MINNEAPOLIS — Homelessness is a difficult issue to quantify, but for more than three decades the Wilder Foundation has been trying to do just that through the Minnesota Homeless Study.
It’s a statewide count taken on the last Thursday in October every three years.
“We know there are more folks on any given night that are homeless and we can’t find, but it is a really comprehensive effort. We have a lot of people working to find as many people as we can on that particular night,” Michelle Decker Gerrard, Senior Research Manager/Co-Director of the Minnesota Homeless Study, said.
The latest study completed in 2023 found 10,522 Minnesotans were experiencing homelessness — down 7% from a record high in 2018 — but still, the second highest since the study started in 1991.
“I think the most startling thing demographically is that 7 in 10 people experiencing homelessness in Minnesota are Native American or people of color. That’s really shocking considering the demographics of our state,” Decker Gerrard said.