Housing Services

Did you know...

	"Tonight, 15,759 people in Minnesota will have no place to call home. Over one-half will be children!", reports the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless.

	According to the Family Housing Fund, "Housing is usually considered to be affordable if it costs no more than 30% of income. In the Twin cities area, however, 185,000 households with annual incomes below $30,000 pay more than this amount for their housing."

	According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, "During the first three months of 2000 rents jumped an average of 11.5 percent in the Twin Cities area. The numbers were even more startling in the central cities, where St. Paul rents rose 15.5 percent and Minneapolis rents soared 20.4 percent."

	In Greater Minnesota, 146,000 low-income households pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing. The current annual production of affordable housing units in Greater Minnesota is 1,100 units, but the need is for 3,000 - 4,000 units."

Housing Services
Welcome to our home page on LSS Housing Services! Housing is a basic need that we all have to live and experience any quality of life. Unfortunately, thousands of people in Minnesota do not have a place to call home.

Mission Statement:
LSS Housing Service mission is to ensure that people have the opportunity to access housing and be respected as contributing members of the community.

Underlying Values:

A healthy community includes people from all social, ethnic, and economic backgrounds.

As an important part of the community, low-income people are community assets, not liabilities.

We work with people who want to help themselves, and emphasize building skills that can be used for life.

We value community partnerships with individuals, organizations, congregations, and government.

We envision communities where all people live, work, and play together.

Stable, vital, and healthy communities have positive and strong rental and ownership relationships.

Through advocacy, we want to ensure a voice is heard for oppressed community members.

Goal Statements:

We strive to connect people with decent, safe, and affordable housing.

We contribute to the development of healthy communities.

We are attentive to the unique and individual needs of people in our service.

We carry out that mission through programs and projects aimed at helping low income and homeless people find and maintain affordable housing in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Services are grouped into two main areas: Placement Services and Transitional Housing.

Maintained By Exodus Design Studios. Copyright 2000 Lutheran Social Service.