ascension Place moved home this week! It’s a bittersweet celebration because after 42 years of providing a stepping stone for women and non-binary people, the Ascension Place sober transitional housing program is closing.

With your dedicated support, we’ve achieved our mission at Ascension Place: We provided thousands of women in crisis and transition housing and the opportunity to explore options for their futures. After intensive planning with participants, staff, and our advisors, we realized that Haven Housing cannot be the go-to place for women in every kind of crisis. We are good at solving one type of crisis: homelessness.

Over the last 40 years, homelessness has gotten more complicated. The opioid crisis. Increases in gun violence. Increases in rates of mental illness. Corporations intentionally paying low wages. Global pandemics. All this, on top of generations of racial and gendered trauma. Haven Housing can’t be experts in all of it—we can’t be everything for everyone.

We CAN help a family experiencing homelessness, however. We can provide them a safe haven and work with partners to address their health, financial, social, and nutrition needs. When we do this really well, we can prevent future episodes of homelessness. The first time I was homeless with my kids, I stayed at Haven Housing @ St. Anne’s Place. That was also the last time I didn’t have a home of my own. My family is just one Haven Housing success story and I am proud of that—proud of us.

Once you’re through the immediate crisis of homelessness, women, non-binary people, and their children want different types of support to stay stably housed. Because Haven Housing can’t be everything to everyone, we have also sunset our Next Step Housing program that provided supportive services to people in their own homes. We are thrilled that every participant in that program chose to transfer to our partners at Start Today Hennepin to receive a higher level of personalized support than Haven Housing has been able to provide.

We know that highly individualized support works best to help people move home, and it is what we will continue offering at Haven Housing @ St. Anne’s Place emergency family shelter for as long as we can. St. Anne’s Place has been completely full with 16 families each night for the last year-plus. At the same time, family homelessness in Hennepin County more than doubled. We need your donation today to help families move home. We can’t do this work alone. Over the next several months, we look forward to sharing news about future partnerships that will strengthen the homelessness-ending services at St. Anne’s Place for years to come. 

Yours in moving people home,

Shereese Turner

Haven Housing Board Chair

P.S. Thank you. Your support as Haven Housing sunsets two programs so that St. Anne’s Place can experience a beautiful sunrise means the world to us.

Our Impact: Stories of Bright Futures!
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More than a party...

Haven Housing @ St. Anne’s Place's annual back-to-school party is always filled with smiles. For more than a decade, employees at RBC Wealth Management have helped ensure that any child who has ever stayed at the emergency shelter can get a backpack and the supplies they need to start the school year. If you look deeper, the event is also a chance for families to heal and build their support network.

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Finding Purpose in Helping Others - Sarah’s Story

Before you can help others, you have to take care of yourself. Sarah (33) struggled with addiction for years. In 2018, she found out she was pregnant with her daughter Aubrianna and knew she wanted her life to change.

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Focus on Family - Adrienne's Story

At first, she felt ashamed and upset about having to seek emergency shelter at Haven Housing @ St. Anne’s Place. But, then, she recalls feeling immediate relief when she saw all the opportunities for growth Haven Housing offered.

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Randi’s Story 

Randi moved into her own apartment in Brainerd, Minnesota in July 2022, after living at Haven Housing @ Ascension Place, a transitional housing program, for four years. For her, it’s not just a new home, it’s a homecoming.

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Alex's Story

Alex has set his sights further in where he hopes football will take him. After completing a successful season, Alex plans to continue working on his game and hopes to play football, the game he loves, in high school and in college.

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Aracely's Story

Over the past four decades at Haven Housing, we have seen how the gift of a fresh start isn’t just a new place to call home, it’s a new mindset and set of skills for pursuing our goals and overcoming obstacles, which are passed on from parent to child.

Find Answers to Common Questions

  • Haven Housing plans to sell the Ascension Place property at 1803 Bryant Ave N, Minneapolis, MN 55411. The Board will assess offers based on how they plan to continue to use the property to provide a safe haven, prevent future episodes of homelessness, and change the systems that lead to homelessness balanced with the offer price and time to close. View the brochure (PDF). If you are interested in the property, please contact Dezel Jones at AssemblyMN.

  • Haven Housing continues to employ and hire staff to run the emergency shelter program at St. Anne’s Place. While we sadly had to lay some staff off after the sunset of Ascension Place and Next Step Housing, Haven Housing provided severance packages and free outplacement services to help staff find their next job.

  • No, but funds are limited. Trying to be everything to everyone is unsustainable. Our Board of Directors made the decision to sunset Ascension Place and Next Step Housing now—on the high note of everyone moving home or onto better services—because they knew if they did not, a financial crisis could be in our future. Making the decision to close two programs now, will allow the St. Anne’s Place program to sunrise in a stronger position to serve families for many years into the future.

  • Yes, please! Your support makes a difference now more than ever. As we navigate this transition, your contribution helps ensure that every family at Haven Housing @ St. Anne’s Place gets the individualized support they need to get back on their feet. All donations to Haven Housing (a 501c3 nonprofit organization, EIN: 41-1396238) are tax-deductible to the extent of the law. Easily give online.

  • Yes, please! Haven Housing @ St. Anne’s Place needs one-time and on-going volunteers. Learn more and apply to volunteer here.

  • Please get in touch with Assistant Director Emily Seddon.