Because no one should be left behind.

I’m running to be your Ramsey County Commissioner because I know first-hand how important it is to make sure that county services work for the people who rely on them. We need to make our safety net stronger, nimbler, and more accessible to ensure that no one who needs services falls through the cracks. The majority of Ramsey County’s budget is dedicated to human services. Our focus must reflect that fact.

On September 11th, 2001, I was an enlisted Marine. As the devastating attack on our country unfolded, I was in a doctor’s office with my 2 year old son Hunter. Just after the second plane hit the Twin Towers, our doctor delivered a diagnosis that would change our lives and my career forever. We learned that day that Hunter is severely impacted by autism and developmentally delayed. I remember looking down at my uniform and thinking about how I had trained my entire adult life to defend my country. Nothing prepared me for the challenges I have faced to ensure my disabled son has what he needs simply to live a full life.

I left the Marine Corps and joined the Minnesota Army National Guard so I could spend more time with Hunter. We bought our current home on the East Side of Saint Paul near Maryland and Arkwright. A few short years later, I watched as the housing bubble burst and my neighbors’ homes became vacant and boarded. Crime rose all around us, and the community programs we relied on began, one by one, to disappear.

I responded by joining the Payne-Phalen District Council and working with neighbors on issues impacting families like mine. After leaving the armed services, I began a new career fighting for affordable housing resources and to improve racial and economic equity as a lobbyist for Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity and co-founder of the Homes for All coalition. I also became deeply involved in advocacy for resources and research to improve services for kids like Hunter, and for families impacted by mental health and medical related injuries and illnesses. Through my work, I have seen up close how a decent home and the right resources can help people rebuild their lives and achieve their dreams.

Throughout all of this, I learned by hard experience that the rhetoric of our safety net doesn’t always match up to the reality. From the homeless veteran living in the shadow of Cathedral Hill to the severely disabled child in my own home, too often our system fails to provide the services needed to ensure that everyone in Ramsey County can thrive, not just survive. The district that I hope to represent is the poorest in Ramsey County and one of the poorest in the entire state of Minnesota, and so many of the issues that we face in our district have roots in our failure to provide for those with the greatest need. I’m running because I know we need to make serious, sustained investments in our people to see the kind of future we all want to see.

Increase affordable housing and shelter capacity

The lack of affordable housing is reaching crisis levels in the Twin Cities. Our cities are growing at rates not seen since the post-World War II boom, and many of these new residents desire to live in walkable, transit-connected areas. While this can present opportunities for our neighborhoods, it has also caused housing prices to skyrocket across the metro, with vacancy rates for rental housing and the supply of homes for sale sitting at almost unprecedented lows for years on end. When people or families who are unable to find affordable housing run out of options, they turn to Ramsey County for help.

Across Saint Paul, scores of families have been forced to “double up” with relatives or friends or even other desperate families to maintain a minimum of shelter. Many more have been unable to find even that sort of accommodation, and have found themselves to varying degrees homeless. Unfortunately, Ramsey County has neither the shelter space nor the emergency housing capacity necessary to house people in their time of need, which has produced an escalating problem.

We need to break free of the outdated notion that services for the homeless only serve to attract more into our communities. At any time our neighbors, our relatives, and our friends may be experiencing homelessness and whether we know it or not, their success is tied directly to our own. We will never be able to achieve our common goals if we do not make sure that everyone can thrive in the world we build, not just those with the means to do so.

• Increase emergency shelter capacity in Ramsey County, either by building new shelters or by renovating underused spaces (perhaps including some already owned by the County) into shelter space. Consider ways to make initiatives like the “Winter Safe Space” permanent in spaces that better serve people’s needs..
• Expand Ramsey County’s supply of family housing, and end the waitlist for family housing. Families seeking shelter usually wait 6-8 weeks before receiving housing, and lose that shelter after 120 days at most.
• Pilot targeted programs to serve the needs of elderly people without homes. The elderly are the fastest-growing group of homeless in Ramsey County, and many of our services are unprepared to help them.
• Support innovative initiatives like the Interdepartmental Council on Housing Stability, which works to coordinate the diverse resources of Ramsey County to house people who have gone for years without shelter.
• Work with our partners at the city level to expand our supply of affordable housing, both through increased funding and through zoning reform.
• Rehabilitate and renovate tax-forfeited properties as affordable for-sale housing to foster opportunities for homeownership.
• Work with our cultural communities to find where affordable housing is most needed for them. Work to support multigenerational housing and other “non-traditional” configurations that may work best for their needs.

End waiting lists for essential services

Far too often, a person’s first experience of services in Ramsey County is the limbo of the waiting list. In some cases, the wait for services can be short; a few weeks or less, depending on availability. But some lists have reached such lengths that they can effectively never be completed, so that applicants can expect many months or even years before they receive the services they need.

I believe that a person’s need for services shouldn’t be determined by the day they asked. For a person placed on an endless waiting list, the process doesn’t just fail to provide them the services they need when they are needed, but the wait can be so incredibly demoralizing that they avoid seeking assistance in the future. When services are requested, we need to structure out delivery around the needs of the people, not the needs of the County.

• Work with city, state, and federal partners to empty waitlists wherever possible and discontinue them in the future.
• Advocate for increased state and federal funding to achieve these goals in a financially responsible way.
• Leverage unused sources of funding (e.g. preference funding for veterans) to shrink and eliminate existing waitlists.
• Dedicate local resources where appropriate to close the gaps left by unfunded mandates and pressing needs.

Modernize our technical infrastructure

In an age of smartphones and constantly-connected devices, it is essential that Ramsey County have the technical infrastructure to meet the demands and expectations of our growing population. Unfortunately, much of the software and hardware that Ramsey County employees use on a day-to-day basis is decades old and barely functional. Database systems are run on MS-DOS terminals, for which new employees need extensive specialized training. Phone centers are still run using 1970s hardware, which lack support for modern features like Caller ID, call transfers, or even group calls. Client paperwork is still handled mostly on paper, and shuffled around county buildings in ancient pneumatic tubes.

Ramsey County needs desperately to update its infrastructure to suit the needs of the modern world. Although this will require significant investment, it will pay huge dividends in the long run by allowing our programs to focus on the people who need help instead of the tools used to provide it.

• Study Ramsey County’s software and hardware infrastructure and prioritize which pieces most urgently need upgrades. Fund upgrades responsibly but with an eye toward building infrastructure for the future.
• Explore the possibility of apps, websites, or self-service kiosks that could automate some of the basic tasks that currently require in-person visits to Ramsey County facilities.
• Survey Ramsey County employees to identify common infrastructure problems or chokepoints, and aggressively work to eliminate them.
• Explore partnerships with other Minnesota counties to share technical infrastructure costs.

Focus on mental health

Mental health issues impair people’s ability to succeed on multiple fronts, no matter what age, culture, and socio-economic group you may come from. Without the right support, these challenges can contribute to truancy, academic problems, legal problems, joblessness, homelessness, and chemical dependency. The county’s role in delivering mental health services should be balanced between both prevention and treatment.

• Focus on making multiple points of access to care available to citizens across their lifespan.
• Prioritize cultural accessibility, especially for populations that have experienced trauma through war or dislocation.
• Ensure adequate funding for mental health crisis services and suicide prevention initiatives.

Put our children first

District 3 is on average the youngest in Ramsey County, and many county services directly impact the lives of children and youth. Our future depends upon supporting these people, and giving them the resources and opportunities they need to thrive and move our region forward. We need to evaluate all of our county programs to ensure that they serve their needs, and not just as an afterthought.

• Support family members and friends who volunteer to serve as foster parents with aid and reasonable accommodations.
• Expand upon efforts to make our JDAI system responsive and sensitive to the needs of our communities.
• Advocate for investments for people at every stage of life, including early childhood services, Women and Infant Nutrition services, and youth services.
• Consider following the example of Hennepin County by developing a Child Care Assistance Fund for foster parents.
• Work to understand and address the disproportionate percentage of youth put into foster care who come from POCI families.
• Work with local partners to modernize our county parks into places that are welcoming for people of all ages.

Aging in place and aging well

The population of people over 65 in Ramsey County has increased dramatically over the last decade, and projections indicate that these trends will continue and even accelerate in the future. People over the age of 65 have different needs than younger people, and it is essential that we work proactively to meet them if we are to build and maintain the stable, vibrant neighborhoods we need.

• Support and expand the successful Block Nurse program, which provides volunteer services for people who need assistance.
• Consider programs to alleviate the burden of rising property taxes for people over 65 with fixed incomes.
• Develop methods to combat the social isolation which can happen as older people grow increasingly unable to leave their homes without assistance.
• Continue efforts to make our neighborhoods more walkable and transit-connected for people unable or unwilling to drive.