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Betty Allen spent four years in Minnesota living out of her car and bouncing between shelters before moving to El Paso, Texas, to care for her elderly parents during the pandemic. In 2021, they died of COVID a day apart from each other, she said.
As Allen mounted a slow recovery from her own bout with the virus, she returned to Minnesota but again struggled to find housing. Then, with help from social workers, Allen landed in a Waconia apartment community managed by Carver County. For three years, she has paid about $420 per month in rent, with the remaining $980 covered largely by dollars originating with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)…